Letter 1007: People who hope to receive a gift are usually the impatient ones.
People who hope to receive a gift are usually the impatient ones. But you've introduced something new: being so generous with your own property that you can't bear any delay in giving it away. Just recently, a piece of land came to you by legal inheritance, and you promptly gave me the title. Your gain became my advantage, and with a more generous spirit than fortune itself — for what you received with sorrow from a relative's estate, you passed on with joy.
And you didn't stop there: you crowned this generosity with a magnificent testimonial. I value that honor more than the gift itself, because a man who is helped with money but not with praise seems to receive a necessity rather than a reward.
I therefore thank you for your judgment and am grateful beyond words that you've done me this double honor. I pray to the gods that we may all enjoy your gifts together for a long time, and that there may be those among our family to whom the Ostian estate can one day be passed on — following your example, and with our blessing. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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