Si hortum in bibliotheca habes... (Cic. fam. 9, 4): Cicerone, Varrone e le proverbiali risorse dell’orto.

Fam. 9, 4 is a brief and ironic letter with which Cicero asks Varro to meet and discuss what to do in view of Ceasar's arrival in Italy after Thapsus. At the beginning, using the Greek philosophical vocabulary, Cicero jokingly proposes the so-called ‘master argument’ of Diodorus Chronus, namely that concerning the possible, περὶ δυνατῶν, striving to obtain thus the seemingly impossible, i.e. the promise of an encounter with his elusive interlocutor. The obscure closing sentence, si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil, often considered an allusion to Epicurus' κῆπος, could refer instead to the proverbial value that Plautus already attributes to the word hortus as a concrete reserve of goods. The phrase would be a joking invitation to put an end to subtle philosophical reasonings (horti) and to adopt the concrete and active attitude of the Roman countryside tradition (hortus).