_ VINICIUS to LYGIA:
"Hast thou ever been in Antium, my dear one, with Aulus and
Pomponia? If not, 1 shall be happy when I show this place to thee.
All the way from Laurentuns there is a line of villas along the
seashore; and Antium itself is an endless succession of palaces and
porticos, whose columns in fair weather see themselves in the
water. I, too, have a residence here right over the sea, with an olive
garden and a forest of cypresses behind the villa, and when I think
that the place will sometime be thine, its marble seems whiter to
me, its groves more shady, and the sea bluer. Oh, Lygia, how good
it is to live and love! Old Menikles, who manages the villa, planted
irises on the ground under myrtles, and at sight of them the house
of Aulus, the impluvium, and the garden in which I sat near thee,
came to my mind. The irises will remind thee, too of thy
childhood's home; therefore I am certain that thou wilt love
Antium and this villa.
"Immediately after our arrival I talked long wfth Paul at dinner.
We spoke of thee, and afterward he taught. I listened long, and I
say only this, that eyed zuiuld I write like Patronius, I should not
have power to explain everything which passed through my soul
and my mind. I had not suppoed that there could be such happiness
in this world, such beauty and peace of which hitherto people had
no knowledge. But I retain all this for conversation with thee, for
at the first free moment I shall be in Rome.
"How could the earth find place at once for the Apostle Peter, Paul
of Tarsus, and Caesar? Tell me this. I ask because I passed
the evening after Paul's teaching with Nero, and dost thou know
what I heard there? Well, to begin with, he read his poem on the
destruction of Troy, and complained that never had he seen a
burning city. He envied Priam, and called him happy just for this,
that he saw the conflagration and ruin of his birthplace.
Whereupon Tigellinus said, 'Speak a word, O divinity, I will take a
torch, and before the night passes thou shalt see blazing Antium.'
But Caesar called him a fool. 'Where,' asked he, 'should I go to
breathe the sea air, and preserve the voice with which the gods
have gifted me, and which men say I should preserve for the
benefit of mankind? Is it not Rome that injures me; is it not the
exhalations of the Subura and the Esquiline which add to my
hoarseness? Would not the palaces of Rome present a spectacle a
hundredfold more tragic and magnificent than Antium?' Here all
began to talk, and to say what an unheard tragedy the picture of a
city like that would be, a city which had conquered the world
turned now into a heap of gray ashes. Caesar declared that then his
poem would surpass the songs of Homer, and he began to describe
how he would rebuild the city, and how coming ages would
admire his achievensents, in presence of which all other human
works would be petty. 'Do that! do that!' exclaimed the drunken
company. 'I must have more faithful and more devoted friends,'
answered he. I confess that I was alarmed at once when I heard
this, for thou art in Rome, carissima. I laugh now at that alarm, and
I think that Caesar and his friends, though mad, would not dare to
permit such insanity.. Still, see how a man fears for his love; I
should prefer that the house of Linus were not in that narrow
Trans-Tiber alley, and in a part occupied by common people,
who are less considered in such a case. For me, the very palaces on
the Palatine would not be a residence fit for thee; hence I should
wish also that nothing were lacking thee of those ornaments and
comforts to which thou art accustomed from childhood.
"Go to the house of Aulus, my Lygia. I have thought much here
over this matter. If Caesar were in Rome, news of thy return might
reach the Palatine through slaves, turn attention to thee, and bring
persecution, because thou didst dare to act against the will of
Caesar. But he will remain long in Antium, and before he returns
slaves will have ceased to speak of thee. Linus and Ursus can be
with thee. Besides, I live in hope that before Palatine sees Caesar,
thou, my goddess, shalt be dwelling in thy own house on the
Carina~. Blessed be the day, hour, and moment in wbicls tlson
shalt cross my threshold; and if Ghrist, whom I am laarning to
accept, effccrs this, may His name be blessed also. I shall serve
Him, and give life and blood for Him. I speak incorrectly; we shall
serve Him, both of us, as long as the threads of life hold.
"I love thee and salute thee with my whole soul." _