Letter 3: Aeneas warns Alphius not to wrong a friend or even seem to do so.
The opposite has happened: Anastasius is keeping the peace, while you are making war. That is not fitting for you, nor is it noble in any case. Do you want me to describe the campaign? Cornelius occupied a field of Anastasius while Anastasius was away at war. When Anastasius returned, he claimed the land as owner; the farmer claimed he should keep it, though not for nothing, and a price was being arranged. Cornelius was even ready to bring the gold and pay for the field. Then you suddenly stepped in and told him not to do it, saying the property was yours. That is where the anger and the war began. If you are doing wrong, end it before the case reaches us. If you only seem to be doing wrong, come as quickly as possible and give your account before judges. I do not want friends either to act unjustly or even to appear unjust.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
γ'. Ἀλφίῳ πρεσβυτέρῳ.
Τοὐναντίον γέγονεν· ὁ μὲν Ἀναστάσιος ἡσυχίαν ἄγει, σὺ δὲ πολεμεῖς. Κορνήλιος Ἀναστασίου χωρίον κατέλαβεν ὅν ἐκεῖνος ἐπολέμει χρόνον· καὶ ἐπειδὴ ἀφίκετο, ὁ μὲν δεσπότης τὸ πεδίον λαβεῖν ἠξίου, ὁ δὲ γεωργὸς κεκτῆσθαι. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἀδικεῖς, πρὶν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐλθεῖν τὸ γεγονὸς διάλυσον· εἰ δὲ δοκεῖς, ἧκε τὴν ταχίστην.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern aeneas gaza hercher v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/download/epistolographoih00herc/epistolographoih00herc_djvu.txt
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