From L. Caesar quae. to Messalina Terentius, greetings!

If you are well, I am well. I hope this letter may not reach you. "What?", you will ask. I have not replied earlier to your latest letter because I thought I’d see you soon in Athens; it was not to be.
Yet I think you may be on your way, and this letter may find in Rome only your shadow. This would please me most; in that case, you will read it on your return, and you will perhaps smile as at a joke.

Summer is upon us and the heat is almost too much to bear; we all wear large hats and try to stay in the shade. Unfortunately the Athenians’ beloved olive trees do not really give out much of this. The baths are always full; I have my servants pour water on me from buckets that they fetch and keep in the coolest cellar; I eye the fish in the fishponds with barely disguised envy.

Nothing much happens here. Syrus, despairing of your coming, has left for Rome where he is invited to play in the games of Apollo; I have given him a letter of introduction for you.

May the gods protect you and keep you well.