Letter 92: May you continue doing what you do best -- confirming just decisions, saving cities, hating sycophants, and...

May you continue doing what you do best -- confirming just decisions, saving cities, hating sycophants, and defending the wronged. As for us, the common report says that even public affairs have suffered, and if that is an exaggeration of the truth, what is certainly no lie is that the death of my uncle has destroyed our household. He is dead -- O gods -- dead! The wholly excellent Phasganius, whom you respected more than any man alive, by whom you were admired more than by any man alive, and whose illness concerned you more than anyone else's. For my part, I would have prayed to follow him immediately. But since I have been spared for grief and tears, I look to one source of consolation: you and your power. Even now, in your absence, we benefit from it -- and clearly we will benefit even more when you arrive.

**To Modestus** (359) May you continue to do what you have always done — that is, to strengthen and preserve cities, to despise sycophants, and to come to the aid of those who suffer injustice. As for us, the common report has it that public affairs too have been harmed, and if that is an exaggeration of the truth, at least this much is no falsehood: the death of my uncle has destroyed our household. He is dead, O gods, dead — Phasganius, that man of surpassing excellence in all things, whom you respected above all men, and by whom you were admired above all men, and for whom you showed such concern when he lay ill. For my own part, I could have prayed to follow him at once. But since I have been preserved for grief and tears, I look to one consolation alone: you and your power, the benefits of which we enjoy even now in your absence, and which, clearly, we shall enjoy all the more greatly when you come.

Μοδέστῳ. (359) Σὲ μὲν εἴη τὰ εἰωθότα ποιεῖν ταῦτα δέ ἐστι τε βεβαιοῦν καὶ σώζειν πόλεις καὶ μισεῖν συκοφάντας καὶ 15 βοηθεῖν ἀδικουμένοις· ἡμῖν δέ, ὡς μὲν ὁ κοινὸς λόγος, καὶ τὰ κοινὰ βλάπτεται, εἰ δὲ τοῦτο μεῖζον τοῦ ἀληθοῦς, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνό γε οὐ ψεῦδος, ὅτι τήν γε ἡμετέραν οἰκίαν ἀπολώλεκεν ἡ τελευτὴ τοῦ θείου. τέθνηκεν, ὦ θεοί, τέθνηκεν ὁ πάντα ἄριστος Φασγάνιος, ὃν σὺ μάλιστα ἀνθρώπων ᾐδέσθης καὶ ὑφ’ οὗ μάλιστα ἀνθρώπων ἐθαυμάσθης καὶ περὶ οὗ μάλιστα ἀσθενοῦντος ἐφρόντισας. ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν εὐξαίμην ἐκείνῳ τὴν αὐτὴν εὐθὺς ἐλθεῖν, ἐπεὶ δὲ τετήρημαι λύπη καὶ δάκρυσιν, εἰς μίαν ὁρῶ παραμυθίαν, σέ τε καὶ τὴν σὴν δύ- ναμιν ὧν νῦν τε ἀπολαύομεν ἀπόντος καὶ δῆλον ὡς μειζόνως, ἡνίκα ἂν ἴλθης, ἀπολαυσόμεθα.