Letter 697: Oh, how many times you must have shaken your head and said to yourself in some solitary moment or in the dead of...

Oh, how many times you must have shaken your head and said to yourself in some solitary moment or in the dead of night: "I have been forgotten, I have been scorned, everything has changed." And your proof? That a great many people traveled through your region on their way to Thrace, yet not a single letter from me, large or small, reached you. But many asked me for one, and I gave to none. I will tell you why. I knew that every last one of them would want to lodge with you and live well at your expense. If you refused them, you would seem rude; but if you sat there entertaining more guests than there are leaves on the trees, it would have been a nuisance -- not so much for the cost, but because your farms would have suffered from the neglect. And I know people: they eat happily enough, but they have no idea how to remember hospitality. They think it brave to badmouth their hosts. So I was not silent because I had detached my heart from you. I held off so that I would not become the cause of anything unpleasant or harmful to you. Now that I have gotten hold of Miccalus -- and that is the same as getting hold of myself -- I write both to clear myself of blame and to remind you of my old predictions, in which I foretold --

Ὑπερεχίῳ. (362) Ἰοῦ, ἰού, ποσάκις τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐκίνησας καὶ πρὸς σαυτὸν εἶπες ἐπ᾿ ἐρημίας ἢ νυκτός· ἠμέλημαι, καταπεφρόνημαι, μεταβέβληται τὰ πάντα. καὶ τούτου σοι πίστις ἤ τὸ πλῆθος μὲν εἶναι τῶν δι’ ὑμῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης δραμόντων, ἐλθεῖν δὲ σοὶ μήτε μικρὰν μήτε μείζω παρ’ ἡμῶν ἐπιστολὴν. ἐμὲ δὲ πολλοὶ μὲν ᾔτησάν, ἔδωκα δὲ οὐδενί· δι’ δέ, φράσω. πάντας ᾔδειν ἐθελήσοντας παρὰ σοὶ καταλύειν καὶ τρυφᾶν · σὺ δ’ οὐ δεχόμενος μὲν ἐδόκεις ἂν ἀδικεῖν· εἰ δὲ καθήμενος ἐξένιζες πλείους τῶν φύλλων, ὀχληρὸν ἂν ἦν, οὐχ οὕτω κατὰ τὴν δαπάνην, ἀλλ’ ὅτι τὰ τῶν ἀγρῶν ἐχρῆν ὁλι- γωρεῖσθαι. καὶ ἅμα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ᾔδειν ἐσθίοντας μὶν ἡδέως, μεμνῆσθαι δὲ ξενίας οὐκ εἰδότας, ἀλλ’ ἡγουμένους ἀνδρεῖον, ἂν εἴπωσι κακῶς τοὺς ὑποδεξαμένοις. οὔκουν ἀποστήσας σου τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ ψυχὴν ἐσίγων, ἀλλ’ ὅπως μηδενός σοι γενοίμην μήτ’ ἀηδοῦς αἴτιος μήτε κακοῦ, μέλλειν ἠξίουν. ἐπεὶ δ’ οὖν ἐλαβόμην Μικκάλου, τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἐμαυτοῦ, γράφω λύων τε τὴν αἰτίαν καὶ ἀναμιμνήσκων σε τῶν πα- λαιῶν μαντευμάτων, ἐν οἶς προὔλεγον ὡς ἥξοι χρόνος ἀπαι- τῶν λόγους καὶ λύων ζώνας. σοὶ δ’ ἐκείνων τε μὴ διαμαρ- τεῖν ὑπῆρξε κἀν τοῖς παροῦσιν ἔστι τις χώρα, βουλοίμην δ’ ἂν εἰδέναι, τίς σοι γνώμη καὶ τί σαυτῷ χρήσασθαι διανοῇ.