1I have completed my journey comfortably, except that some of my household have fallen ill in the scorching heat. 2Indeed Encolpius my reader, he who is both my serious business and my delight, has had his throat inflamed by the dust and has brought up blood. 2How sad this would be for him, how bitter for me, if he whose every charm comes from literary pursuits should be made unfit for those pursuits! 2Who then will read my little books like that, love them like that? 3Whom will my ears follow like that? 3But the gods promise happier things. 3The bleeding has stopped, the pain has subsided. 3Besides, he himself is abstemious, we are anxious, the doctors are attentive.
3On top of this, the healthiness of the climate, and the retirement and quiet, promise as much recovery as leisure. 3Farewell.