Letter 207: Your silence is not characteristic of you, and I choose to blame it on the press of affairs rather than on any...

To Anatolius. (360?) I know that I have conferred the greatest benefits upon your house, namely this: that I have secured for your sons the possession of rhetoric, no small thing, and that too in a short time, a great gain for your house; but from doing it any wrong I have been so far removed that I even taught the young men an adequate penalty to exact from the one who had grieved them. But you have wronged me by persuading yourself that I have wronged you. For this is the same as believing that I am, accordingly, a villain toward brothers and a villain toward children. Prepare, then, your defense on these matters; and you have great need of one that is carefully thought out, if you are not going to be overwhelmed. Rather, I know what you will do: you yourself will keep quiet, but you will bid your sons compose a speech for you. This is the one thing alone by which you will defeat me.

Ἀνατολίῳ. (360?) Ἐγὼ τὸν σὸν οἶκον ὠφελήσας μὲν οἶδα τὰ μέγιστα, ἑ δὴ τὸ τοὺς υἱεῖς σοι κτήσασθαι ῥητορικῆς οὐ μικρὸν καὶ ταῦτω ἐν μικρῷ χρόνῳ μέγα κέρδος οἴκῳ τῷ σῷ, τοῦ δὲ ἀδίκησα τοσοῦτον ἀπέσχον, ὥστε καὶ ᾧ λήψονται παρὰ τοῦ λελυπηκό- τος οἱ νέοι δίκην ἱκανὴν ἐδίδαξα. σὺ δ’ ἐμὲ ἠδίκηκας σαυ- τὸν πείσας ὅτι σὲ ἠδίκηκα. τουτὶ γὰρ ἴσον τῷ νομίζειν ὡς ἄρα ἐγὼ πονηρὸς μὲν εἰς ἀδελφούς, πονηρὸς δὲ εἰς παῖδας. μελέτα δὴ τὴν ὑπὲρ τούτων ἀπολογίαν, δεῖ δέ σοι πάνυ τινὸς μεμεριμνημένης, εἰ μέλλεις μὴ κατακλυσθήσεσθαι. μᾶλλον δὲ ὃ δράσεις οἶδα· αὐτὸς μὲν ἡσυχάσεις, τοὺς υἱεῖς δὲ κελεύ- σεις ἐργάσασθαί σοι λόγον. τοῦτο ἔστιν ᾧ με νικήσεις μόνῳ.