1By Hercules, we ought to celebrate your birthday just as we celebrate our own, since the happiness of ours depends on yours, by whose diligence and care we are cheerful here and free from anxiety there. 2The Camillian villa, which you own in Campania, is indeed damaged by age; 2and yet the more valuable parts either remain intact or are only very slightly damaged. 3So we are seeing to it that they are restored as soundly as possible. 3I seem to have many friends, but of the kind that you are looking for and the matter demands, almost none. 4For they are all men of the toga and of the city; 4but the management of country estates calls for someone tough and rustic, to whom that labour will not seem heavy, nor the care demeaning, nor the solitude gloomy.
5You are thinking most honourably of Rufus; 5for he was a close friend of your son. 5What, though, he can do for us there I do not know; that he wants to do a great deal I believe. 5Farewell.