Letter 198: Nothing from you is small, because it comes from you.

But though it is absurd that I should now be asking you for the very thing about which you have often spoken to me at length, namely that you imitate your own conduct, I ask it nonetheless. For Leontius has asked this of me, that everything be done for him quickly. For you see how the man is disposed in body, and that for those who are in such a condition it is not possible to endure delay. And I know that I have softened the most excellent Modestus too with my pleadings on his behalf. What then is it likely that you will do, who are his comrade and friend and patron? Cut short, then, all delay on everyone's part, and grant the despised man room to breathe again. As for Stasimus, I would have asked that he be released to pursue the acquisition of rhetoric, had I not known that you intend to send him to us.

Πρισκιανῷ (359/60?) Ἀλλ’ εἰ καὶ γελοῖον ὑπὲρ οὗ πρός με διελέχθης πολλά- κις ἐμὲ σοῦ δεῖσθαι νῦν, ὅπως τὰ σαυτοῦ μιμήσῃ, δέομαι ὅμως. τοῦτο γὰρ ἐδεήθη μου Λεόντιος, ὅπως πάντα αὐτῷ νοιτο ταχέως ὁρᾷς γάρ, ὡς ἁνὴρ τὸ· σῶμα διάκειται καὶ ὅτι τοῖς ὧδε ἔχουσιν οὐκ ἔστιν οἷόν τε μέλλησιν ἐνεγκεῖν. οἶδα δὲ καὶ τὸν ἄριστον Μόδεστον τοῖς ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ κατακλάσας λό- γοις. τί δῆτα σὲ δράσειν εἰκὸς τὸν ἑταῖρον καὶ φίλον καὶ προστάτην; περικόψας δὴ πᾶσαν ἁπάντων ἀναβολὴν δὸς ἀνα- πνεῦσαι τῷ καταφρονουμένῳ. τὸν Στάσιμον δὲ πρὸς κτῆ- σιν ἀφεθῆναι λόγων ἠξίωσα ἄν, εἰ μή σε ἠπιστάμην πέμψον- τα παρ’ ἡμᾶς αὐτόν.