To Iamblichus. (358 AD)
I received a very short letter from you, though if you wanted to tell me how things stand, you should have written at greater length. And the one before it, which came from Macedonia, contained a reproach that I was not writing to you. It was clear to me that some irritation made this latest one so brief. In the earlier letter you prosecuted me; in the second you exacted the penalty. But hear how the whole thing went.
At first, thinking you were heading for Italy, I sent letters there — Proclus was the carrier. A little later I learned you were in Athens and was planning to send there, but then you wrote from Macedonia. Then again you write from Athens. What is anyone to do with someone who has so many wings?
But you who have suffered so much discouragement and endured so much hardship — give up writing letters and appear in person. Consider this the voice of your own estates, which are still fine for now, but with you absent so long may soon have a different tale to tell.
I received a very short letter from you, though if you wanted to tell me how things stand, you should have written at greater length. And the one before it, which came from Macedonia, contained a reproach that I was not writing to you. It was clear to me that some irritation made this latest one so brief. In the earlier letter you prosecuted me; in the second you exacted the penalty. But hear how the whole thing went.
At first, thinking you were heading for Italy, I sent letters there — Proclus was the carrier. A little later I learned you were in Athens and was planning to send there, but then you wrote from Macedonia. Then again you write from Athens. What is anyone to do with someone who has so many wings?
But you who have suffered so much discouragement and endured so much hardship — give up writing letters and appear in person. Consider this the voice of your own estates, which are still fine for now, but with you absent so long may soon have a different tale to tell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.