Letter 537: Will you flee from this letter too, and throw it away when you see the name of the sender -- just as you were happy...
Εὐμαθίῳ. (356/57)
Ἄρα μου φεύξῃ καὶ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν καὶ τοὔνομα τοῦ 15
πέμψαντος εὑρὼν ἀπορρίψεις, ὡς ἡμᾶς γε τὴν πρώτην ἰδὼν
ἡδέως ἔφυγες προιών; τὴν δὲ αἰτίαν, ὑφ’ ἧς τοῦτο ἐποίησας,
οὐκ ἂν εἴποιμι πρὸς ἄλλον, ἐπειδή σε φιλῶ, καίτοι τινὰ ἅκ-
κισμὸν ἂν ἐμοὶ φέροι.
κατηγορεῖς Γε, ὡς ἀκούω, τὸ συνόντα
με τοῖς νέοις πρὸς τοὺς νέους ὡς μάλιστα τετάσθαι, τῶν δὲ
ἄλλων ἀμελεῖν. ἐγὼ δέ σε ἠξίουν, εἰ μὴ τοῦτο οὕτως ἐπράτ-
τετο, πονηρὸν <ἐμὲ> καλεῖ ὁ γάρ τοι παιδευτὴς ἐν τῷ
καθήμενος, εἰ περιστησάμενος τὸν χορὸν ἐπ’ ἄλλο τρέποιτο,
δίκην ὀφείλων ἴστω.
σὺ δὲ ὃν στρυφνὸν εὗρες ἐν τῷ δι-
δασκαλείῳ, τοῦτον εὗρες ἂν ἑτέρωθι καὶ γελᾶν εἰδότα. ἀλλ’,
οἶμαι, καλῶν ἄγριον ἐμὲ καὶ χαλεπὸν αὐτὸς οὐχ ἡμέρου τοῦτο
ἐποίησας τὸ κακίσαι τε ἐφ’ οἷς οὐκ ἄξιον καὶ πρὶν ἀσπάσασθαι
ἀπελθεῖν.
ἀλλὰ καὶ παῖδές εἰσί σοι καὶ τὸν πατέρα μιμού-
μενοι λόγων ἔχονται καὶ τάχα δὴ βαδιοῦνται παρ’ ἡμᾶς. ἐν-
θυμοῦ δή, πότερόν σοι λυσιτελεῖ τὸ τοιαῦτα ἐγκαλεῖσθαι τὸν
ἐκείνων διδάσκαλον ἢ τὸ παίζειν ἀντὶ τοῦ φροντίζειν.
Related Letters
I wrote this letter for the modest and devoted Marcellus and Romanus more as a gesture of friendship than with any...
Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol.
1. In what state the good Isaaces has found me, he himself will best explain to you; though his tongue cannot be tragic enough to describe my sufferings, so great was my illness. However, any one who knows me ever so little, will be able to conjecture what it was.
Why I was reluctant to write, you learned from the letter I sent through the sons of Bassus — if you received it.
Thanks to God for showing forth His wonderful power in your person, and for preserving you to your country and to us your friends, from so terrible a death. It remains for us not to be ungrateful, nor unworthy of so great a kindness, but, to the best of our ability, to narrate the marvellous works of God, to celebrate by deed the kindness which ...