Letter 441
To Andronicus. (355)
Whenever someone says a letter has arrived from Andronicus, I know it means complaints have arrived. The result is that I feel no less pain than pleasure whenever you write. And it seems to me that, unable to change your ways, you always take the same path -- complaining either that you received no letter or that the one you received was too short.
Well then, if your complaints are entirely justified, everything has been repaid through the ambassadors. Their tongues are worth more than many letters.
That Cleomenes treats those he does not govern badly is no surprise -- he treats those he does govern badly too.
But I was astonished when you said I had been stripped of my honors in your region and that I might be forced to come to you -- unless you mean that anyone who goes there deserves dishonor. And that you would be right to say.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.