Letter 409: I know a letter from me delights you.
Ἱταλικιαῷ (355)
Οἶδ’ ὅτι σε εὐφραίνει γράμμα ἐμόν. σὺ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ὁ
πετόμενος μέν, ὅπως ἂν ἡμῶν ἀκούσαις, πετόμενος δὲ αὖθις
όπὸ τῶν λόγων έν τῷ συλλόγῳ, καὶ σπεύδων τε ἐπ’ ἀκρόασιν
καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ πάντα δρῶν.
ἦν οὖν δῆλον ὡς οὐκ ἀτιμάσεις
ἐπιστολὴν οὖ τιμᾷς τοὺς λόγους. ἀμείβομαι δέ σε τῷ μέγα
φρονεῖν, ὅτι δοκεῖς εἶναι καλὸς Ὀλυμπίῳ τῷ σοφῷ, ὃς βαδίζει
μὲν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀρρωστοῦντας καὶ ἐμπίμπλησι. φίλος γε μὴν οὕτω
σαφὴς ὥστε κἂν ἐπὶ τὰς Γοργόνας φίλῳ συστρατεύσαι.
ὄψει
δὲ αὐτὸν θαυμαστὰ ἐργαζόμενον ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἄθλοις,
ὧν κοινωνήσεις δήπου, κἂν μηδεὶς ἐπεγείρῃ.
Related Letters
We're only human, and no better than our neighbors.
I was just praising your character -- we happened to be discussing the virtues of governors, and naturally you took...
Rescript on Christian Teachers.
My amazement at the most distressing news of the calamity which has befallen you for a long time kept me silent. I felt like a man whose ears are stunned by a loud clap of thunder. Then I somehow recovered a little from my state of speechlessness.
Even if you do not write to me about other matters, you ought at least to have written about that enemy of the gods,...