Letter 7: It happened that when you sent me your map, I had just recovered from illness — but I was no less delighted to...

To Alypius. It happened that when you sent me your map, I had just recovered from illness — but I was no less delighted to receive it. It contains diagrams better than any I have seen, and you embellished it with iambic verses — not the aggressive kind, like "Sing the War of Bupalus" as the Cyrenean poet [Callimachus] puts it, but the beautiful sort that Sappho fashions for her songs. The gift was worthy of the giver, and to me it is a genuine pleasure. As for your administration: since you aim to act with both energy and humanity, I am very pleased with you. To blend mildness and moderation with courage and force — showing the former to the virtuous and applying the latter implacably to the wicked for their reform — requires, I am convinced, no small natural talent and virtue. I pray that you hold fast to these ideals and apply them always to what is fair and honorable. The most eloquent writers of antiquity believed this is the end and aim of all the virtues. May you continue in health and happiness as long as possible, my dear and most beloved brother.

To the Same It happened that when you sent me your map I had just recovered from my illness, but I was none the less glad on that account to receive the chart that you sent. For not only does it contain diagrams better than any hitherto made; but you have embellished it by adding those iambic verses, not such as "Sing the War of Bupalus," 2 as the poet of Cyrene 3 expresses it, but such as beautiful Sappho is wont to fashion for her songs.4 In fact the gift is such as no doubt it well became you to give, while to me it is most agreeable to receive.5 With regard to your administration of affairs, inasmuch as you study to act in all cases both energetically and humanely, I am well pleased with it. For to blend mildness and moderation with courage and force, and to exercise the former towards the most virtuous, and the latter implacably in the case of the wicked for their regeneration, is, as I am convinced, a task that calls for no slight natural endowment and virtue. I pray that you may ever hold fast to these ambitions and may adapt them both solely to what is fair and honourable.1 Not without reason did the most eloquent of the ancient writers believe that this is the end and aim set for all the virtues. May you continue in health and happiness as long as possible, my well-beloved and most dear brother! 2 For Bupalus cf. Horace, Epodes 6. 14; Lucian, Pseudologist 2. 3 Callimachus, frag. 90, Ernesti. 4 Literally "nomes," though Julian may only have meant " poetry "; in any case he refers to lyric iambics. 5 An echo of Isocrates, Nicocles 29b. 1 Cf. Oration 1. 3d, Vol. 1.

[Πρός: Τῷ αὐτῷ] Ἤδη μὲν ἐτύγχανον ἀνειμένος τῆς νόσου, τὴν γεωγραφίαν ὅτε ἀπέστειλας· οὐ μὴν ἔλαττον διὰ τοῦτο ἡδέως ἐδεξάμην τὸ παρὰ σοῦ πινάκιον ἀποσταλέν. ἔχει γὰρ καὶ τὰ διαγράμματα τῶν πρόσθεν βελτίω, καὶ κατεμούσωσας αὐτὸ προσθεὶς τοὺς ἰάμβους, οὐ μάχην ἀείδοντας τὴν Βουπάλειον κατὰ τὸν Κυρηναῖον ποιητήν, ἀλλ’ οἵους ἡ καλὴ Σαπφὼ βούλεται τοῖς νόμοις ἁρμόττειν. καὶ τὸ μὲν δῶρον τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν, ὁποῖον ἴσως σοί τε ἔπρεπε δοῦναι, ἐμοί τε ἥδιστον δέξασθαι. περὶ δὲ τὴν διοίκησιν τῶν πραγμάτων ὅτι δραστηρίως ἅμα καὶ πρᾴως ἅπαντα περαίνειν προθυμῇ, συνηδόμεθα· μῖξαι γὰρ πρᾳότητα καὶ σωφροσύνην ἀνδρείᾳ καὶ ῥώμῃ, καὶ τῇ μὲν χρήσασθαι πρὸς τοὺς ἐπιεικεστάτους, τῇ δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν πονηρῶν ἀπαραιτήτως πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν οὐ μικρᾶς ἐστὶ φύσεως οὐδ’ ἀρετῆς ἔργον, ὡς ἐμαυτὸν πείθω. τούτων εὐχόμεθά σε τῶν σκοπῶν ἐχόμενον ἄμφω πρὸς ἓν τὸ καλὸν αὐτοὺς συναρμόσαι· τοῦτο γὰρ ἁπάσαις προκεῖσθαι ταῖς ἀρεταῖς τέλος οὐκ εἰκῆ τῶν παλαιῶν ἐπίστευον οἱ λογιώτατοι. ἐρρωμένος καὶ εὐδαιμονῶν διατελοίης ἐπὶ μήκιστον, ἀδελφὲ ποθεινότατε καὶ φιλικώτατε.