Letter 517
To Anatolius.
I write to you often, and I rather wish you would not write back. That would give me the right to complain about you, which matters enormously to me -- the pleasure of having a grievance to pursue. On the other hand, I would not actually want you to ignore my requests, so do oblige me.
What am I asking? As Demosthenes says: treat the man who delivers this letter as well as you can. You will be doing a kindness to a friend of mine, and you will gain a friend who knows how to express gratitude. That, I imagine, matters more to you than making money from other people.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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Source. Translated by James Barmby. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol.