To Jovianus. (355)
Do you realize you are at war with yourself? You treat the same man well and badly at the same time, and you hate intensely the very person you claim to love deeply. Knowing many of my speeches by heart, preserving them in memory, reciting them aloud, introducing them at every gathering, showing them to anyone willing to listen and pestering those who are not -- all this is perhaps the work of a friend. I say "perhaps" because bad poems are best hidden for their authors' sake. But let us grant this much comes from affection.
When, however, you try to drive me from the homeland I recovered through so much effort, when you run about scheming to make me suffer, when you reproach those who released me as if they had been deceived, when you undo the favor and serve your own pleasure while destroying my interest -- none of this deserves to be called the work of a friend.
I am genuinely afraid this behavior may damage your reputation, even though Clematius reported your zeal as praise of you, not realizing he was acting as your accuser.
When I pointed out that he was admiring wrongdoing, he said: "Call it whatever you like. We approve of it, and it will be done."
Do you realize you are at war with yourself? You treat the same man well and badly at the same time, and you hate intensely the very person you claim to love deeply. Knowing many of my speeches by heart, preserving them in memory, reciting them aloud, introducing them at every gathering, showing them to anyone willing to listen and pestering those who are not -- all this is perhaps the work of a friend. I say "perhaps" because bad poems are best hidden for their authors' sake. But let us grant this much comes from affection.
When, however, you try to drive me from the homeland I recovered through so much effort, when you run about scheming to make me suffer, when you reproach those who released me as if they had been deceived, when you undo the favor and serve your own pleasure while destroying my interest -- none of this deserves to be called the work of a friend.
I am genuinely afraid this behavior may damage your reputation, even though Clematius reported your zeal as praise of you, not realizing he was acting as your accuser.
When I pointed out that he was admiring wrongdoing, he said: "Call it whatever you like. We approve of it, and it will be done."
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.