Letter 24: What excuse can you offer for your silence?
**To Polychronius** (359/60)
What can you blame for your silence? Slowness of mind? And yet who is sharper? A poverty of expression, then? You, who teach so clearly on matters of great importance? Why then are you mute? You will not say, so you shall hear it from me. You cut back our provisions and feel ashamed; by separating the barley from the wheat you have wronged our horses, and now you have nothing to say.
But I will free you from your fear by quoting the words of Achilles: "It is not you who grieves me, but Agamemnon." So take heart, go ahead, and write.
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