Letter 432: I hear you praise me and never stop doing so, and it seems to me you are doing what is both just and in your own...
I hear you praise me and never stop doing so, and it seems to me you are doing what is both just and in your own interest. A man who says he studied under the best teacher both pays the teacher his due and ennobles himself by showing what springs he has drunk from.
But the praise should come with letters too, so that no part of your duties toward me lies idle. It seems to me that you are afraid I will demand favors -- that having received one, I will press for a second -- and so you keep silent, blocking the path by which I might make reasonable requests of you.
If you say I am wrong, prove it. You will prove it by writing. If you do not write, then I have been deceived by Clematius, who reported all those fine things and persuaded me to write to you in the first place.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Εὐσεβίῳ. (355)
Ἀκούω σε ἐπαινεῖν με καὶ μὴ λήγειν τοῦτο ποιοῦντα, καὶ
μοι φαίνῃ δίκαιά τε δρᾶν καὶ σαυτῷ συμφέροντα. ὁ γὰρ ὡς
παρὰ ἄριστον ἐφοίτησε λέγων τῷ διδασκάλῳ τε τὸ εἰκὸς ἀπο-
δίδωσι καὶ ἅμα αὑτὸν ἐσέμνυνε δεικνύς, οἴων ἀπολέλαυκε τῶν
πηγῶν.
χρῆν μέντοι προσεῖναι τοῖς ἐπαίνοις καὶ τὸ ἐπι-
στέλλειν, ὅπως μηδὲν μέρος ἀργὸν εἴη σοι τῶν πρὸς ἐμέ. ἀλλά
μοι δοκεῖν δεδιὼς μή σε χάριτας ἀπαιτῶμεν καὶ λαβόντες
πρώτας ἐπαγγέλλωμεν δευτέρας, σιγᾷς ἀποκλείων ἡμῖν τὴν ὁδὸν
τοῦ χρῆσθαί σοι τὰ εἰκότα.
εἰ δὲ ψεύδεσθαί με φής, ἔλεγ-
ξον· ἐλέγξεις δέ, εἰ γράψαις. εἰ δὲ οὐ γράψεις, ὑπὸ Κληματίου
εἰην ἂν ἠπατημένος, ὃς ἐκεῖνά τε ἀπήγγειλε καὶ τοῦτο ἔπεισεν
ἐπιστεῖλαί σοι.
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