Letter 8
You're being unfair when you call my inability "deceit." One earns hatred, the other pity -- and you're mixing things that don't mix: bad luck and bad character. I freely admit that I fell in love with Berytus [modern Beirut, famous for its law school] for many reasons and with Athens for every reason, yet couldn't manage to visit either one. I'm told that even Hera was once bound in chains and couldn't stir until the very person who devised those chains came and set her free.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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