Letter 134
To Pylaemenes
I have received your letter in which you again accuse Fortune of
treating you no better than in the past. You are wrong, dearest of friends, for it is not
meet to blame her, but rather to console yourself. In your difficulties you can always
come to me; you will be in the house of a brother. We are not rich, my good friend, but
all we possess is quite sufficient for Pylaemenes and for me. If only we dwelt together,
perhaps we should even be wealthy. Other men with resources such as mine enjoy great
comfort, but I am a bad steward. In the meantime my patrimony still holds out against
absolute neglect, and is well able to support a philosopher. Do not imagine that chance
carries foresight with it. Well, then, do exactly as I tell you, unless meantime you have
found fortune more favourable, and unless you again plan to raise the prostrate Heraclea.
I am not writing to my habitual correspondents, on account of the difficulties of these
times, but I have written quite lately to all of them. I gave Diogenes a whole packet of
letters. Diogenes is my cousin; he undoubtedly went in search of you, and if he had
succeeded in finding you, the packet ought to have been given to you by this time, for it
bears your name. If you have not yet received it, ask the captain to point out the young
man to you, and when you have obtained the letters, take upon yourself the care of
distributing them. There are people whom I particularly ask you to salute in my name, the
aged Proclus, Trypho, who has governed our province, and Simplicius, a most worthy man, an
excellent magistrate, and a friend of mine. When you have brought him the letter, take
advantage of the opportunity to make his acquaintance, for it is a beautiful thing to pass
one's time with a poet-soldier. We caught ostriches in the days when peace allowed us the
pleasure of hunting, but we have not been able to send them to sea owing to the enemies
armaments, nor could we put upon our ships any part of the goods lying on the wharves.
There is only a cargo of wine, and as to olive-oil, by your noble head, they have not
succeeded in embarking a single measure, so far as I know. Accept them, so many pints of
wine as I offer you. In order to get it, you have only to send Julius the order, which I
append to his letter, for fear that it may go astray. I also wrote to the aged Proclus
sending a like consignment.
Let him receive the letter by you, and the wine by Julius. We have
prepared delicate presents for the golden Trypho (I must make use even now of the cold wit
of a Gorgias), a great deal of silphium juice (even you know of the silphium of Battus),
and the best saffron, for this is also a worthy product of Cyrene. However, it is
impossible at the present moment to send all this. We would put it on board another vessel
when we send the ostriches with it, and the olive-oil by itself.