Letter 486: I wrote to you at the start of winter.

To Barbatio. (356) Around the beginning of winter I sent you a letter, and it was Clematius who took it to carry, a man who had spent the whole summer here and who all that time was going on at length in speeches on your behalf, and who kept instructing people who were not ignorant of the matter—as though one were teaching a Cretan about the sea. But there was something charming in him, in the way he called your fine qualities to mind with shouting and with all his heart and with leaps. Observing all this, I considered it fitting that the first of my letters should come to you through a man who loves me, and who both loves you for this very thing and admires you. But it seems that you did not receive the letter; for you would not, when writing to the uncle, have failed to share with me the very letter you wrote to him—the man to whom you have granted leave to remain here. But that man will either render the greeting one day, or he will incur blame; and as for you, in return for your zeal toward us, may there be trophies won from the barbarians and the pleasing of the emperor to the very end; while from us the reward is praise, for our affairs lie in words, and furthermore that your sons should be ranked before all others in the schools of the Muses.

Βαρβατίωνι. (356) Περὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς τοῦ χειμῶνος ἐπέστειλά σοι, Κλημάτιος δὲ ἦν ὁ λαβὼν κομίζειν, ἀνὴρ ἅπαν μὲν τὸ θέρος διατρίψας ἐνθάδε, πάντα δὲ τὸν χρόνον ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ σοῦ λόγοις διεξελ- θῶν καὶ οὐκ ἀγνοοῦντας μὲν ἐδίδασκεν, εἰ μὴ καὶ ὁ Κρὴς τὴν θάλατταν· ἦν δὲ αὐτοῦ χάριεν τὸ σὺν βοῇ καὶ παντὶ θυμῷ καὶ μετὰ πηδημάτων μεμνῆσθαι τῶν σῶν καλῶν. ἃ ἐγὼ καθορῶν ἠγησάμην πρέπον τὰ πρῶτα τῶν γραμμάτων δι’ ἀνδρὸς ἐλθεῖν σοι φιλοῦντος μὲν ἐμέ, σὲ δὲ τοῦτό τε αὐτὸ καὶ θαυμάζοντος. ἀλλ’ ἔοικας οὐ λαβεῖν τὴν ἐπιστολήν· οὐ γὰρ ἂν τῷ θείῳ γράφων ὅπερ ἡμῶν αὐτῷ μοι γραμμάτων οὐ μετέδωκας, ᾧ τὸ μένειν ἐνταῦθα δέδωκας. ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνος μὲν ἢ δώσει ποτὲ τὴν πρόσρησιν ἡ μέμψιν οἴσεται σοὶ δὲ ἀντὶ τῆς εἰς ἡμᾶς σπουδῆς τρόπαιά τε ἀπὸ βαρβάρων εἴη καὶ τὸ διὰ τέλους ἀρέσκειν τῷ βασιλεῖ, παρ’ ἡμῶν δὲ μισθὸς ἔπαι- νος, τὰ γὰρ ἡμέτερα ἐν λόγοις, καὶ προσέτι τοὺς υἱεῖς σοι πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἐν μουσείοις τετάχθαι.