Letter 7003: Whatever complaints the page just sent me contained,
Whatever complaints the page just sent me contained,
I tell you I am free of any blame toward you.
For the cause, I say, your own presence made things worse —
I am blamed for the fault in which you yourselves sinned.
Yet I am not complaining. I am simply clarifying.
I was innocent of whatever it was —
or at least no more guilty than you were,
which seems like a reasonable standard of acquittal.
Let us agree that the whole matter was unfortunate,
that all parties behaved imperfectly in their own way,
and that the friendship between us is larger than any misunderstanding.
Which it is. Whatever was said or not said,
done or not done, intended or misinterpreted —
none of it changes the fact that I value your company
above almost anyone else in Gaul.
Write back and tell me we are reconciled.
I dislike being even mildly at odds with you;
it puts me off my food, and you know how seriously I take that.
Your Fortunatus
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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