Perhaps I love the flocks and the shepherds a little too much.

That would not seem right amongst you.

There is a maxim to which I endeavour to conform my actions, "Nothing too much." More even than my feeble health my philosophy teaches me to use things with measure.

I am sober; a lettuce and some olives with a drop of Falernian wine form all my meals.

I have, indeed, to some extent gone with strange women, but I have not delayed over long in taverns to watch the young Syrians dance to the sound of the crotalum.* But if I have restrained my desires it was for my own satisfaction and for the sake of good discipline.