Letter 585: Will you never stop treating trifles as treasures and worthless things as priceless?
To Bacchios. (357)
Will you never stop treating trifles as treasures and worthless things as priceless? The moment I utter anything, you instantly deem it magnificent — you seek it, you crave it, and you reproach me for not yet sending it.
You have always seemed to me a lover of poor things in being a lover of my work, and never more so than now in your eagerness over something so slight. You will see, when you receive it — and you will before long — that what you say has reached you as a great reputation is more the shadow of a speech than a speech.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Βακχίῳ. (357)
Οὐ παύσῃ ποτὲ τὰ μικρὰ μεγάλα νομίζων καὶ πολλοῦ
τινος ἄξια τὰ μηδενός; ἀλλ’ ἂν φθέγξωμαί τι, σεμνὸν εὐθὺς
τοῦτο παρὰ σοὶ καὶ ζητεῖς καὶ ποθεῖς καὶ τὸ μήπω λαβεῖν
ἐγκαλεῖς.
ἀεὶ μὲν οὖν μοι φαύλων ἐρᾶν ἐφαίνου τῶν ἡμε-
τέρων ἐρῶν, νῦν δ’ οὐχ ἥκιστα σπουδάζειν περὶ μικρά. γνώσῃ
δέ, ἢν λάβῃς, λήψῃ δὲ οὐκ εἰς μακράν, ὡς οὗ κλέος εἰς ὑμᾶς
ἀφῖχθαι λέγεις, σκιὰ λόγου μᾶλλόν ἐστιν ἢ λόγος.
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