Letter 242: I think I am about to do something like those people who are so eager to see a friend returning after a long absence...

To Florentius. (360) But for my part I think I am doing something much like those who, being eager to see one who has arrived after a long time, employ their greeting from below, from the foot of the stairway, before they have seen the man whom they are addressing. For those people, outrunning their own eyes through their excessive longing, cry out; and I likewise, when you are but a short distance from the boundaries, declare to you in a letter my delight. As for your cousin, I love him, but I am near to feeling envy, because he has already had the enjoyment of you, while I am still about to. If, however, he should chance to meet with greater forethought [providence], on that account I no longer feel envy; rather, I would wish him to prove an Athena's Diomedes, so that for us he may both be kept safe and prevail.

Φλωρεντίῳ. (360) Ἀλλ᾿ ἔγωγε παραπλήσιον δοκῶ μοί τι ποιήσειν τοῖς ἐπει- γομένοις μὲν ἰδεῖν τὸν ἥκοντα χρόνιον, τῇ προσρήσει δὲ κά- τωθεν ἀπὸ τῆς κλίμακος χρωμένοις πρὶν ἰδεῖν ὃν προσαγο- ρεύουσιν. ἐκεῖνοί τε γὰρ τῷ λίαν ἐπιθυμεῖν φθάνοντες τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς βοῶσιν ἐγώ τέ σοι μικρὸν ἀπέχοντι τῶν ὅρων ἐν ἐπιστολῇ δηλῶ τὴν ἡδονήν. τὸν δὲ ἀνεψιὸν φιλῶ μέν, ἐγ- γὺς δέ εἰμι <τοῦ> ζηλοτυπεῖν, ὅτι ὁ μὲν ἀπολέλαυκεν, ἐγὼ μέλλω. τῆς μέντοι προνοίας εἰ τυγχάνοι μείζονος, οὐκ ἔτι ταύ- τῃ ζηλοτυπῶ, βουλοίμην δ’ ἂν αὐτὸν Ἀθηνᾶς Διομήδην τυγχά- νειν, ὅπως ἡμῖν καὶ σώζοιτο καὶ κρατῇ.