Letter 1007: People who hope to receive a gift are usually the impatient ones.

Those who expect that some gift is to be conferred upon them are wont to be impatient of delay; but in your case we see something newly arisen, namely that you who are generous with your own possessions cannot bear the delay of bestowing. Now lately an estate came to you by law, of which you have made me a present by legal right. Your acquisition has run to my advantage, and by a better wish you have imitated fortune. For what you had taken from a near relative's goods with sorrow, you have handed over with gladness. And what of this, that you have crowned this generosity with a most ample testimonial? Its honor I prefer to the gifts themselves; for he who is aided by wealth without praise seems to obtain a gift that is necessary rather than a reward that is just. I therefore render and hold thanks to your judgment, as great as the greatest can be, because you have done me both honors; and I pray the gods that we may all together long enjoy what has been given, and that there may be those issuing from us to whom the Ostian estate may be handed over by our judgment and by your example. Farewell. [Dated:] the seventh [day] before [the kalends?], in the year 376.

Solent inpatientes dilationis esse, qui sperant in se aliquid muneris conferendum; hoc vero a vobis recens ortum videmus, ut suarum rerum munifici moi^am non ferant largiendi. nunc nuper ad vos praedium lege venit, cuius me iure donastis. cucurrit quaestus vester in meum commodum, et meliore voto fortunam estis imitati. nam quod 2 ex propinquae bonis cum maestitia sumpseratis. cum laetitia "tradidistis. quid quod lo hanc liberalitatem cumulastis amplissimo testimonio? cuius ego honestamentum prae- opto muneribus, nam qui opibus inlaudatus iuvatur, necessarium magis donum quam iustum praemium videtur adipisci. ago igitur iudicio vestro atque habeo gratias, quantae sunt maximae, quod mihi honorem utrumque fecistis, et deos precor^t datis in commune omnes longum fruamur sintque ex nobis, quibus Ostiense praedium nostro i s iudiciO; vestro tradatur exemplo. vale. VII ante a. 376.