To Hierax.
I love myself, and that is why I love you, and I freely admit it. Anyone who knows you and does not love you seems to me to hate himself. As for the Cyzicenes [people of Cyzicus, a city in Asia Minor], I applaud their initial impulse but criticize the reversal. Looking to the swan was noble; making room for the jackdaw was not. It is exactly like Aristophanes' line: "Theognis instead of Aeschylus" [i.e., trading a great artist for a mediocre one].
No letter of the kind you describe has arrived. But if one does come, you will see your friend. As for your wife, whom I congratulate for having your devotion -- her business has been taken care of, since the boy found another advocate.
I love myself, and that is why I love you, and I freely admit it. Anyone who knows you and does not love you seems to me to hate himself. As for the Cyzicenes [people of Cyzicus, a city in Asia Minor], I applaud their initial impulse but criticize the reversal. Looking to the swan was noble; making room for the jackdaw was not. It is exactly like Aristophanes' line: "Theognis instead of Aeschylus" [i.e., trading a great artist for a mediocre one].
No letter of the kind you describe has arrived. But if one does come, you will see your friend. As for your wife, whom I congratulate for having your devotion -- her business has been taken care of, since the boy found another advocate.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.