Letter 5017: Whole cohorts of letters follow in the wake of your departure, and just as some people seek Athens for its schools...
Whole cohorts of letters follow in the wake of your departure, and just as some people seek Athens for its schools or the gymnasiums of the Muses, so your travels attract an admiring crowd.
And I don't imagine that a man blessed with the resources of high office finds it burdensome to host friends. So feed these scholars from the wealth of your position — and expect more guests soon, now that the traditional subsidies for Rome's teachers of youth have been cut off [a reference to the withdrawal of public funding for professors].
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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You make a joke of it; but I know the danger of an Ozizalean starving when he has taken most pains with his husbandry. There is only this praise to be given them, that even if they die of hunger they smell sweet, and have a gorgeous funeral. How so?
1. It had been only proper, and due to your affection, that I should have been on the spot, and have taken part in the present occurrences. Thus I might have at once assuaged my own sorrow, and given some consolation to your excellency.
You're quite comfortable, I see, neglecting to write back — you know this kind of offense will go unpunished.
A father's praise of his children is usually honest, and yet somehow it loses force — people suspect it's motivated...
I have sent my brother to supplicate the god who dwells near you on my behalf.