VINCIUS to LYGIA:
"The slave Phlegon, by whom I send this letter, is a Christian; hence he will be
one of those to receive freedom from thy hands, my dearest. He is an old servant
of our house; so I can write to thee with full confidence, and without fear that the
letter will fall into other hands than thine. 1 write from Laurentum, where we have
halted because of heat. Otho owned here a lordly villa, which on a time he
presented to Poppaea; and she, though divorced from him, saw fit to retain the
magnificent present. When I think of the women who surround mc now and of
thee, it seems to me that from the stones hurled by Deucalion there must have
risen people of various kinds, altogether unlike one another, and that thou art of
those born of crystal.
"I admire and love thee from my whole soul, and wIth to speak only of thee;
hence I am forced to constrain myself to write of our journey, of that which
happens to me, and of news of the court. Well, Caesar was the guest of
Poppaea, who prepared for him secretly a magnificent reception. SIte invited only
a few of his favorites, but Petronius and I were among them. After dinner we
sailed in golden boats over the sea, which was as calm as if it had been sleeping,
and as blue as thy eyes, O divine one. We ourselves rowed, for evidently it
flattered the Augusta that men of consular dignity, or their sons, were rowing for
her. Caesar, sitting at the rudder in a purple toga, sang a hymn in honor of the
sea; this hymn he had composed the night before, and wfth Diodorus had
arranged music to ft. In other boats he was accompanied by slaves from India
who knew how to play on sea-shells while round about appeared numerous
dolphins, as if really enticed from Amphitrite's depths by music. Dvst thcu know
what I was doing? I was thinking of thee1 and yearning. I wanted to gather in that
sea, that calm, and that music, and give the whole to thee.
"Dost thou wish that we should live in some place at the seashore far from Rome,
my Augusta? I have land in Sicily, on which there is an almond forest which has
rose-colored blossoms in spring, and this forest goes down so near the sea that
the tips of the branches almost touch the water. There I will love thee and
magnify Paul's teaching, for I know now that it will not be opposed to love and
happiness. Dost thou wish? -- But before I hear thy answer I will wrfte further of
what happened on the boat.
"Soon the shore was far behind. We saw a sail before us in the distance, and all
at once a dispute rose as to whether it was a common fishing-boat or a great
ship from Ostia. I was the first to discover what it was, and then the Augusta said
that for my eyes evidently nothing was hidden, and, dropping the veil over her
face on a sudden, she inquired if I could recognize her thus.
Petronius answered immediately that it was not possible to see even the sun
behind a cloud; but she said, as if in jest, that love alone could blind such a
piercing glance as mine, and, naming various women of the court, she fell to
inquiring and guessing which one I loved. I answered calmly, but at last she
