A QUIET PROTEST
Nimium is too much. Studium is zeal, or devotion. Someone studiosus is dedicated to a particular pursuit. Here we have the vocative form, to go with the address to Messalla. Marcus Messalla Corvinus was a soldier, a poet, a Water Commissioner and (acccording to Sulpicia) an annoyingly watchful relative. Here she is telling him to be more relaxed (quiescas) about his task: “Now, too-much zealous about me, Messalla, calm down.”
Tempestiva via is not a stormy road. Sometimes guesswork lets us down. Tempestivus is related to tempus, as in tempus fugit. It means timely, or well-timed. Via can mean a road, but here it has the sense of a journey. Saepe is worth learning. It means often, and it turns up just like that. King Lear talks about shrugging off all “paternal care (and) propinquity” of his daughter Cordelia. Propinquus means close, either physically or in terms of family relationship. Can you tell what case it is here?
Iam, nimium Messalla mei studiose, quiescas:
non tempestivae saepe, propinque, viae.
Now calm down, Messalla. You’re uncle-ing all over me. Journeys are often badly timed.