Sidonius greets his dear Donidius

• 1. You ask why, even though I already set off for Nîmes a long time ago, I prolong your desire to see me with my tardiness in arriving. I will tell you the reasons for my late return and I do not hesitate to explain my hesitation, because everything I like, you like too. Amid the most wonderful estates, among their most hospitable owners, Ferreolus and Apollinaris, I have spent a most pleasurable period. Their estates have a common border, their houses are close, the walk between them tires the walker, but is not worth riding a horse for. The hills above the houses are cultivated by vine-dressers and olive-dressers. You would think they were Aracynthus and Nysa, mountains praised by poets in their poems. One house has a prospect on to open plains, the other into the woods, but nonetheless the dissimilar sites are similarly delightful.

• 2. But why in fact should I talk more about the site of the estates, if there is still to tell about the sequence of the hospitality? First of all, the most shrewd scouts were sent out to watch for the route of our return; both households not only waited on the public roads, but also the footpaths, full of turns and short-cuts, and the shepherds’ by-ways, so there was not the slightest chance we could escape the meticulous ambush of hospitality. I fell into this trap, I must admit, but not at all against my will, and we immediately had to swear that we would not even think about continuing our journey until seven days had passed.

• 3. Therefore there was every morning an early but agreeable contest between the two parties over their guest, in particular whose kitchen could first emit smoke for our meals. Nor for sure could a rotation have fairly shared this right, even though the one house had close ties with me, the other with my relatives, because Ferreolus had, as a former prefect as well as being next of kin, the prerogative of inviting first because of his age and dignity.

• 4. Instantly, we were rushed from delight to delight. I had hardly entered one or the other entrance court, and there on one side were pairs of opposing ball players, who were bent double as they ran in circles throwing the ball.