To Andronicus. (356 AD)
What have you done, Andronicus? I wrote to you; you showed the letter to others; they carried it to people here — and you became the cause of a war against me. Then, having committed such a blunder, instead of begging forgiveness you reproach me, and perhaps call me wicked for writing to you by way of Harmas — when you should marvel that I dared write to you at all.
If, then, you guard my letters as the Athenians guard the Eleusinian mysteries, I will write again. But if you post them in front of the Eponymous Heroes [the statues in the Athenian agora where public notices were displayed] for anyone who wants to read, you will confess that you prefer my silence.
What have you done, Andronicus? I wrote to you; you showed the letter to others; they carried it to people here — and you became the cause of a war against me. Then, having committed such a blunder, instead of begging forgiveness you reproach me, and perhaps call me wicked for writing to you by way of Harmas — when you should marvel that I dared write to you at all.
If, then, you guard my letters as the Athenians guard the Eleusinian mysteries, I will write again. But if you post them in front of the Eponymous Heroes [the statues in the Athenian agora where public notices were displayed] for anyone who wants to read, you will confess that you prefer my silence.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.