Familiar Letters

...arrived. Having stayed there for that night, the next day at first light we moved camp, and around the sixth hour of the day, we arrived at Sutri. The people of Sutri, with a multitude spread out outside the gates, received the Pope with a cheerful countenance. In this city, we stayed for the remainder of the day and the night that followed. The next day, we proceeded to Viterbo. The matter, indeed, was transacted in this way. We will remain in Viterbo for some months, I hope. I wrote this to you while lightly suffering from a fever. Marcus, your friend, is safe. For he fled from the city with us together. As far as he is concerned, we will take care that it is done just as you ordered it to be done. Farewell, from Viterbo.

LEONARD TO COLUCCIO. GREETINGS. You asked...

marginal note: Agam. Adra.
marginal note: Regarding the interpretation of this name, Hector. Plato. Astyanax.

A large blue initial L begins the first line....me whether the name of Hector signifies anything other than Priam's son, and what Misenus and Aeolus might designate, and in what letters they ought to be written. About which I can answer almost nothing certain, since I have no books here. But as far as memory seems to hold, Hector signifies the same as "defender" or "guardian." For so it is in Plato, in that book which is inscribed "On Names," where Plato teaches that these names of heroes are not true, but that most of them were invented by the poets. As he says that Hector was so called because he held the city and protected the fatherland. But Astyanax, since he was the son of Hector, he looked toward him for the empire of the city. For asty city is Greek for city, anax emperor for emperor. Hence, he was called Astyanax by men. For women, as Plato says, called him Scamandrius. For, remote from civil offices, they did not call Hector's son by a name of dignity, but by his own...