Letter 511: I have long known your skill in governing, so I am certain you are handling your present post with all proper care.

To Araxius. (356/57) Having long known your expertise in governing, I am also aware that you exercise your present office too with all that is fitting. And even if I had not happened to know you long ago, I would have discovered your excellence from our friend. For whoever takes pleasure in conversing with Themistius—I never once asked the question, since I knew that he accounts the living of the best possible life of great importance. For this reason I myself both shared his company there as though grown together with him, and here I did the same. While in his company I did not cease, both to hear something good and to seem to my fellow citizens to be not a bad man, by reason of my delight in what is noble. When he brought me your letters he gave me a double pleasure, both in the very things that were given and because the bearer was such a man. And indeed, lifting me up with his words about you, he set me in motion toward the journey. And I would even now be conversing with you, had not my mother's old age, which is greatly in need of help, bent me back. But if this had not persuaded me to remain, nothing among other things would have persuaded me more than to make my way to you. Perhaps then even by remaining I shall see you, for I see Fortune conveying you to where you must come; and perhaps too, if this office of yours is prolonged, someone will see me at your side. As for the outrage with which I have been outraged, by the gods, exact retribution, and do not consider it more dreadful that many should learn of the slander than that I should not obtain justice for such outrages. How these things will turn out you will know well, being skilled both in other matters and in the ways of lawsuits. For I, for my part, will not endure hearing the affairs of those who have grown wickedly rich while I am in poverty.

Ἀραξίῳ. (356/57) Πάλαι σου τὴν περὶ τὸ ἄρχειν ἐπιστήμην εἰδώς, ὅτι Καὶ τὴν παροῦσαν μετὰ παντὸς ἄρχεις τοῦ προςήκοντος, οἶδα. Εἰ δὲ μὴ καὶ πάλαι σε ἐτύγχανον εἰδώς, εὗρον ἄν σου τὴν ἀρετὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ φίλου. ὅστις γὰρ ὁμιλῶν ἥδεται Θεμιστίῳ, Οὐ πώποτ᾿ ἠρώτησα γινώσκων, ὅτι τοῦ ζῆν ὡς ἄριστα Ποιεῖται λόγον. Διὸ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκεῖ τε συνέζων αὐτῷ καθάπερ συμπεφυκὼς καὶ τῇδε ταὐτὸν ἐποίησα. συνὼν οὐκ ἐπαυσάμην, ὅπως τε ἀκούοιμί τι χρηστὸν καὶ δοκοίην τοῖς πολίταις εἶναι μὴ κακὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ χαίρειν τῷ καλῷ. γράμ- ματα δέ μοι σὰ κομίζων διπλῆν ἐποίει τὴν ἡδονήν, αὐτοῖς τε τοῖς δοθεῖσι καὶ ὅτι τοιοῦτος ἦν ὁ φέρων. καὶ δή με καὶ μετεωρίσας τοῖς περὶ σοῦ λόγοις ὥρμησε πρὸς τὴν ὁδόν. καὶ νῦν ἔ σοι διελεγόμην, εἰ μή με τὸ γῆρας τῆς μητρὸς ἔκαμψε πάνυ χρῇζον ἐπικουρίας. εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτο μένειν ἔπειθεν, οὐ- δὲν ἄν με τῶν ἄλλων μᾶλλον ἔπειθεν ἢ σοὶ βαδίζειν. ἴσως μὲν οὖν καὶ μένων ὄψομαί σε, τὴν γὰρ Τύχην ὁρῶ σε κομί- ζουσαν οἷ δεῖ σε ἐλθεῖν· ἴσως δὲ καὶ τῆσδέ σοι τῆς ἀρχῆς μηκυνομένης ἐμέ τις ὄψεται παρὰ σοί. τῆς δὲ ὕβρεως ἣν ὕβρισμαι, πρὸς θεῶν, ἀπαίτησον δίκας καὶ μὴ τὸ γνῶναι πολλοὺς τὴν συκοφαντίαν μᾶλλον ἡγήσῃ φοβερὸν ἢ τὸ μὴ λαβεῖν με δίκην τοιούτων ὑβρισμάτων. ὅπως δὲ ταῦτα ἔσται, καλῶς εἴσῃ τά τε ἄλλα ἐπιστάμενος καὶ δικῶν ὁδούς. οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγε οἴσω τὰ τῶν κακῶς πεπλουτηκότων ἀκούων ἐν πενία.