To Firminus.
By writing you honor me, but by neither granting what I asked nor explaining why you did not, you cause me pain.
Here I go again, like a pilgrim to Delphi -- I am going to talk to you about Boethus once more. This Boethus is from the city of Elusa, a cousin of Zenobius, whom we respected even more in death than in life. You found Boethus serving as a guardian of the peace, then removed him and assigned the job to someone else.
I do not blame you for that. But I do ask a favor: restore Boethus to the position he held before the change was made. If this matters earnestly to me and costs you nothing, and there is no shame attached to the favor, why not grant it?
By writing you honor me, but by neither granting what I asked nor explaining why you did not, you cause me pain.
Here I go again, like a pilgrim to Delphi -- I am going to talk to you about Boethus once more. This Boethus is from the city of Elusa, a cousin of Zenobius, whom we respected even more in death than in life. You found Boethus serving as a guardian of the peace, then removed him and assigned the job to someone else.
I do not blame you for that. But I do ask a favor: restore Boethus to the position he held before the change was made. If this matters earnestly to me and costs you nothing, and there is no shame attached to the favor, why not grant it?
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.