To Anatolius. (355)
I have always admired your goodwill toward me, and I could never convince myself that you did this without some god driving you -- so far did you surpass everyone else who claims to be a friend. But now you have shown your concern beyond all bounds, in what you wrote to me saying I should learn something from Magnus, and in what you told Magnus to say to me.
To anyone else, the messenger might have seemed obscure. He reported only this much: that I should not make any pointless move. But a thought of Dodona [the oracular shrine of Zeus] came to me, and nothing was unclear.
I felt I owed you gratitude for many things -- if indeed the beloved ought to thank the lover: for carrying me in your soul, for wanting me not to lose what is mine, for investigating whether this was possible, and for finding a way to let me know.
For now, behind closed doors and among ourselves, we acknowledge the favor. But when the opportunity comes to speak openly, we will fill land and sea with it.
How do I repay your concern? If I had placed your interests above the common good, I would have prayed for your private success alone...
I have always admired your goodwill toward me, and I could never convince myself that you did this without some god driving you -- so far did you surpass everyone else who claims to be a friend. But now you have shown your concern beyond all bounds, in what you wrote to me saying I should learn something from Magnus, and in what you told Magnus to say to me.
To anyone else, the messenger might have seemed obscure. He reported only this much: that I should not make any pointless move. But a thought of Dodona [the oracular shrine of Zeus] came to me, and nothing was unclear.
I felt I owed you gratitude for many things -- if indeed the beloved ought to thank the lover: for carrying me in your soul, for wanting me not to lose what is mine, for investigating whether this was possible, and for finding a way to let me know.
For now, behind closed doors and among ourselves, we acknowledge the favor. But when the opportunity comes to speak openly, we will fill land and sea with it.
How do I repay your concern? If I had placed your interests above the common good, I would have prayed for your private success alone...
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.