To Atarbius, governor. (362)
I was about to blame you for your silence toward me, but then I realized the same charges would condemn me too. Our silence has been mutual, I think, and the cause is the same: neither of us wrote immediately, and then we were embarrassed not to have written sooner.
We suffer the same thing with sick friends. If we do not visit them at first, we keep adding days, then more days. Then the patient recovers before we manage to do the decent thing. And now, as the saying goes, one evil compounds another -- not writing compounds not having written.
But Patroinus, bless him, has put an end to the long absurdity by forcing my hand with this letter. This Patroinus -- you yourself could tell others that he stands among the foremost in your province by birth and rank. But he has been my companion since childhood, closer than brothers, a fellow student who rejoiced whenever I produced something worthy, praising my efforts and even rousing me when I grew sluggish.
I know him also to have discoursed at length with me in praise of self-control and in condemnation of those who are slaves to pleasure --
I was about to blame you for your silence toward me, but then I realized the same charges would condemn me too. Our silence has been mutual, I think, and the cause is the same: neither of us wrote immediately, and then we were embarrassed not to have written sooner.
We suffer the same thing with sick friends. If we do not visit them at first, we keep adding days, then more days. Then the patient recovers before we manage to do the decent thing. And now, as the saying goes, one evil compounds another -- not writing compounds not having written.
But Patroinus, bless him, has put an end to the long absurdity by forcing my hand with this letter. This Patroinus -- you yourself could tell others that he stands among the foremost in your province by birth and rank. But he has been my companion since childhood, closer than brothers, a fellow student who rejoiced whenever I produced something worthy, praising my efforts and even rousing me when I grew sluggish.
I know him also to have discoursed at length with me in praise of self-control and in condemnation of those who are slaves to pleasure --
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.