At one period he had resolved to pass through Macedonia into Asia, and to remain for a while at Cyzicum.

This idea he expresses in a letter to his wife written from Brundisium.

Then he goes, wailing no doubt, but in words which to me seem very natural as coming from a husband in such a condition: "O me perditum, O me afflictum;"[281] exclamations which it is impossible to translate, as they refer to his wife's separation from himself rather than to his own personal sufferings.

"How am I to ask you to come to me ?" he says; "you a woman, ill in health, worn out in body and in spirit.

I cannot ask you! Must I then live without you?
It must be so, I think.