To Hyperechius. (361?)
If Eutherius did not have a son studying with us, and if he had not asked you to write, you would have kept your silence as before -- even though I taught you to speak. You use that skill in other contexts, where it preserves and increases your property, but when it comes to speaking to me, you are mute -- and this despite doing well, as we would pray, in circumstances that give you good news to share.
But I will not exact a penalty from you for what I could rightly complain about. It is for this very reason that I placed Hieron above many others, and Philopatris will receive the same treatment as Hieron. Or rather, he has already received it -- for I consider it an act of grace to you whenever I do something for any of the Armenians.
If Eutherius did not have a son studying with us, and if he had not asked you to write, you would have kept your silence as before -- even though I taught you to speak. You use that skill in other contexts, where it preserves and increases your property, but when it comes to speaking to me, you are mute -- and this despite doing well, as we would pray, in circumstances that give you good news to share.
But I will not exact a penalty from you for what I could rightly complain about. It is for this very reason that I placed Hieron above many others, and Philopatris will receive the same treatment as Hieron. Or rather, he has already received it -- for I consider it an act of grace to you whenever I do something for any of the Armenians.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.