Letter 703: We have given up asking every person who arrives from your region when you are coming back.

To Polychronius. (362) We have grown weary of asking those who arrive from there, when will you be coming? For most of them, deceiving us so as to give us pleasure, say, "At once." Then we for our part press upon those who come in and become, for those worn out by it, harder to bear than the journey itself; but you, it seems, having taken to a sea that feeds many a thing, judge its waves more pleasant than the mainland. If we should ever catch you here, we will bring an indictment, and the mainland shall be the judge.

Πολυχρονίῳ. (362) Ἀπειρήκαμεν τοὺς ἐκεῖθεν ἀφικνουμένους ἐρωτῶντες, πότε ἀφίζεσθε; καὶ γὰρ ἐξαπατῶντες οἱ πλείους, ἴν’ ἡμᾶς εὐφραίνοιεν, αὐτίκα φασίν. εἶθ’ ἡμεῖς μὲν προσκείμεθα τοῖς εἰσιοῦσι καὶ γιγνόμεθα τῆς ὁδοῦ χαλεπώτεροι τοῖς κεκομμένοις, ὑμεῖς δὲ ἄρα λαβόμενοι θαλάττης πολλὰ βοσκούσης ἡδίω τὰ κύματα τῆς ἠπείρου κρίνετε. ἢν οὔ· ποτε ὑμᾶς ἐνταῦθα λάβωμεν, γραφὴν ἀποίσομεν, ἡ δὲ ἤπειρος δικάσει.