Letter 5072: ...to bite back with retaliation, but I never repay a friend's negligence with equal contempt.
...to bite back with retaliation, but I never repay a friend's negligence with equal contempt. Instead, I write again, hoping that my persistence will shame you into a reply. The pen is my only weapon, and I wield it with more patience than anger. Friendship survives many things, but it cannot survive mutual indifference. So long as one of us keeps writing, the bond endures.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
talione mordere, sed amicorum neglegentiae numquam parem repono contemptura. at-
ditum V»
cum V* 13 frequentiae P, freqnentiae V sine V2
22 om. VF 25 uestris V^
que ntinam redditae filio meo litterae nihil ex conventione fraterni debiti asperitatis PV^-^F
habuissent! ego qaoqne mihi nequaquam viderer omissus. nunc duo pariter acciderunt,
ut me et honor officii praeteriret et participata cum filio amaritudo percelleret. vale.
LXXXXm (LXXXXI).
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