To Albanius, former student. (362)
You did not grieve me by being silent toward me, because the reputation you were winning elsewhere was enough to make me happy. Many brought me news of this, but none like that fellow citizen of ours who was unlucky with his hand yet found your city no worse than his own. For during a long stay, and being besides a keen judge of a public man's abilities (since he lived among the same people), he gathered everything and reported it all.
There was nothing in it that did not give me great joy. He said your wealth has grown -- and what is even better, from honest sources. He said that both you and your brother are counted among the finest speakers, that the city looks to you after your uncle, and that there are hopes of something even more splendid to come.
He also told me how you went off to Thrace when a lawsuit summoned you, how things turned out well, and many other fine things. And he will not stop telling me -- I will not let him. Whenever he has gone through everything, I will steer him back to the same topics again. The story is sweet, for it lets me reflect that you do not blame your father for sending you where he sent you.
You did not grieve me by being silent toward me, because the reputation you were winning elsewhere was enough to make me happy. Many brought me news of this, but none like that fellow citizen of ours who was unlucky with his hand yet found your city no worse than his own. For during a long stay, and being besides a keen judge of a public man's abilities (since he lived among the same people), he gathered everything and reported it all.
There was nothing in it that did not give me great joy. He said your wealth has grown -- and what is even better, from honest sources. He said that both you and your brother are counted among the finest speakers, that the city looks to you after your uncle, and that there are hopes of something even more splendid to come.
He also told me how you went off to Thrace when a lawsuit summoned you, how things turned out well, and many other fine things. And he will not stop telling me -- I will not let him. Whenever he has gone through everything, I will steer him back to the same topics again. The story is sweet, for it lets me reflect that you do not blame your father for sending you where he sent you.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.