Letter 189: You are still writing letters, when we expected to see you in person!

To Nicentius. Still you keep writing, whereas we were expecting to see you. For a long while now we kept hearing that you had been summoned and were on your way; but it seems to me that you were indeed summoned, yet chose to stay put, since the Nile had persuaded you that it is better to live luxuriously in Egypt than to toil elsewhere, so that others might be free to live in luxury. That you will not escape the labors to the very end, but that I shall see you once more among the cares that belong to magistrates, I know; and in doing this you are mindful of us, just as we too are mindful of you, since we too carry you about in our soul. And indeed, noble is the man who has succeeded to your office, and no less good is the man who succeeded to his; but all the same, even in their very presence we praise what is yours, and we cause no offense.

Νικεντίῳ. (360) Ἔτ' ἐπιστέλλεις, ἡμεῖς δέ σε ὄψεσθαι προσεδοκῶμεν. πάλαι μὲν γὰρ ἠκούομεν, ὡς κέκλησαί τε καὶ βαδίζεις, ἀλλά μοι δοκεῖς κεκλῆσθαι μέν, ἑλέσθαι δὲ καθῆσθαι τοῦ Νείλου σε πεπεικότος ὅτι βέλτιον ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τρυφᾶν ἢ ἑτέρωθι πο- νεῖν, ὅπως ἄλλοις ἐξείη τρυφᾶν. ὡς μὲν οὖν οὐκ εἰς τέλος διαφεύξῃ τοὺς πόνους, ἀλλ’ ὄψομαί σε πάλιν ἐν φροντίσιν ἇί τῶν ἀρχόντων εἰσίν, οἶδα, μεμνημένος δὲ ἡμῶν τοῦτο ποιεῖς, ὃ καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς σε περιφέρομεν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ. καί- τοι γενναῖος μὲν ὁ τὴν σὴν προστασίαν διαδεξάμενος, οὐχ ἦττον δὲ ἀγαθὸς ὁ τὴν ἐκείνου ἀλλ’ ὅμως καὶ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐκείνους ἐπαινοῦμεν τὰ σὰ καὶ οὐ λυποῦμεν.