Sidonius greets his dear Agricola

• 1. You have sent me a swift and solid boat, which has also room for a couch next to the catch of fishes; besides, an experienced steersman, and strong and expedient oarsmen, who certainly fly over the surface of the river going upstream with the same rapidity as downstream. But you will pardon me for refusing your invitation to accompany you on a fishing expedition, because I am held back by much stronger nets of sadness about sick family members, which causes pain to friends as well as to outsiders. That is why I think that you too, if you properly feel brotherly love, will rather think about turning back the minute you get this letter.

• 2. Severiana, our common cause of anxiety, was first disturbed by a tenacious fit of coughing, and now she also is exhausted by a fever, which gets worse night by night. That is why she wants to move out to our suburban place; when we got your letter we were preparing to leave for our little estate. So whether you come or stay, help our wishes with your prayers that this move will heal her, keen as she is for the country air. Certainly your sister and I are in suspense between hope and fear, and we thought her indisposition could increase if we opposed the patient's wishes.

• 3. I am therefore removing myself and my whole household together from the heat and torpor of the city with the help of Christ and thus I am escaping at the same time from the advice of the doctors who sit by and disagree, and who, little taught but eager enough, kill many sick people very dutifully. Iustus of course will be received in our home by right of friendship, and if it were allowed to make a joke in sad circumstances, I could easily prove him to be trained rather in the art of Chiron than of Machaon. So we must pray to Christ all the more diligently and beg him that heavenly power heals the illness, for which our concern does not find a cure. Goodbye.