Letter 11
Is this really my luck — that everywhere I turn, there's something that needs rebuilding? Right now it's the restoration of the praetorium at Capua [the governor's residence] that's driving me into heavy expense. Part of it is falling apart from neglect; part was patched up so carelessly some time ago that it barely holds together as a dwelling.
If we don't address this quickly, the costs will only pile up later — or the whole thing will come down. Because anyone who puts off this kind of work ends up losing it entirely. So I'm determined to cure the building of its old age.
And that means the leisure I was looking forward to — the leisure I'd been longing for — will have to be spent on construction rather than rest.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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