Ep. 9.6.1Omne hoc tempus inter pugillārēs ac libellōs iūcundissimā quiēte trānsmīsī.All this time I have spent among my writing tablets and books in the most delightful peace. Ep. 9.6.1"Quemadmodum" inquis "in urbe potuistī?"'How,' you ask, 'could you do that in the city?' Ep. 9.6.1Circēnsēs erant, quō genere spectāculī nē levissimē quidem teneor.The races were on, a kind of spectacle by which I am not held in the slightest. Ep. 9.6.1Nihil novum nihil varium, nihil quod nōn semel spectāsse sufficiat.Nothing new, nothing varied, nothing which it is not enough to have watched once. Ep. 9.6.2Quō magis mīror tot mīlia virōrum tam puerīliter identidem cupere currentēs equōs, īnsistentēs curribus hominēs vidēre.So I marvel all the more that so many thousands of men should so childishly long, again and again, to see horses running and men standing on chariots. Ep. 9.6.2Sī tamen aut vēlōcitāte equōrum aut hominum arte traherentur, esset ratiō nōn nūlla;If, however, they were drawn either by the speed of the horses or by the skill of the men, there would be some reason in it; Ep. 9.6.2nunc favent pannō, pannum amant, et sī in ipsō cursū mediōque certāmine hic color illūc ille hūc trānsferātur, studium favorque trānsībit, et repente agitātōrēs illōs equōs illōs, quōs procul nōscitant, quōrum clāmitant nōmina relinquent.as it is, they favour a cloth, they love a cloth, and if in the very race and in the middle of the contest this colour were moved over there and that one over here, their enthusiasm and favour will move across too, and suddenly they will abandon those drivers and those horses whom they recognise from far off, whose names they shout again and again.
Ep. 9.6.3Tanta grātia tanta auctōritās in ūnā vīlissimā tunicā, mittō apud vulgus, quod vīlius tunicā, sed apud quōsdam gravēs hominēs;Such favour, such weight in one very cheap tunic — I pass over the common crowd, which is cheaper than a tunic, but among certain serious men; Ep. 9.6.3quōs ego cum recordor, in rē inānī frīgidā assiduā, tam īnsatiābiliter dēsidēre, capiō aliquam voluptātem, quod hāc voluptāte nōn capior.when I recall these men sitting so insatiably at a thing so empty, dull and endlessly repeated, I take some pleasure in the fact that I am not taken by this pleasure. Ep. 9.6.4Ac per hōs diēs libentissimē ōtium meum in litterīs collocō, quōs aliī ōtiōsissimīs occupātiōnibus perdunt.And during these days, which others waste in the idlest of occupations, I most gladly devote my leisure to literature. Ep. 9.6.4Valē.Farewell.