Letter 23: The luxury of Syria is making you forget your friends and relatives.

Synesius of CyreneDiogenes|c. 408 AD|Synesius of Cyrene
friendshipimperial politics

Letter 23: A Complaint

[1] To Diogenes note [A cousin of Synesius, who also sent him Letter 20 .]

The luxury of Syria is such that it makes men forget friends and relations. It is five months now since you have greeted me with a letter, though you have received from Nature herself an exceptional gift for dictating, not merely letters on daily affairs, but letters destined to be known and admired. [2] If you are in good health, however - you, your golden children, and their mother, happy in her fair offspring - I am quite satisfied.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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