Letter 169: That you, surrounded by so many responsibilities and pricked by anxieties about the war, still take thought for how...

**To Priscianus** (360) That you, beset by so many affairs and stung by anxieties over the war, should still consider how a student might be sent to us — and should think no business great enough to keep you from attending to our interests — what figure celebrated for friendship among the poets will this leave us still to admire? As for that man, from the moment he arrived he never ceased hurling his shafts. But if his arrows did not stick, if the body of Ajax proved stronger than iron, let thanks be given to Heracles and the hide of the Pontic beast. This archer, then, ashamed that he had turned your weapons against a man who had done him no wrong, sought to fashion the appearance of one acting in self-defense: he fabricated a charge, accusing me of raising some outcry over his visit to Hermogenes. But you know my character in such matters, and whether anything of that sort could sting me. These are pretexts, my noble friend. The truth is that he has stationed himself in another camp, and since he cannot justify his decision not to stand with me, he heals one wrong with another by assigning the blame to me. Yet I am so gentle — and you have not been deceived about this — that I mourned for him when one of his sons died, and the one who survives (and may he survive, Zeus the Savior!), I treat with kindness in all other respects and invite him alone from that household to my rhetorical displays — though I have been insulted by both of them, or rather, if you prefer, by the father. For this man the clever Theodotus made a partner of Strategius when Strategius held office — and I bore that, how do you think? — with my uncle complaining. Then, when the office ended, he made the other man sole partner once again. And having shown himself such a man toward us, he is indignant that he does not receive a crown of praise from us! But even this, if you command it, I shall do — knowing full well what he is, yet not daring to disobey you.

Πρισκιανῷ. (360) Τὸ δὲ σὲ τοσούτοις κεκυκλωμένον πράγμασι καὶ νυττό- μενον ταῖς περὶ τοῦ πολέμου φροντίσιν ὅπως ἡμῖν φοιτητὴς προσγενήσεται· σκοπεῖν καὶ μηδεμίαν ἀσχολίαν ἀξιοῦν εἶναι τηλικαύτην, ἥ σε τοῦ τὰ ἡμέτερα θεραπεύειν ἀποστήσει, τίνα ἔτι θαυμάζειν ἀφήσει τῶν παρὰ τοῖς ποιηταῖς ἐπὶ φιλίᾳ βε- βοημένων; ὁ δὲ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος, ἀφ’ οὗπερ ἧκον, οὐ διέλιπε βάλλων· εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἐπήγνυτο τὰ βέλη, ἀλλ’ ἦν τὸ τοῦ Αἴαντος σῶμα κρεῖττόν τοῦ σιδήρου, χάρις Ἡρακλεῖ καὶ τῷ τοῦ Πόντος δέρματι. αἰσχυνόμενος οὖν οὗτος ὁ τοξότης, ὅτι τοῖς σοῖς ἐπὶ τὸν οὐκ ἀδικοῦντα ἐχρῆτο, ζητῶν ἀμυνομέ- νου σχῆμα πλάσας αἰτίαν ἐγκαλεῖ βοὴν τινα ἐμὴν ἐπὶ τῇ κεί- νου πρὸς τὸν Ἑρμογένην εἰσόδῳ. τὸν δὲ ἐμὸν οἶσθα σὺ περὶ ταῦτα τρόπον, καὶ εἴ τι τῶν τοιούτων ἐμὲ δύναται δάκνειν. σκῆψις ταῦτα, ὦ γενναῖε, τὸ δ’ ἀληθές, ἔταξεν αὑτὸν ἑτέρωθι, τὴν τάξιν δὲ ἐπαινεῖν οὐκ ἔχων τοῦ μὴ γενέσθαι μετ’ ἐμοῦ τὴν αἰτίαν ἀποδιδοὺς κακῷ τὸ κακὸν ἰᾶται. ἐγὼ δὲ οὕτως εἰμὶ πρᾷος καὶ οὐκ ἐψεύσω, ὥστ’ αὐτῷ τὸν μὲν ἕτερον τῶν υἱέων ἐπένθησα, τὸν δὲ ὄντα, καὶ εἴη γε, Ζεῦ σῶτερ, τά τε ἄλλα φιλανθρώπως ὁρῶ καὶ πρὸς τὰς ἐπιδείξεις τῶν λόγων μόνον τῶν ἐκεῖθεν καλῶ καίτοι γε ὑπ’ ἀμφοῖν ὑβρισμένος, εἰ δὲ βούλει, παρὰ τοῦ πατρός. τοῦτον γὰρ ὁ σοφὸς Θεό- δοτος ἔχοντος μὲν τὴν ἀρχὴν Στρατηγίου κοινωνὸν ποιεῖ, καὶ τουτὶ ἤνεγκα, πῶς οἴει; μεμφομένου τοῦ θείου· λήξαντος τῆς ἀρχῆς πάλιν ἐκείνου μόνου ποιεῖ. καὶ τοιοῦτος εἰς ἡμᾶς φανεὶς ὅτι μὴ στεφανοῦται παρ’ ἡμῶν, ἀγανακτεῖ. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτό γε, ἢν κελεύῃς, ποιήσομεν ἐκεῖνον μὲν εἰδότες, σοὶ δὲ ἀπειθεῖν οὐ τολμῶντες.