Letter 253: I showed my affection not by accepting the gifts so much as by the pain I felt earlier over what pained me.
To Auxentius. (361)
I showed my affection not by accepting the gifts so much as by the pain I felt earlier over what pained me. For it is the mark of a lover, I think, and a jealous one at that, to be unable to bear that anything of yours should be managed by another while I am still alive.
And so my heart was stung -- while you perhaps were preening, thinking yourself another Phaon [Phaon was a legendary ferryman so beautiful that Aphrodite herself fell in love with him].
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Αὐξεντίῳ. (361)
Οὐ τῷ δέξασθαι τὰ ξένια μᾶλλον ἔδειξα τὸ φιλεῖν ἢ τῷ
λυπηθῆναι πρότερον οἷς ἐλυπήθην. ἦν γὰρ ἐρῶντος, οἶμαι,
καὶ ζηλοτυποῦντος τό τι τῶν σῶν ἐμοῦ ζῶντος ὑφ’ ἑτέρου
πράττεσθαι μὴ φέρειν.
ἐντεῦθεν ἐγὼ μὲν ἐδήχθην τὴν καρ-
δίαν, σὺ δὲ ἴσως ἐκαλλωπίζου Φάων τις ἕτερος ἡγούμενος
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