Letter 337: It was right that you mourned your brother — since even we mourned him, though he was not our brother, because he...

To Demetrius. (358/59) Well, it was a fine thing that you were mourning a brother, since he was a brother to us too even though he was not [our actual brother], inasmuch as he was a good friend; and you did well in stripping away the grief, which, doing no good to the one who had departed, was wearing down the one still living. I am persuaded, then, that the god who presides over eloquence became a physician to you, so that you might belong to eloquence rather than to mourning; and if this has truly come to you from us, it is a gain of mine that you have been released from some evil. As for my own words, I admire them not at all, for they fall far short of beauty; but I count you fortunate for casting such votes about them.

Δημητρίῳ. (358/59) Ἀλλὰ καλὸν μέν, <ὅτι> α ἀδελφὸν ἐπένθεις, ἐπεὶ καὶ οὐκ ὄντα ἡμῖν ἀδελφόν, ἐπειδὴ φίλος ἦν ἀγαθός· καλῶς δὲ ἐποίησας ἀφελὼν τῆς λύπης, ἣ τὸν οἰχόμενον οὐκ ὠφελοῦσα τὸν ζῶντα ἔκοπτεν. ἰατρὸν μὲν οὖν σοι πείθομαι τὸν τῶν λόγων προστάτην γεγονέναι θεόν, ὅπως μὴ τοῦ λυπεῖσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ τῶν λόγων εἴης· εἰ δ’ ὄντως σοι παρ’ ἡμῶν τοῦτο ἥκει, κέρδος ἐμὸν τὸ σέ τινος λελύσθαι κακοῦ. λόγους δὲ ἐμοὺς θαυμάζω μὲν ἥκιστα, κάλλους γὰρ ἀφεστᾶσιν, εὐδαι- μονίζω α δὲ σοῦ περὶ αὐτῶν τοιαῦτα ψηφιζομένου.