Letter 101: I don't abandon friends when they're in trouble, the way most people do.

To Modestus (359/60) I do not abandon my friends in times of trouble, as most people are accustomed to doing. Indeed, I have stood by many who were not even friends when they were in distress, so that this very act became the beginning of friendship between us. Pierius has long been an intimate of mine, and he remains so now in his hour of need — even should the charges against him multiply. For I place greater trust in the record of his past life than in those who are quick to slander him, a record in which, over a long span, he showed himself far more desirous of reputation than of money. Now then, if everyone who has been accused has also been convicted, then he is a villain — for he flees — and I am a villain for helping a fugitive. But if it has happened before now that a man under prosecution was acquitted and his accuser was punished instead, then there is nothing terrible in friends rallying to the side of the accused, since before just judges they will have the chance to dispose of the charges. You yourself would even pray that those whose conduct in office is under scrutiny be found honest, so that you might be seen as the best among good men — the very opposite of what the wicked desire, who imagine they will cloak themselves in the disgrace of others.

Μοδέστῳ. (359/60) Οὐ φεύγω φίλους ἐν ταῖς ταραχαῖς, ὃ ποιεῖν εἰώθασιν οἱ πολλοί, πολλοῖς δέ γε καὶ μὴ φίλοις παρέστην θορυβου- μένοις, ὥστε μοι τοῦτο γενέσθαι φιλίας ἀρχὴν πρὸς αὐτούς. Πιέριος δὲ πάλαι τέ μοι συνήθης καὶ νῦν ἐν σπουδῇ, κἂν πλείους αἰτίας λάβῃ. τῶν γὰρ ἑτοίμως διαβαλλόντων πιστό- τερον ἡγοῦμαι τὸν παρελθόντα χρόνον, ἐν ᾧ πολλῷ γεγονότι μᾶλλον ἐφάνη δόξης ἢ χρημάτων ἐπιθυμῶν. εἰ μὲν οὖν ὅστις ᾐτιάθη καὶ ἐξελήλεγκται, πονηρὸς μὲν οὗτος, φεύγει γάρ, πονηρὸς δὲ ἐγὼ φεύγοντι βοηθῶν· εἰ δὲ ἤδη τις καὶ φεύγων ἀπέφυγε καὶ διώκων ἐκολάσθη, δεινὸν οὐδὲν τοῖς ἐν αἰτίαις συλλαμβάνειν τοὺς φίλους· ὡς ἐν δικασταῖς δικαίοις ἕξουσιν ἀνελεῖν τὰς αἰτίας. σὺ δὲ κἂν συνεύξαιο τοῖς ἐν ἀρχαῖς ἐξητασμένοις φανῆναι χρηστούς, ὅπως εἶναι δοκῆς ἀγαθῶν ἀμείνων, οὗ τοὐναντίον οἱ κακοὶ σπεύδουσι νομίζον- τες ἐν ταῖς ἑτέρων αἰσχύναις αὑτοὺς συσκιάσειν.