1) In 54 BC, Cicero helped oversee home improvements at the properties of his brother Quintus, who was off in Britain campaigning with Julius Caesar. Forget grand orations and treatises, in one splendid letter Cicero updates his brother on the slow progress of a cowboy builder...
2) "On your Manilian estate I found the builder Diphilus even more behind than usual! He has yet to construct the baths, promenade and aviary. Still, now that the paved colonnade is finished and its columns polished, I can see your villa will have an air of great dignity...
3) .."It all hinges on whether the stucco work is done properly, so this I will make certain of. As far as I could tell the mosaic pavements are being laid well but I didn't like some of the ceilings so I have ordered them to be changed..
4) "As for the place in which your instructions say a small entrance hall is to be built - I like it better as it is. I don't think there's space enough for an entrance hall; with its elegant curved ceiling I think it would make a better summer room. Let me know if you disagree..
5) "In the baths, I have moved the hot chamber to the other side of the dressing room because where it was, the steam pipe out of which flames sometimes pop, was right beneath the bedrooms...
6) "As well as this, Diphilus had installed columns which were neither vertical nor in line with each other - naturally I ordered he take them all down! Maybe one day Diphilus will learn how to use a plumb-line and measure? Let's just hope he completes the work in a few months!"
From Cicero's Letters (3.1), 'To his brother Quintus in Britain', dated 28th September 54 BC.
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