To Demetrius. (~357 AD)
You sent that letter as a refutation — to show that I had given you too grand a title by calling you first among Greeks. But the letter arrived bearing brilliant testimony that nothing else could have been said but what I said.
If the admirable Demetrius had spent a very long time considering how to present himself as the pinnacle of the Greeks, he could have found no better method than writing as he did: the arguments so dense, the diction exactly what a letter desires, and there is nowhere that beauty is not present. So now more than before I declare you supreme — and if you try to refute me again, be assured, you'll argue my case for me once more.
As for the "student" and "companion in learning" — these are the titles you apply to yourself in relation to my writings — they're charming, but they're accusations against me for not putting you on equal footing by sharing my own work in return.
So that you may be not only skilled in speaking but also just: send me some of your own writing, and make me your student.
You sent that letter as a refutation — to show that I had given you too grand a title by calling you first among Greeks. But the letter arrived bearing brilliant testimony that nothing else could have been said but what I said.
If the admirable Demetrius had spent a very long time considering how to present himself as the pinnacle of the Greeks, he could have found no better method than writing as he did: the arguments so dense, the diction exactly what a letter desires, and there is nowhere that beauty is not present. So now more than before I declare you supreme — and if you try to refute me again, be assured, you'll argue my case for me once more.
As for the "student" and "companion in learning" — these are the titles you apply to yourself in relation to my writings — they're charming, but they're accusations against me for not putting you on equal footing by sharing my own work in return.
So that you may be not only skilled in speaking but also just: send me some of your own writing, and make me your student.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.