Letter 760: If you were sending me a great quantity of Colophonian gold, or something more precious than gold, and you sent the...

To Pompeianus. (362) If you were sending me gold, abundant and of Colophon, or some other thing more precious than gold as a gift without a letter, would you not think the matter strange, the act of one who loves, indeed, but does not have confidence? Know well, then, that you have arrived at this same absurdity by sending your sons in silence. For it would have been more fitting, while keeping these boys at home, to write according to the custom of greeting, than, while giving me the children, not to dare to add a letter. But you, seek an excuse; yet you will seek it, I think, for all time, for you will not find one. As for me, the failure to receive a letter will not make me more sluggish toward them, not only because of your city, which I think I must love no less than my own, but also because they seem to me well equipped for letters too, and even before they saw me they were being feasted on what is mine.

Πομπηιανῷ. (362) Εἴ μοι χρυσὸν ἀποστέλλων πολύν τε καὶ Κολοφώνιον ἢ ἄλλο τι χρυσοῦ τιμιώτερον ἄνευ γραμμάτων ἀπέστελλες τὸ δῶρον, οὐκ ἂν οἴει τὸ πρᾶγμα ἄτοπον εἶναι καὶ φιλοῦντος μέν, οὐ θαρροῦντος δέ; εὖ τοίνυν ἴσθι πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν ἀτοπίαν ἥκων μετὰ σιγῆς πέμψας τοὺς υἱεῖς. μᾶλλον γὰρ ἂν ἦν εἰκὸς οἴκοι τούσδε κατέχοντα νόμῳ προσρήσεως γράφειν ἢ διδόντα μοι τοὺς παῖδας ἐπιστολὴν μὴ τολμῆσαι προσθεῖναι. ἀλλὰ σὺ μὲν ἀπολογίαν ζήτει, ζητήσεις δέ, οἴμαι, τὸν πάντα χρόνον, οὐ γὰρ εὑρήδεις· ἐμὲ δὲ οὐ ποιήσει πρὸς τούτους ἀργότερον τὸ μὴ γράμματα λαβεῖν οὐ μόνον διὰ τὴν πόλιν ὑμῶν, ἣν οἶμαι δεῖν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ φιλεῖν, ἀλλ’ ὅτι καὶ πρὸς λόγους ἐρρῶσθαί μοι δοκοῦσι καὶ πρὶν ὶδεῖν ἐμὲ τῶν ἐμῶν εἱστιῶντο.