Letter 497: It seems I am using unreliable couriers for my letters, if after sending many on top of many I am accused of never...

It seems I employ unjust messengers where my letters are concerned, if, after writing many things upon many occasions, I am accused as though I had written nothing whatsoever. As for you, while grieving at not receiving them you seem to grieve rightly, but in dropping that and accusing me before His Excellency [the prefect], that is to prosecute me before one who would bitterly take vengeance for it. For you know how revered that man is by me, and how he would not wish me to be accused unjustly. But you perhaps, in bringing the Gorgon against me, think you have done a small thing. Act, then, so that he too may learn this, that I did write to you, and do not, by reporting the worse matters, become idle concerning the better ones. And know this further, that the frequency of letters may be hindered by many things, by illness and by lack of leisure and by the fact that those who travel to your parts claim to be willing to carry letters rather than truly willing; but as for remembering you and admiring you within our own selves, there is no time when we have not maintained this. This indeed I am persuaded of concerning my friends too, that even if they do not write, they have at least not taken away their love.

Ὀλυμπίῳ. (356/57) Ἔοικα διακόνοις οὐ δικαίοις χρῆσθαι περὶ τὰ γράμματα, εἰ πολλὰ ἐπὶ πολλοῖς ἐπιστείλας ὡς οὐδ’ ὁτιοῦν ἐπιστείλας ἐγκέκλημαι. σὺ δ’ ἀλγῶν μὲν τῷ μὴ λαβεῖν ὀρθῶς δοκεῖς ἀλγεῖν, τὸ δ’ ἀφέντα ἐγκαλεῖν ἐμοὶ παρὰ τῷ θείῳ με διώκειν, τουτὶ δὴ πικρῶς ἀμυνομένου. οἶσθα γὰρ ὡς ἐμοί τε ἐκεῖνος αἰδέσιμος ἐμέ τε ἐκεῖνος οὐκ ἂν ἀδίκως ἐγκαλεῖσθαι ἐθέλοι. σὺ δ’ ἴσως ἐπενεγκών μοι τὴν Γοργόνα μικρὸν οἴει πεποι- ηκέναι. πρᾶττε οὖν, ὅπως καὶ τοῦτο εἴσεται, ὅτι σοι ἐπέστει- λα, καὶ μὴ τὰ φαυλότερα μηνύων ἀργὸς γένῃ περὶ τὰ βελ- τίω. καὶ μὴν κἀκεῖνο ἴσθι, ὡς ἡ μὲν πυκνότης τῶν γραμ- μάτων πολλοῖς ἂν κωλυθείη, καὶ νόσῳ καὶ ἀσχολίᾳ καὶ τῷ τοὺς ὡς ὑμᾶς ἰόντας φάσκειν ἐθέλειν γράμματα φέρειν μᾶλ- λον ἢ θέλειν· τὸ δὲ μεμνῆσθαί σου καὶ θαυμάζειν ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς τοῦτο οὐκ ἔστιν ὅτε οὐ τετηρήκαμεν. ὃ δὴ καὶ περὶ τῶν φίλων ἐγὼ πέπεισμαι, ὅτι κἂν μὴ γράφωσι, τὸ φιλεῖν γε οὐκ ἀφῃρήκασιν.