Letter 400: We are faring as you would pray — and as some people here would not.

To Rhetorios. (355 AD) We are faring as you would pray — and as some people here would not. But your pleasure would be greater if you were present to see it than absent and merely hearing of it. So why not reap the greater joy? Why not come here while we are here — something you often did when we were not? You think you can sit there and eventually get me back; you even predict a date and laugh, as though you had me in hand. But know this: we too have the power to draft a decree and submit a petition, and the emperor is ready to grant the favor — he simply does not yet know to whom to offer it.

Ῥητορίῳ. (355) Πράττομεν, ὡς ἂν εὔξαιο καὶ ὡς οὐκ ἂν ἔνιοι τῶν παρ’ ἡμῖν εὔξαιντο. σοὶ δὲ μείζων ἂν ἦν ἡδονὴ παρόντι ὁρᾶν 20 ἢ ἀπόντι ἀκούειν. τί δὴ μαθὼν οὐ καρποῖ τὴν μείζονα εὐφροσύνην; τί δὲ οὐ δεῦρο βαδίζεις ἡμῶν ὄντων ἐνθάδε; ὅ πολλάκις ἔδρασας ἡμῶν οὐκ ὄντων ἐνθάδε· οἴει καθήμενος ἀπολήψεσθαί με καί που καὶ χρόνον προλέγεις καὶ γελᾷς ὃς ἔχων. 3, ἀλλ’ ἴσθι καὶ ἡμῖν ὑπάρχον ψήφισμα γράψαι καὶ δεηθῆναι, δοῦναι δὲ χάριν ἕτοιμος βασιλεὺς καὶ προσάγει ἀωάγλην οὐκ οἶδεν.