Letter 418: After suffering many physical ailments -- having barely recovered from some and still bearing others -- I have one...

To Anatolius. (355) Having suffered many ills in my body, and having barely been freed from some while still bearing others, I have one consolation: the hopes concerning you. For do not suppose that people are singing of anything else than that very soon you will have the rank that has long befitted you, and that affairs will have their deliverance. This they infer from two things: from your own virtue, and from the fact that the emperor looks to those through whom it is possible to preserve the cities. But see that you do not once again flee the office that is coming upon you; for the flight you are rehearsing is no honorable one. For even if it were necessary to become a runaway, you have already become one, having run away from Rome.

Ἀνατολίῳ. (355) Πόλλα κακὰ περὶ τὸ σῶμα παθὼν καὶ τῶν μὲν μόλις ἀπαλλαγείς, τὰ δὲ ἔτι φέρων ἕν ἔχω παραμύθιον τὰς ἐλπίδας τὰς περὶ σέ. μὴ γὰρ οἴου τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἄλλο τι ᾄδειν ἡ ὡς αὐτίκα μάλα ἔσται σοὶ μὲν σχῆμα πάλαι προσῆκον, τοῖς δὲ πράγμασι σωτηρία. ταύτην δὲ τεκμαίρονται δυοῖν, ἀρετῇ τε σῇ καὶ τῷ τὸν βασιλέα δι’ ὧν ἔστι σώζειν τὰς πόλεις ὁρᾶν. ἀλλ’ ὅπως μὴ πάλιν φύγῃς προσιοῦσαν ἀρχήν· οὐ γὰρ κα- λόν τινα τοῦτον δρασμὸν μελετᾷς. εἰ γὰρ καὶ χρῆν γενέσθαι δραπέτην, ἤδη γέγονας ἀπὸ τῆς ώμης δραπετεύσας.