Letter 344: I am dissuaded from writing often to you, learned as you are, by my timidity and my ignorance. But your persistent silence is different. What excuse can be offered for it?
I am discouraged from writing to you -- learned as you are -- by my timidity and my ignorance. But your persistent silence is a different matter entirely. What excuse can there be for it? If anyone reflects that you are slow to write to me, a man who lives at the very center of letters, he will conclude that you have simply forgotten me. A man who is ready at speaking is never unprepared to write. And if such a man stays silent, it is clear that he acts either from forgetfulness or from contempt.
I will, however, repay your silence with a greeting. Farewell, most honored sir. Write if you like. If you prefer, do not write.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
You, who have included all the art of the ancients in your own mind, are so silent, that you do not even let me get any gain in a letter. I, if the art of Dædalus had only been safe, would have made me Icarus' wings and come to you. But wax cannot be entrusted to the sun, and so, instead of Icarus' wings, I send you words to prove my affection.
Lo and behold, yet another Cappadocian has come to you; a son of my own! Yet my present position makes all men my sons. On this ground he may be regarded as a brother of the former one, and worthy of the same attention alike from me his father, and from you his instructor — if really it is possible for these young men, who come from me, to obtai...
Many, who have come to me from where you are, have admired your oratorical power. They were remarking that there has been a very brilliant specimen of this, and a very great contest, as they alleged, with the result that all crowded together, and no one appeared in the whole city but Libanius alone in the lists, and everybody, young and old, lis...
I am delighted at receiving what you write, but when you ask me to reply, I am in a difficulty. What could I say in answer to so Attic a tongue, except that I confess, and confess with joy, that I am a pupil of fishermen? About this page Source.