melts away in the dish), olives from Baetica, cucumbers, onions, and a
thousand other equally expensive dainties. You would have listened to a
comedian, or a reciter, or a harp-player, or perhaps to all, as I am
such a lavish host. But you preferred to dine elsewhere,--where I know
not--off oysters, sow's matrices, sea-urchins, and to watch Spanish
dancing girls! You will be paid out for it, though how I decline to
say. You have done violence to yourself. You have grudged, possibly
yourself, but certainly me, a fine treat. Yes, yourself! For how we
should have enjoyed ourselves, how we should have laughed together, how
we should have applied ourselves! You can dine at many houses in better
style than at mine, but nowhere will you have a better time, or such a
simple and free and easy entertainment. In short, give me a trial, and
if afterwards you do not prefer to excuse yourself to others rather than
to me, why then I give you leave to decline my invitations always.
Farewell.


1.XVI.--TO ERUCIUS.

I used to be very fond of Pompeius Saturninus--our Saturninus, as I may
call him--and to admire his intellectual powers, even before I knew him;
they were so varied, so supple, so many-sided; but now I am devoted to
him body and soul. I have heard him pleading in the Courts, always keen
and empassioned, and his addresses are as polished and graceful when
they are impromptu as when they have been carefully prepared. He has a
never-failing flow of apt sentiment; his style is weighty and dignified,
his language is of the sonorous, classical school. All these qualities
charm me immensely when they come pouring forth in a streaming rush of
eloquence, and they charm me too when I read them in book form. You
will experience the same pleasure as I do when you take them up, and you