Letter 420: I have been worried about you ever since you left here -- not because I doubted your ability, but because I could...

To Asclepius. (355) Ever since you set out from here, I have been anxious about how you would prevail over affairs, not because I had condemned any weakness in you, but because I saw the difficulty in those affairs. For you have quite simply launched your vessel into a storm. But let this very thing make you a good governor: that the greater credit will be yours precisely because of the hardship. And indeed you seem to me already to be attaining the greatest reward. For the man who is the best among your people, this man has become your friend, having passed from admiration into affection. For Eutolmius, on coming to the city, at once came in to me as one pursuing an old comrade. And I did not ask him anything sooner than who you were in your office, and he too, by the answers he gave, was plainly a man who would not gladly have been asked anything before these matters. And he praised your gentleness, and feared the very thing we fear, the scarcity, and joined in praying for relief, and altogether he resembled in disposition a father nursing cares on behalf of his son. I therefore advise you to receive the man, when he approaches you, as warmly as possible, and if he does not approach, to send for him and make him your counselor and to trust him in other matters as well; so that he may praise us both, the one for having joined in zeal on your behalf, and me for having brought you together, and thirdly for having yourself been persuaded. For now, then, you say that you are our pupil and that you owe thanks for words; but once you have made use of Eutolmius, you will say that, in addition to words, you owe deeds. And may it be granted to you to make trial of his wisdom, but to spend your time among the bodies of others.

Ἀσκληπιῷ. (355) Ἐφρόντιζον, ἐπειδὴ ἐνθένδε ἀπῆρας, ὅπως ἡμῖν περιέσῃ τῶν πραγμάτων, οὐ σοῦ τινα ἀσθένειαν καταγνούς, ἀλλ’ ἐκείνοις ἐνορῶν μοχθηρίαν. ἀτεχνῶς γὰρ εἰς χειμῶνα τὸ σκάφος ἀφῆκας. ἀλλά τοι τοῦτό σε αὐτὸ καὶ ποιείτω ἄρχοντα ἀγαθὸν τὸ μείζω σοι λόγον ἀπὸ τῆς δυσκολίας ἔσεσθαι. καὶ δῆτά μοι δοκεῖς ἤδη τοῦ μεγίστου τυγχάνειν. ὃς γὰρ ἄριστός ἐστι τῶν παρ’ ὑμῖν, οὗτός ἐστί σοι φίλος ἀπὸ θαυμάζειν εἰς τὸ φιλεῖν ἐλθών. Εὐτόλμιος γὰρ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν πόλιν εὐθὺς εἰσῆλθεν ὡς ἐμὲ παλαιὸν ἑταῖ- ρον διώκων. καὶ οὔτ’ ἐγώ τι πρότερον ἠρόμην ἡ ὅστις εἴης ἐπὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς αὐτός τε οἷς ἀπεκρίνατο δῆλος ἦν οὐκ ἂν ἡδέως ἕτερα πρὸ τούτων ἐρωτηθείς. καὶ ἐπῄνει τε τὴν πρᾳότητα καὶ ἐδεδοίκει τοῦθ’ ὅπερ ἡμεῖς, τὴν ἀπορίαν, καὶ συνεύχετο ῥᾳστώ- νην καὶ ὅλως ἐῴκει κατὰ τὴν γνώμην πατρὶ τρέφοντι φρον- τίδας ὑπὲρ υἱέος. παραινῶ δή σοι τὸν ἄνδρα προσιόντα τε ὡς ἀσμενέστατα δέχεσθαι καὶ μὴ τοῦτο ποιοῦντα μεταπέμ- πεσθαι σύμβουλόν τε ποιεῖσθαι καὶ τἄλλα πιστεύειν · ὡς ἀμ- φοτέρους γε ἐπαινέσῃ τὸν μὲν τοῦ συμπροθυμηθῆναί σοι, τοῦ προξενῆσαι δὲ ἐμέ, καὶ τρίτον γε τοῦ πεισθῆναι σαυτόν. νῦν μὲν οὖν μαθητής τε ἡμέτερος εἶναι φῄς καὶ λόγων ὀφείλειν χάριτας, Εὐτολμίῳ δὲ χρησάμενος ἔργα φήσεις πρὸς τοῖς λόγοις ὀφείλειν. εἴη δέ σε τῆς μὲν φρονήσεως αὐτοῦ πεῖ- ραν τοῖς λαμβάνειν, τῆς διατριβῆς δὲ ἐν ἄλλων σώμασιν.