Letter 211: Truly when I read your excellency's letter I felt unwonted pleasure and cheerfulness; and when I met your well-beloved sons, I seemed to behold yourself. They found me in the deepest affliction, but they so behaved as to make me forget the hemlock, which your dreamers and dream mongers are carrying about to my hurt, to please the people who have...
Reading your letter brought me genuine, unexpected joy — and when your dear sons arrived, I felt as though I were looking at you yourself.
They found me in the depths of distress. But they handled it so well that I actually forgot about the hemlock [metaphor for slander campaigns against him] that your local gossips and rumor-spinners are circulating to damage me — all at the bidding of whoever is paying them.
Some letters I've already sent along. More can follow, if you'd like. I only hope they do some real good for the people who receive them.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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