Letter 379: I was right to do both things: to write and to stop writing.

To Modestus. (358/59) I was acting reasonably in both respects: I both wrote and held back from writing. For the one was the act of a man longing to receive letters, the other of one who, by not receiving any, shrank from attempting it again. Now, therefore, since the receiving has at last been accomplished for me, you will plainly see an archer letting fly his letters thick and fast. In wishing to learn the troubles in the midst of which I happen to be, you seem to be longing for them: for from that time down to this present day my head has not been able to find any peace. And attached to this was a still greater evil: that I cannot even visit you, which, to the man who has it, is better than any drug. So know well that, even were I healthier than Croton [a city proverbial for the health and vigor of its men], yet, being kept apart from you, I count myself among the sick. As for Daphne, beloved of Apollo - I do not now mean the nymph, but that into which the maiden was transformed - while I considered it beautiful before, I now reckon it still more beautiful, and beautiful as it appears to you too. Yet I for my part have no share in the place, having become a prisoner to my profession; for what ruling is to you, that teaching is to me.

Μοδέστῳ. (358/59) Ἑκάτερον εἰκότως ἐποίουν· ἔγραφόν τε καὶ τοῦ γρά- φειν ἀφιστάμην· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἦν ἐπιθυμοῦντος γράμματα λα- βεῖν, τὸ δὲ τῷ μὴ λαβεῖν ὀκνοῦντος αὖθις ἐπιχειρεῖν. νῦν οὖν ἐπειδή μοι τὸ λαβεῖν ἤνυσται, τοξότην ἐναργῶς ὄψει καὶ πυκνὰς ἀφιέντα τὰς ἐπιστολάς. βουλόμενος δὲ μαθεῖν ἐν οἷς ὢν τυγχάνω λύπης ἔοικας ἐπιθυμεῖν· ἀπὸ γὰρ ἐκείνων τῶν χρόνων εἰς τήνδε τὴν ἡμέραν ἡ κεφαλή μοι τυχεῖν εἰρή- νης οὐ δεδύνηται. προσῆν δὲ τούτῳ μεῖζον κακόν. τὸ μηδὲ παρὰ σὲ φοιτᾶν ἔχειν, ὃ τῷ γε ἔχοντι παντὸς ἄμεινον φαρ- μάκου· ὡς εὖ ἴσθι, κἂν ὑγιέστερος ὦ Κρότωνος, σοῦ γε ἀφεστηκὼς ἐν τοῖς ἀρρωστοῦσιν ἐμαυτὸν τίθημι. Δάφνην δὲ τὴν Ἀπόλλωνι φίλην — οὐ τὴν νύμφην λέγω νῦν, ἀλλ’ οἷ μετέβαλεν ἡ κόρη — καὶ πρόσθεν καλὴν ἡγούμενος ἔτι καλλίω νομίζω καὶ σοὶ δοκοῦσαν καλήν. οὐ μὴν ἔγωγε μετέχω τοῦ χωρίου δεσμώτης ὑπὸ τῆς τέχνης γεγονώς· ὃ γὰρ σοὶ τὸ ἄρ- χειν, ἐμοὶ τὸ διδάσκειν.