Letter 64: The wrongs being done to Cleobulus, who is my teacher and a friend to us both, and who is doing them -- he has...

**To Themistius** (359 AD) The wrongs done to Cleobulus — my teacher, and a friend to both you and me — and by whom they are done, he himself has made clear in what he wrote. Yet he wrote without much confidence; a certain hesitation crept into his mind, and many times he drew back from the letter. When I asked him the cause of this reluctance, reminding him of your old familiarity and of those just claims, he said he knew all that well enough, but that during your stay he had been guilty of a certain negligence toward you, and because of this he believed that your former warmth had grown cooler — and so he hesitated. I laughed at his timidity, and at the thought that after spending so long in your company he had so misjudged you as to imagine you would bear a grudge — if Cleobulus, unable to escape his own preoccupations, had failed to attach himself to you. For not even I resort to anger against him when, living close by, he amuses himself rather than keeps my company. He has been granted this privilege: that no one may accuse him of his idleness. And by the same token we surely honor Palamedes too, sparing the man who honors what belongs to that hero. So then, laugh it off yourself, and counting that accursed Severus — the man who drags Cleobulus into troubles — as your own enemy too, convince Cleobulus that even those of us who sit far away have the power to defend him from close at hand. For though you have charge of many affairs — since the city has many needs, and you are its guardian — count this too among the things that serve her interest: that wicked men be prevented from indulging their nature.

Θεμιστίῳ. (359) 16 Ἃ μὲν ἀδικεῖται καὶ ὑπὸ τίνων ὁ ἐμὸς μὲν διδάσκαλος, σὸς δὲ καὶ ἐμὸς φίλος Κλεόβουλος, αὐτὸς ἐν οἷς ἔγραψεν ἐδί- δαξεν. ἔγραφε δὲ οὐ μάλα θαρρῶν, ἀλλά τις ὄκνος εἰσῄει τὴν γνώμην καὶ πολλάκις ἀφίστατο τοῦ βιβλίου. ζητοῦντος δέ μου, πόθεν τουτὶ τὸ πάθος, καὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας ἀναμιμνήσκοντος συνηθείας καὶ τῶν δικαίων ἐκείνων τὰ μὲν ἔφασκεν εἰδέναι καλῶς, γενέσθαι δέ τινα αὑτῷ περὶ τὴν σὴν ἐπιδημία· ῥᾳθυ- μίαν, ὑφ’ ἧς νομίζειν ἀμβλύτερα τὰ πρὸ τοῦ γεγονέναι· διό- περ ὀκνεῖν. ἐγὼ οὖν ἐγέλων πρὸς τὴν δειλίαν καὶ εἴ σου τοσοῦτον ἡμάρτηκε τοσοῦτόν σοι χρόνον συγγεγονὼς ὡς οἴε- σθαί σε χαλεπαίνειν. εἰ μὴ Κλεόβουλος οἷός τε ἐγένετο τὰς αὑτοῦ φυγὼν ἀσχολίας ἐξῆφθαί σου. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡμεῖς ὀργὴ χρώμεθα πρὸς αὐτόν. εἰ πλησίον ἡμῶν οἰκῶν αὑτὸν τέρπει μᾶλλον ἢ ἡμῖν σύνεστι. δέδοται γὰρ αὐτῷ γέρας τι τοῦτο μη- δένα αὐτοῦ τῆς ῥᾳστώνης κατηγορεῖν. τῷ δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ τὸν Παλαμήδην δήπου τιμῶμεν τοῦ τἀκείνου τιμῶντος φειδόμε- νοὶ. καὶ σὺ τοίνυν γελάσας καὶ τὸν ἕλκοντα Κλεόβουλον εἰς φροντίδας καὶ σαυτοῦ νομίσας ἐχθρὸν τὸν κατάρα τον Σευῆρον πεῖσον αὐτόν, ὡς καὶ πόρρω καθήμενοι δυνά- με ἐγγύθεν ἀμύνεσθαι καὶ γὰρ εἰ πολλῶν ἐπιμελῇ πραγμά- των, πολλὰ γὰρ τί τῆς πόλεως σὺ δὲ ἐκείνης ὁ φύλαξ, καἰ τοῦτο νόμισον τῶν ἐκείνῃ συμφερόντων τὸ τοὺς πονηροὺς κωλύεσθαι χρῆσθαι τῇ φύσει.