To Atactius. (356 AD)
You are not reminding people who had forgotten your hospitality — we have even told others what a host you were to us. And this letter of yours is no less a gift than that hospitality itself.
Indeed, to desire letters from others is as great an honor as writing them oneself. So you delight me with three great things: the hospitality we enjoyed under your roof, the letters you send, and the fact that you count receiving a letter from me as something of value.
As for myself, I have not been like those bad flute-players who are slow to perform. It was the carriers, supposed to deliver letters, who failed to act. They were at fault, yet I get the blame — though even if I were the laziest man alive, I would not have been so neglectful about a letter, so light a task, especially to a friend.
But the charge belongs to them. As for you, if it is letters you desire, we shall fill your house with them.
You are not reminding people who had forgotten your hospitality — we have even told others what a host you were to us. And this letter of yours is no less a gift than that hospitality itself.
Indeed, to desire letters from others is as great an honor as writing them oneself. So you delight me with three great things: the hospitality we enjoyed under your roof, the letters you send, and the fact that you count receiving a letter from me as something of value.
As for myself, I have not been like those bad flute-players who are slow to perform. It was the carriers, supposed to deliver letters, who failed to act. They were at fault, yet I get the blame — though even if I were the laziest man alive, I would not have been so neglectful about a letter, so light a task, especially to a friend.
But the charge belongs to them. As for you, if it is letters you desire, we shall fill your house with them.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.