Letter 86
It's a sign of your devotion that you take me to task for my silence. But please believe me: it was misfortune, not indifference, that kept me from writing for so long. I don't think you're unaware of how savagely fortune has treated me — it robbed me of my most loving and best of brothers.
If, in time, the passage of days eases the weight of this grief, I'll resume my regular correspondence with familiar letters.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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