1If I know you well, most outspoken Lollius, you will be afraid to give the appearance of a parasite when you have professed yourself a friend. As a married woman will be unlike a harlot and different in colour, so the friend will differ from the faithless parasite. There is a vice opposite to this one, almost greater: a boorish rudeness, uncouth and offensive, which commends itself by close-cropped skin and black teeth, while it wants to be called pure frankness and true virtue. Virtue is the mean between vices, set back from both. 10One man, too prone to obsequiousness, a jester on the lowest couch, so dreads the rich man's nod, so repeats his sayings and picks up his words as they fall, that you would think a boy was reciting his dictation to a stern schoolmaster or a mime-actor playing second parts.
15Another often quarrels about goat's wool, and fights, armed, for trifles: 'To think that I should not be believed first, and should not bark out sharply what I truly think! 18A second life would be a worthless price.' 19For what is in dispute? 19Whether Castor or Dolichos knows more; 20whether the road of Minucius or of Appius leads better to Brundisium. 21Whom ruinous love, whom headlong dice strip bare, whom vanity clothes and anoints beyond his means, whom a relentless thirst and hunger for money holds, whom shame and flight from poverty, his rich friend, often equipped with ten more vices, hates and abhors; or, if he does not hate him, governs him, and like a fond mother wants him to be wiser than himself and to excel in virtues, and says what is nearly true: 'My wealth (do not try to compete) permits folly; 29your means are tiny.
30A narrow toga suits a sensible client; 30stop competing with me.' 31Eutrapelus, whenever he wished to harm someone, used to give him costly clothes: 'For now, happy with his handsome tunics, he will adopt new plans and hopes, will sleep till daylight, will put a harlot before honourable duty, will feed debts with interest, and in the end will become a Thracian gladiator or drive a greengrocer's nag for hire.' 37You will never pry into his secret, and will keep what is entrusted to you, though racked by wine and anger. 39Nor will you praise your own pursuits or find fault with another's, nor, when he wants to hunt, will you compose poems.
41So the friendship of the twin brothers, Amphion and Zethus, broke apart, until the lyre, suspect to the stern brother, fell silent. 43Amphion is believed to have yielded to his brother's character: do you yield to the mild commands of your powerful friend, and whenever he leads out into the fields his pack animals laden with Aetolian nets, and his hounds, rise and lay aside the moroseness of your unsociable Muse, so that you may dine together on a relish bought with toil: a customary task for Roman men, useful for reputation, life and limbs; 50especially since you are in good health and can outdo the hound in running or the boar in strength. Add that there is no one who handles manly weapons more gracefully; 53you know with what shouts from the ring of spectators you sustain the battles of the Campus; 54finally, as a boy you endured hard service and the Cantabrian wars under a leader who is now taking down our standards from the temples of the Parthians, and, if anything is lacking.
57is assigning it to Italian arms. 58And so that you do not hold back and stay away without excuse: though you take care to do nothing out of time and measure, you sometimes play about on your father's estate: the army divides the boats, the battle of Actium is re-enacted under your command by slaves in the manner of enemies; 63your brother is the enemy, the lake is the Adriatic, until swift Victory crowns one or the other with leaves. He who believes that you agree with his pursuits will, as a supporter, praise your game with both thumbs. 67To go on with my advice (if you need any adviser), consider often what you say about each man, and to whom. Avoid the questioner, for he is also a chatterer; open ears do not faithfully keep what is entrusted to them, and a word once let out flies off beyond recall. Let no maid or boy within the marble threshold of your revered friend inflame your heart, lest the owner of the pretty boy or the dear girl bless you with a trifling gift or torment you by refusing.
76Look again and again at the kind of man you recommend, lest soon another's misdeeds strike you with shame. We are deceived, and sometimes introduce an unworthy man: so, once deceived, give up defending one whom his own fault weighs down, so that you may save one you know thoroughly if charges assail him, and protect him as he trusts in your defence: when he is gnawed round by Theon's tooth, do you not sense that the dangers will come to you a little later? 84For it is your own concern when the next wall is burning, and fires neglected tend to gather strength. 86Cultivating a powerful friend is sweet to those who have not tried it: one who has tried it fears it.
87While your ship is on the deep, attend to this, lest the wind shift and carry you back. 89The gloomy hate the cheerful man and the jesting the gloomy, the quick the sedate, the easy-going the active and energetic; 91drinkers hate the man who refuses the cups held out to him, however much you swear that you fear the fevers of the night. 94Take the cloud from your brow: very often the modest man takes on the look of the secretive, the silent man of the sour. 96Amid all this, you will read and question the learned how you can pass your life gently; whether ever-needy desire is to drive and torment you, whether fear and the hope of things of middling worth; whether learning procures virtue or Nature gives it; what lessens cares, what makes you a friend to yourself, what brings pure calm: honour, or sweet little gains, or a secluded journey and the path of a life unnoticed.
104Whenever the cool stream of Digentia refreshes me, from which Mandela drinks, a village wrinkled with cold, what do you think I feel? 106What do you suppose, my friend, I pray for? 107May I have what I have now, or even less, and live for myself what remains of my life, if the gods want anything to remain; 109may I have a good supply of books and of food stored for the year, nor waver, hanging on the hope of an uncertain hour. 111But it is enough to pray to Jupiter, who gives and takes away, that he grant life, that he grant means; 112a balanced mind I shall provide for myself.