Letter 70: Your son Diogenes, whom I saw after you left, told me you were very angry with him for something that would...

To Diogenes. Your son Diogenes, whom I saw after you left, told me you were very angry with him for something that would naturally vex any father. He begged me to act as mediator. If his offense is mild and tolerable, yield to nature — remember that you are a father, and turn your heart back to your child. But if it is too serious for immediate forgiveness, then it is for you, not me, to decide whether you should bear even that with generosity and overcome his waywardness with wiser thoughts, or whether to leave the offender's reformation to a longer period of discipline.

To Diogenes 1 Your son Diogenes, whom I saw after you went away, told me that you had been much irritated with him for some reason that would naturally make a father feel vexed with his child, and he implored me to act as mediator in a reconciliation between him and yourself. Now, if he has committed some error of a mild and not intolerable kind, do you yield to nature, recognise that you are a father, and again turn your thoughts to your child. But if his offence is too serious to admit of immediate forgiveness, it is right for you yourself rather than for me to decide whether you ought to bear even that with a generous spirit and overcome your son's purpose by wiser thoughts, or to entrust the offender's probation to a longer period of discipline. 1 Diogenes is otherwise unknown. Schwarz places this letter between January and June 362, when Julian was at Constantinople. The tone seems to imply that he was already Emperor, but the note is purely conventional, a "type" of the letter of intervention.

[Πρός: Διογένει] Διογένης ὁ σὸς υἱὸς ὀφθείς μοι μετὰ τὴν ἔξοδον τὴν σὴν καὶ φήσας ὠργίσθαι σέ τι πρὸς αὐτόν, οἷον ἂν πατὴρ πρὸς παῖδα χαλεπήνειεν, ἐδεήθη μέσον με τῶν πρὸς αὐτὸν καταλλαγῶν παρὰ σοὶ γενέσθαι. εἰ μὲν οὖν μέτρια καὶ οἷα δύνασθαι φέρειν ἥμαρτεν, εἶξον τῇ φύσει καὶ τὸ πατὴρ εἶναι γνοὺς ἐπάνελθε πρὸς τὸν παῖδα τῇ γνώμῃ· εἰ δέ τι μεῖζον ἔπταικεν ἢ οἷον πρὸς συγγνώμην ἐλθεῖν, αὐτὸς ἂν εἴης δικαιότερος κριτής, εἴτε δεῖ καὶ τοῦτο γενναίως ἐνεγκόντα νικῆσαι τοῦ παιδὸς τὴν βουλὴν γνώμῃ κρείττονι, εἴτε καὶ πλείονος χρόνου σωφρονισμῷ τὴν ἐπὶ τῷ πταισθέντι βάσανον πιστεῦσαι.