Letter 495: I have never ceased to love you — and indeed to admire you — nor shall I ever.

To Meterius. [356] I have neither ceased loving you, and moreover admiring you, nor could I ever cease; but a certain hesitation came over me, perhaps not without reason, on account of which I supposed that by writing I would be a nuisance; for which cause I did not think it proper to write. But now that Clematius has set out, to the very act of loving I add also that of writing, mindful of your household, and mindful of you and of your character and of your zeal toward the divine, from which it was possible for all of us to take courage. For you are a sufficient remedy against sicknesses and turmoil and troubles and grief and dangers, and there was a running to you on the part of those who were hard pressed, and the storm would abate; since even now I remain in sickness because of not being with you, but that I may come to be with you, as I pray, Clematius knows. Come then, do you yourself also write, and, putting aside your suspicions, hold fast to the old ways.

Μητερίῳ. (356) Ἐγὼ τοῦ φιλεῖν μέν σε καὶ προσέτι γε θαυμάζειν οὔτε ἐπαυσάμην οὔτ’ ἂν παυσαίμην· ἐγένετο δέ τις ὄκνος μοι τάχ ἴσως οὐκ ἄλογος, δι’ ὃν ᾤμην γράφων ἐνοχλήσειν· ὅθεν οὐκ ἠξίουν γράφειν. Κληματίου δὲ ἐξελθόντος αὐτῷ τῷ φιλεῖν καὶ τὸ γράφειν προστίθημι μεμνημένος μὲν τῆς ὑμετέρας, μεμνημένος δὲ σοῦ καὶ τοῦ σοῦ τρόπου καὶ τῆς σῆς εἰς τὸ θεῖον σπουδῆς, ἀφ’ ἦς ἅπασιν ἡμῖν ὑπῆρχε θαρρεῖν. σὺ γὰρ καὶ νόσων καὶ ταραχῆς καὶ πραγμάτων καὶ λύπης καὶ κινδύνων ἱκανὸν φάρμακον, καὶ δρόμος ἐπὶ σὲ τῶν πιεζομέ- νων καὶ ὁ χειμὼν ἔληγεν· ἐπεὶ καὶ νῦν ἐν τῷ νοσεῖν μένω παρὰ τὸ μὴ συνεῖναί σοι, συγγενέσθαι δὲ ὡς εὔχομαι, Κλη- μάτιος οἶδεν. ἄγε δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπίστελλε καὶ τὰς ὑποψίας ἀφεὶς ἔχου τῶν ἀρχαίων.