Letter 6039: A greeting comes first -- it suits my wishes above all else and is the proper way to begin a letter.
A greeting comes first -- it suits my wishes above all else and is the proper way to begin a letter. After that, my dear daughter, I'm entrusting your brother's birthday dinner to your capable management. Our man reports that the sailors have fled and left the coast deserted, which forced me to scale back the arrangements I'm handing off to you.
As for public news, there isn't much to report -- except that a tenement building collapsed in Trajan's Forum and crushed the residents. Popular resentment has blamed it on the city's public transport administration, and the office is now in private hands. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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As long as the rumors are still circulating and nothing is settled, stay calm and enjoy your leisure.
1. Whether I am to regard it as the effect of what I may call your flattering language, or whether the thing be really so, is a point which I am unable to decide. For the impression was sudden, and I am not yet resolved how far it deserves to be believed.
Our ancestors did well and wisely — as was their way in so many things — when they built the temples of Honor and...
For now, I'm sending what seemed enough to honor our friendship, given both your busy schedule and the courier's haste.
If you know Eutocius, you know he is a good man.