Letter 656: When I heard that you turned your troubles into an occasion for philosophy, I nearly praised the man who wronged you.

To Sarpedon. (361) Hearing that you had used the things by which you were grieved as a starting-point toward philosophy, I came close to praising the man who caused you pain; but when I saw the excellent Mariane and took the measure of her judgment, I marveled that you had not long ago made the change of life, living as you do with such a woman. But it was fated, it seems, that you should come into happiness only slowly. Hold fast, then, to your present office, hoping indeed to accomplish something even great, and in such matters reckoning even the small thing great. Let these things be a recompense to you in return for the deliverance by which you saved me, when, as I was running off to the bath at the wrong hour after taking a drug, I was prevented by you.

Σαρπηδόνι. (361) Ἀκούσας ὅτι οἷς ἠνιάθης ἀφορμῇ πρὸς φιλοσοφίαν ἐχρήσω, μικροῦ τὸν λυπήσαντα ἐπῄνεσα· ὡς δὲ εἶδον τὴν ἀρίστην Μαριανὴν καὶ πεῖραν τῆς γνώμης ἔλαβον, ἐθαύμασα ὡς οὐ πάλαι τὴν μετάστασιν ἐποιήσω τοιαύτη γυναικὶ συν- οικῶν. ἀλλ’ εἵμαρτο, ὡς ἔοικε, βραδέως ἐν εὐδαιμονίᾳ γε- νέσθαι. ἔχου δὴ τῆς παρούσης τάξεως ἐλπίζων μέν τι καὶ μέγα δράσειν, καὶ τὸ μικρὸν δὲ ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις ἡγούμενος μέγα. ταῦτά σοι μισθὸς ἀντὶ τῆς σωτηρίας ἥν με ἔσωσας, ὅτε ἐπὶ φαρμάκου πόσει πρὸς βαλανεῖον οὐκ ἐν ὥρᾳ θέων ὑπὸ σοῦ διεκωλύθην.