To Polychronios. (361/62)
As if I didn't notice you wanted to undermine the praise sung by everyone about me and Olympius — that we think alike, speak alike, and are separated only in body.
You, then, out of jealousy — quite naively, not to say maliciously — are tunneling under this praise with your letter. While no one fears any quarrel will arise between us, you write as though one already has.
But you haven't caught anything significant, while I have caught you treating us like children. Nowhere giving us confidence about the future, you go around in circles, hanging over us the rock of Tantalus.
So that we may not be Tantaluses, free our heads from the stone — either by saying you have already received it or that you never will. For to me, repaying would be a light matter — I would be speaking to one who knows — but it would be worthy of the noose if I were counted among those who have plundered the cities' property.
As if I didn't notice you wanted to undermine the praise sung by everyone about me and Olympius — that we think alike, speak alike, and are separated only in body.
You, then, out of jealousy — quite naively, not to say maliciously — are tunneling under this praise with your letter. While no one fears any quarrel will arise between us, you write as though one already has.
But you haven't caught anything significant, while I have caught you treating us like children. Nowhere giving us confidence about the future, you go around in circles, hanging over us the rock of Tantalus.
So that we may not be Tantaluses, free our heads from the stone — either by saying you have already received it or that you never will. For to me, repaying would be a light matter — I would be speaking to one who knows — but it would be worthy of the noose if I were counted among those who have plundered the cities' property.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.