To Demetrius. (360?)
Well, the dreams did a fine job of prompting you -- though I know perfectly well you would have done the same thing even without dreams. You began long ago, sending things from my own estates. For I must call those estates mine and these ones yours, since you seem to feel you would be committing an injustice if you enjoyed anything that I did not share. And since there is no fending off your gifts, accept from me a dream in return for a dream.
I told my slave to light the lamp so I could write to you. But before he could do it, I fell asleep and dreamed I was visiting your city and looking for you. Someone was leading me through a lofty theater, and an old woman, guessing our purpose, pointed out a pleasanter road. Following it, we found you sitting beside a temple and a garden. The stairway up to the temple -- no small number of steps -- was occupied by young men leaping about, amazed at how I was competing with a speech of Demosthenes, one of the Philippics. You saw us and stood up, but did not stop speaking, so that we too heard something.
And there the night wronged me: I could not hold on to what was said. If you have had any such dream, send it along and give me joy.
Well, the dreams did a fine job of prompting you -- though I know perfectly well you would have done the same thing even without dreams. You began long ago, sending things from my own estates. For I must call those estates mine and these ones yours, since you seem to feel you would be committing an injustice if you enjoyed anything that I did not share. And since there is no fending off your gifts, accept from me a dream in return for a dream.
I told my slave to light the lamp so I could write to you. But before he could do it, I fell asleep and dreamed I was visiting your city and looking for you. Someone was leading me through a lofty theater, and an old woman, guessing our purpose, pointed out a pleasanter road. Following it, we found you sitting beside a temple and a garden. The stairway up to the temple -- no small number of steps -- was occupied by young men leaping about, amazed at how I was competing with a speech of Demosthenes, one of the Philippics. You saw us and stood up, but did not stop speaking, so that we too heard something.
And there the night wronged me: I could not hold on to what was said. If you have had any such dream, send it along and give me joy.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.