To Ekdikios. (358)
Dionysius comes to you with a letter of mine. Previously I did not dare write, since I was detaining Dionysius. True, the shortage of copyists was responsible for the delay, but still I could not help feeling ashamed at how long it had been.
Now, then, since it has at last become possible to return the sophist to you, it seemed un-Greek of me to make the return in silence. Just as the one course smacked of shamelessness, so the other would have placed me far from the Muses.
Do answer my letter — you who possess such beauty of script. But send me no parchments. You are in love with them, and rightly so. It is a hard thing for a lover to share his beloved.
Dionysius comes to you with a letter of mine. Previously I did not dare write, since I was detaining Dionysius. True, the shortage of copyists was responsible for the delay, but still I could not help feeling ashamed at how long it had been.
Now, then, since it has at last become possible to return the sophist to you, it seemed un-Greek of me to make the return in silence. Just as the one course smacked of shamelessness, so the other would have placed me far from the Muses.
Do answer my letter — you who possess such beauty of script. But send me no parchments. You are in love with them, and rightly so. It is a hard thing for a lover to share his beloved.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.