Letter 5004: I'm delighted that your first letter came to me, and I earnestly ask that you not abandon this gracious habit.
I'm delighted that your first letter came to me, and I earnestly ask that you not abandon this gracious habit. It's by nourishment like this that the cultivation of friendship grows. When I wrote this, my health was good — and I thought it only right to pass that information along to a man of your exceptional character, so that mutual affection might repay the favor with news of your own well-being. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
If my letters are of any good, lose no time in writing to me and in rousing me to write. We are unquestionably made more cheerful when we read the letters of wise men who love the Lord. It is for you to say, who read it, whether you find anything worth attention in what I write.
I took up your letter with great eagerness, since a long silence had built up my desire for news.
I wish I could use you as my envoy to the excellent consul to explain and excuse my absence -- if I knew that you...
You inherited very little from your father, and what you earned by pleading cases you spent as a judge — so instead...
Word of the deeds this man Maiorinus has done for me has probably reached you already.