Letter 8002: I'm overjoyed to hear you're well and that you haven't forgotten our friendship amid the hardships of public business.
Abundo laetitia, postquam valere vos didici nostraeque amicitiae inter negotiorum
P dura meminisse. | sed quando fiet, ut solaciis litterarum damna abstinentiae sarciantur? 10
ego autem vos praetoris mei fascibus primos interesse voluissem festisque communibus
decus facere; sed feram necesse est anteferri mihi causapi senatus. quare in supe-
rioribus verbis desiderii magis contestatio est quara querella discidii. praestabit cae-
lestium favor, ut mandatis patriae absoluti iter felix ad ludorum nostrorum sollemne
relegatis. t^
XV.
AD ALEVIVM.
Ex debito venit sermo, qui redditur, ex beneficio, qui sponte defertur. secundae
igitur mihi partes relictae sunt, postquam stilus tnus mea scripta praevenit. nunc
vice salutationis repensa operam tuam curamque deposco in fis, quae Castor ex usu 20
atque utilitate nostra promovenda suggesserit.
XVI.
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(In a.d. 368 the City of Nicæa in Bithynia was almost entirely destroyed by a terrible earthquake. Cæsarius lost his house, and his personal escape was almost miraculous.
What are you about, most excellent sir, in anticipating me in humility? Educated as you are, and able to write such a letter as you have sent, you nevertheless ask for forgiveness at my hands, as though you were engaged in some undertaking rash and beyond your position. But a truce to mockery.
Homer says there are two gates of dreams and that we cannot trust them equally when it comes to the future.
1. When I took your letter into my hand, I underwent an experience worth telling. I looked at it with the awe due to a document making some state announcement, and as I was breaking the wax, I felt a dread greater than ever guilty Spartan felt at sight of the Laconian scytale.
I have no doubt that you care about men of quality -- for your own character must take pleasure in the company of...