Letter 88
Synesius of Cyrene→Pylaemenes|c. 401 AD|synesius cyrene
To Pylaemenes.
Some letters dated last spring have just arrived from Thrace. I turned the whole bundle upside down looking for one that might bear the famous name of Pylaemenes. It would have been unworthy of me to read any other first — but there were none. Not one.
You have forgotten me. Or perhaps the world has swallowed you up. Either way, I am disappointed. Write to me. Even a single line would be enough.
Letter 88: A Lost Friend
[1] To Pylaemenes
Some letters dated last spring have just come to me from Thrace . I turned the whole bundle upside down, to see whether it would contain one upon which the famous name of Pylaemenes might be written. It would indeed have been unworthy of me to read any other first, but there were none anywhere. [2] If you are really away from home, I wish you a quick and happy return. But it you were still on the spot at the moment when all my friends gave their letters to Zosimus, it really would be surprising if any one has more mindful of me than Pylaemenes.
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To Pylaemenes.
Some letters dated last spring have just arrived from Thrace. I turned the whole bundle upside down looking for one that might bear the famous name of Pylaemenes. It would have been unworthy of me to read any other first — but there were none. Not one.
You have forgotten me. Or perhaps the world has swallowed you up. Either way, I am disappointed. Write to me. Even a single line would be enough.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.