To Melinianus.
I expected you to spend more time with us now that you have become your own master. Instead, it seems you are more inclined to stay where you are, now that you have become master of a great deal. And yet you have plenty of servants, including some capable enough to let you visit your friends without worrying about your property.
But I think you only talked about knowing how to love -- you were not actually very good at it. The man who belongs to your household and married one of my female slaves: while you were here you never took him back, and now that he has returned to you, you are keeping him. Either you are holding him against his will, which is wrong, or you are not expelling him when he stays voluntarily, which is also wrong.
But let that man not become the start of something unpleasant between us. My slaves are coming your way to buy timber. Show them how much better you are than your father -- using his resources but your own character.
I expected you to spend more time with us now that you have become your own master. Instead, it seems you are more inclined to stay where you are, now that you have become master of a great deal. And yet you have plenty of servants, including some capable enough to let you visit your friends without worrying about your property.
But I think you only talked about knowing how to love -- you were not actually very good at it. The man who belongs to your household and married one of my female slaves: while you were here you never took him back, and now that he has returned to you, you are keeping him. Either you are holding him against his will, which is wrong, or you are not expelling him when he stays voluntarily, which is also wrong.
But let that man not become the start of something unpleasant between us. My slaves are coming your way to buy timber. Show them how much better you are than your father -- using his resources but your own character.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.