Letter 139: To the same person. (359/60)

**To the same correspondent.** (359/60) I am persuaded that your affairs are not many, for otherwise you would not have enjoyed such ample leisure for letter-writing — since the beauty of your letter is that not of a governor making his rounds of the cities, but of a man devoted to the craft of eloquence. But if that presumption is false and your affairs are indeed many, then you are equal to both. One of the Muses, it seems, dwells with you alongside Justice, and lends her aid now to the one, now to the other. And though you seek either the arrow of Abaris or the lyre of Orpheus — do not seek the lyre, for with your tongue you wield all its power; nor the arrow, since you already possess the lyre. Poverty is now the common lot of mankind, so that you are not writing on behalf of the destitute to men of wealth. Even if you governed us, you would lament the same things: *"A curse on you, O War, for many reasons — you who so swiftly turn our Calliases into Iruses."*

Τῷ αὐτῷ. (359/60) Πείθομαι μὴ πολλὰ εἷναί σοι τὰ πράγματα, οὐ γὰρ ἂν πολλῆς ἀπήλαυες εἰς τὸ ἐπιστέλλειν σχολῆς· ὡς τό γε κάλλος τῆς ἐπιστολῆς οὐκ ἄρχοντος ἐπιόντος πόλεις, ἀλλ’ ἀνδρὸς ἐρ- γαζομένου λόγους. εἰ δὲ ψεῦδος μὲν ἐκεῖνο καὶ πολλὰ τὰ πράγματα, σὺ δὲ ἀρκεῖς ἀμφοτέροις. τῶν Μουσῶν τις ἔοικέ σοι συνοικεῖν μετὰ τῆς Δίκης γαῖ συλλαμβάνειν πῆ μὲν ἐκεί- νην, πῆ δὲ ταύτην. ζητῶν δὲ ἢ τὸν Ἀβάριδος ὀιστὸν ἢ τὴν Ὀρφέως κιθάραν μήτε τὴν κιθάραν ζήτει, τῇ γλώττῃ γὰρ τὰ ταύτης ἰσχύεις, μήτε τὸν ὀιστόν, ἐπειδήπερ ἔχεις τὴν κιθάραν. ἡ πενία κοινὸν νῦν ἀνθρώποις, ὥστε οὐ πρὸς εὐπόρους ὑπὲρ ἀπόρων ἐπιστέλλεις, ἀλλ’ εἰ καὶ ἡμῶν ἦρχες, ταῦτ’ ἂν ὠδύρου· ἀπόλοιο δῆτ’. ὦ πόλεμε, πολλῶν οὕνεκα, ὃς τοὺς Καλλίας ὀξέως Ἴρους ποιεῖς.