My beloved Adeimantus,
I cannot but lament that I should lose you so soon and so unjustly. How often have I loved to gaze upon your bearded face and welcomed the opportunity to be privy to that beauty, to which all men aspire? How often have we enjoyed each others company and instructive conversation? All the more sorrowful, then, is the task to which I now apply myself.
Nicostratus has truly wronged every Athenian, not least his own person, in robbing us of such a youth as yourself over such a trivial matter. …
