To Strategius. (358/59)
Before I had cleanly recovered from the affliction in my head, a greater evil seized me — one that filled my soul with darkness, on account of which many friends sat beside me for a long time, trying every incantation to preserve my sanity.
For what do you think I became when I learned that my dearest city had fallen along with its dearest men? I neglected food, cast aside my writing, pushed away sleep, and lay for the longest time in silence — my tears flowing for them, while those close to me wept for me — until someone advised me to mourn in words both the city and the man who deserved, O Zeus, no such end. Persuaded by this, and having expelled some portion of my grief through writing, I now grieve with composure.
If I did not think your own mind was also shaken — deprived as you are of a friend who proved the name by his deeds — I would ask consolation to come from you. But since the blow is shared, all that is left for me is to groan, which is exactly what I do.
Before I had cleanly recovered from the affliction in my head, a greater evil seized me — one that filled my soul with darkness, on account of which many friends sat beside me for a long time, trying every incantation to preserve my sanity.
For what do you think I became when I learned that my dearest city had fallen along with its dearest men? I neglected food, cast aside my writing, pushed away sleep, and lay for the longest time in silence — my tears flowing for them, while those close to me wept for me — until someone advised me to mourn in words both the city and the man who deserved, O Zeus, no such end. Persuaded by this, and having expelled some portion of my grief through writing, I now grieve with composure.
If I did not think your own mind was also shaken — deprived as you are of a friend who proved the name by his deeds — I would ask consolation to come from you. But since the blow is shared, all that is left for me is to groan, which is exactly what I do.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.