Letter 3004: The experts in rhetoric say there's no controversy when both sides are guilty of the same thing.
The experts in rhetoric say there's no controversy when both sides are guilty of the same thing. Need an example of the principle? Never mind the well-worn fictions of courtroom exercises and the empty simulations of legal cases — our own long mutual silence is a perfect illustration. You'll accuse me of neglecting my duty? The same charge applies to you. So since we're even, this is a friendly draw — neither of us can complain about the other. Once you've granted a pardon, you've won one yourself. But why am I settling on equal terms when I've actually come out ahead, having been the first to break the spell of mutual neglect? I'll let you decide what your own reply will look like. I've restored our friendship from its accidental stupor, and I don't ask for credit. It's praise enough for me to have cleared away the stain of silence. Farewell.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Aiunt, qui callent rhetoricam disciplinam, nihil esse controversiae , ubi eadem
partinm iussa sunt. imaginem propositae fei postulas? niitto decantatas meditationum
20 iudicialium fictiones et mania simulacra causarum: vel haec nostri silentii diutumitas
materiae talis exemplum est. obicies mihi dissimulati officii neglegentiam : in te haec
refertur oratio. ergo quia pares sumus, dulce conludium est, ut cum altero neuter 2
expostnlet. veniam cum dederis, impetrasti. sed cur aequis tecum condicionibus ago
iam melior causa [est], qui prior emendo utriusque delictum? videro, quae tua futura sit
25 in referendo sermone curatio. ego in vrnm reduxi amicitiae nostrae fortuitum stupo-
rem, neque ex ea re adfecto gratiam. satis mihi laudis est invidiam silentii di-
luisse* vale.
VI a. 380.
Related Letters
I was glad to see Ablabius for many reasons, not least because he brought me a letter from you.
Heliodorus is on his way to Italy, and along the route the finest thing on earth will come into his view -- your city.
Whenever someone says a letter has arrived from Andronicus, I know it means complaints have arrived.
I had heard that you were a fine and upright man, and I wanted to meet you.
News has reached me of the severe persecution carried on against you, and how directly after Easter the men who fast for strife and debate Isaiah 58:4 attacked your homes, and gave your labours to the flames, preparing for you indeed a house in the heavens, not made with hands, 2 Corinthians 5:1 but for themselves laying up in store the fire whi...