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 I have done the greatest service to your household -- namely, gaining your sons no small measure of rhetoric, and that in a short time: a great profit for your house. I was so far from wronging it that I even taught the young men by what means they might exact adequate justice from the one who wronged them. But you have wronged me by persuading yourself that I have wronged you. For this amounts to believing that I am wicked toward brothers and wicked toward sons. Prepare your defense on these charges, then -- you will need a very carefully crafted one if you are not to be overwhelmed. Or rather, I know what you will do: you yourself will keep quiet and order your sons to compose a speech for you. That is the only thing 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.