Letter 7019: ...is there really anything in my words that can soothe your ears or serve as medicine for your mind?
...is there really anything in my words that can soothe your ears or serve as medicine for your mind? I suppose so -- I'll grant it. Bitter draughts often work wonders for the health, and foul-tasting remedies restore the ailing. But you're terribly greedy if you want anything more while my dear Flavianus is right there with you. He's such a treasury of delights that I'd have thought you were trapped among the Sirens or the Lotus-eaters [mythological figures whose charms made visitors forget everything else].
If only I could join your leisure! I'd get more good out of your company than you're hoping for when you ask me for mere letters. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
Here's Rusticus, barely freed from his business in Rome.
Friendship is measured by hearts, not by years.
1. Your letter, dear friend, finds me dwelling in that quarter of the desert which is nearest to Syria and the Saracens. And the reading of it rekindles in my mind so keen a desire to set out for Jerusalem that I am almost ready to violate my monastic vow in order to gratify my affection.
I was glad to receive your letter and even more pleased by its contents.
The god has raised our hierophant [the chief priest of a mystery cult] from his bed.