To Pompeianus. (362)
If you were sending me a great quantity of Colophonian gold, or something more precious than gold, and you sent the gift without a letter, would you not think the thing absurd — the act of a man who loves but lacks confidence?
Well then, know that you have arrived at the same absurdity by sending your sons without a word. It would have been more natural for a man keeping his sons at home to write as a matter of courtesy than for one entrusting his children to me not to dare attach a letter.
But you go find your excuse — and you will search for it, I think, for the rest of your life, because you will not find one. As for me, the lack of a letter will not make me any less attentive to these boys — not only because of your city, which I think I should love no less than my own, but because they seem to me strong in their studies and were feasting on my works before they ever laid eyes on me.
If you were sending me a great quantity of Colophonian gold, or something more precious than gold, and you sent the gift without a letter, would you not think the thing absurd — the act of a man who loves but lacks confidence?
Well then, know that you have arrived at the same absurdity by sending your sons without a word. It would have been more natural for a man keeping his sons at home to write as a matter of courtesy than for one entrusting his children to me not to dare attach a letter.
But you go find your excuse — and you will search for it, I think, for the rest of your life, because you will not find one. As for me, the lack of a letter will not make me any less attentive to these boys — not only because of your city, which I think I should love no less than my own, but because they seem to me strong in their studies and were feasting on my works before they ever laid eyes on me.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.