Letter 5029: You write that respect for me flourishes among all.
You write that respect for me flourishes among all. I rejoice in such testimony, but I confess that it is your doing that my reputation thrives as it does. You are the author of the favorable report about me, and I do not blush at this account — for it is more honorable to owe one's good name to the advocacy of a friend than to one's own self-promotion.
Continue to speak well of me, and I shall endeavor to deserve it. For the greatest pressure on a man's character is not the criticism of his enemies but the praise of his friends. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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