Letter 633: If this is how things stand, then necessity is stronger even than the gods, as the saying of the wise goes.

To Agroecius and Eusebius. (361) If these things are so, then necessity is mightier even than the gods, as the saying of the wise men has it. And I, considering both your suffering there and how matters here are being carried toward the worse for you, since those who would have helped are absent, was disheartened, and for these reasons I thought that you ought to come, so that there might be an end to these troubles. But a certain turn of affairs that came about taught me that it was, after all, better to remain seated apart from the tumult; yet I think that this too will be brought to a stand, and that there will be a return for you.

Ἀγροικίῳ καὶ Εὐσεβίῳ. (361) Εἰ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει, καὶ θεῶν ἀνάγκη κρείττων, ὡς ὁ τῶν σοφῶν λόγος. ἐγὼ δὲ ἐνθυμούμενος τήν τε ὑμετέραν ἐκεῖ κακοπάθειαν καὶ ὡς τἀνθάδε ὑμῖν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω φέρεται τῶν βοηθησάντων ἂν ἀπόντων ἠθύμουν καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ᾤμην δεῖν ὑμᾶς ἐλθεῖν, ὅπως τούτων ἔσται πέρας. πραγμάτων δέ τις ἐπιγενόμενος κύκλος ἐδίδαξεν ὅτι ἄρα κρεῖττον ἦν ἵζω τοῦ κυδοιμοῦ μένειν, ἀλλ’ οἴμαι καὶ τοῦτον στήσεσθαι καὶ ὑμῖν ἐπάνοδον ἔσεσθαι.