Epistles 1.8 (Fairclough)

To Celsus Albinovanus greetings and good wishes! This message bear, O Muse, at my request, to the comrade and secretary of Nero. If he ask you how I fare, tell him that despite many fine promises I live a life neither wise nor pleasant; not because hail has beaten down my vines and heat blighted my olives, nor because my herds are sickening on distant pastures; but because, less sound in mind than in all my body, I will listen to nothing, will learn nothing, to relieve my sickness; quarrel with my faithful physicians, and angrily ask my friends why they are eager to rescue me from fatal lethargy; because I follow after what has hurt me, avoid what I believe will help me, and am fickle as the wind, at Rome loving Tibur, at Tibur Rome.

Then ask him how his own health is, how in estate and person he is faring, how he stands in favour with prince and staff. If he says “Well,” first wish him joy; then by and by remember to drop this warning in the dear fellow’s ears: “As you bear your fortune, Celsus, so we shall bear with you.”