Letter 577: A fine pair you make, you and the good Dometios.

To Aristaenetus. A fine pair you are, you and the excellent Domitius. A good charioteer yokes you together, casting a single vote on behalf of both. For the man who summons you to a partnership in toils [summons] this man too on equal terms. But you, without even having rehearsed how to sit still, remain at rest, while he goes off to lighten the governor's burden -- blessed in the man by whom he has been called, and destined to make that man too happy by the contribution he brings. And that contribution is experience in the laws, skill in speaking, justice of character. You, therefore, rejoicing with the one for the sort of man he will receive, and with the other for the sort of man to whom he goes, make the fellow your friend, so that you too may share in the joy of the acquisition.

Ἀρισταινέτῳ. (357) Καλή γε ἡ συνωρίς, σὺ καὶ Δομέτιος ὸ χρηστός. ζεύ- γνυσι δὲ ὑμᾶς ἡνίοχος ἀγαθὸς μίαν ψῆφον ὑπὲρ ἀμφοῖν θέμενος. ὁ γὰρ σὲ καλῶν ἐπὶ κοινωνίᾳ τῶν πόνων τοῦτον οὗτος ἐπὶ τοῖς ἴσοις. ἀλλὰ σὺ μὲν οὐδὲ μελετήσας καθῆ- σθαι μένεις, ὁ δὲ ἔρχεται κουφιῶν τὸν ἄρχοντα, μακάριος μέν, ὑφ’ οἴου κέκληται, ποιήσων δὲ κἀκεῖνον εὐδαίμονα τῇ παρ’ αὑτοῦ φορᾷ. ἔστι δὲ ἡ φορὰ νόμων ἐμπειρία, λόγων δεινότης, δικαιοσύνη τρόπων. σὺ τοίνυν τῷ μὲν συνηδό- μένος, οἷον λήψεται, τῷ παρ’ οἷον ἔρχεται, τὸν ἄνδρα ποιοῦ φίλον, ὥστε καὶ σοὶ συνησθῆναι τοῦ κτήματος.