Letter 23
Synesius of Cyrene→Diogenes|c. 408 AD|synesius cyrene
To Diogenes [a cousin].
The luxury of Syria is making you forget your friends and relatives. It has been five months since you sent me a letter — even though nature gave you an exceptional gift not just for ordinary correspondence but for letters worthy of posterity. Do not waste that talent on silence.
Letter 23: A Complaint
[1] To Diogenes note [A cousin of Synesius, who also sent him Letter 20 .]
The luxury of Syria is such that it makes men forget friends and relations. It is five months now since you have greeted me with a letter, though you have received from Nature herself an exceptional gift for dictating, not merely letters on daily affairs, but letters destined to be known and admired. [2] If you are in good health, however - you, your golden children, and their mother, happy in her fair offspring - I am quite satisfied.
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To Diogenes [a cousin].
The luxury of Syria is making you forget your friends and relatives. It has been five months since you sent me a letter — even though nature gave you an exceptional gift not just for ordinary correspondence but for letters worthy of posterity. Do not waste that talent on silence.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.