Letter 133: It isn't the letter-writing that needs forgiveness -- it's your failure to write that would have required it.
**To Hypatius** (358)
It is not the writing of a letter that deserves pardon — rather, had you *not* done so, that is when you would rightly have begged forgiveness. For it was not so that you might keep silent that you labored at eloquence, nor I at training you; no, it was the hope that you would one day speak that persuaded us to endure all that toil.
So make use of your acquisition in all other matters, and in letter-writing too. For you do it well, and you will do it still better if you do not leave off.
You seem to me, moreover, to confirm what I have often said — that you are my *child*, not merely my student. At any rate, you heed Solon's precept and nourish your father now that you have left the schoolroom.
But grant me this favor as well: run to visit us — not for a long stay, but to gladden me for whatever time you can spend with us. And at the same time, if any of your affairs should need the intervention of the governor, you will set them right.
In counting Bacchius a friend you show good judgment. Come, then, for the sake of this friend — and indeed for the sake of another friend besides. For I should not wish Evagoras to outdo you in devotion: he, after all, escaped his father's clutches and came all the way from Cilicia seeking you, yet you, a free man, will not bestir yourself from Beroea?
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