Letter 215: Our disagreement on the point you raised is, I think, less serious than it appears.

To Florentius. (360) You know both the city and the customs of the city and the public services within it and the measure of each, and which is light and which requires the wealth of Croesus, and that with those who have undertaken the greatest of these everyone would reasonably both join in prayer and lend a hand. Now joining in prayer is our part, who have no power, but the helping by deeds falls to you. My cousin, then, having now for a long time been spending beyond all precedent, and having reduced his estate to less, with nothing left within, and not even wishing to remain in his station, holds on. Necessity therefore driving him out, he follows after and indeed summons the cities to the office. And while he has these matters in hand, he receives a letter, which I could not believe came from you; for your communications are always both fine and measured and breathing a certain gentleness, but the present one is not much like those before. For the demands are small: "do not slaughter the wild beasts, nor the others from them; strip off the robes, change your dress, undo the crown, drive off the spectators, do not use your own resources." Or rather, not this, but "remain feeding them, and even if you must sell your farm, do this laughing." Do I then seem to you to judge rightly that this letter befits others? You gave the emperor winged leopards. Of these he will abstain, for he has given them; and bears more fearsome than those of old once around Munychia. Of these too he will abstain, for he has given them. But as for the rest, unless someone allows him to be master of them, consider what this now comes to. For my part I thought it right that you, even having inherited such customs, should bring to a stop a man who has reached the utmost of good sense; but that he himself should introduce fine things is worthy of him, which you have always done, while such things as these he should let go and bid farewell. So that you may win us back, then, reckoning these letters among the second sort, [know that] this letter [shows] a friend's frankness, but flattery belongs to others.

Φλωρεντίῳ. (360) Οἶσθα τήν τε πόλιν καὶ τὰ νόμιμα τῆς πόλεως καὶ τὰς ἐν αὐτῇ λειτουργίας καὶ μέτρον ἑκάστης καὶ τί κοῦφον καὶ τί τῶν Κροίσου δεόμενον χρημάτων καὶ ὡς τοῖς τὰ μέγιστα ὑπο- στᾶσιν εἰκότως ἂν ἕκαστος καὶ συνεύχοιτο καὶ συλλαμβάνοι. τὸ μὲν οὖν συνεύχεσθαι ἡμέτερον, οἷς οὐκ ἔστι δύναμις, εἰς σὲ δὲ ἥκει τὸ βοηθεῖν ἔργοις. ὁ τοίνυν ἀνεψιός μου πο- λὺν δὴ χρόνον δαπανώμενος ὑπὲρ ἅπαν παράδειγμα καὶ τὸν οἶκον ἐλάττω καταστήσας ὄντος ἔνδον ἴτ’ οὐδενὸς οὐδὲ βου- λόμενος ἐν τῷ σχήματι μένειν ἔχει. τῆς οὖν ἀνάγκης ἐξ- ἀγούσης αὐτὸν ἕπεται καὶ καλεῖ δὴ τὰς πόλεις ἐπὶ τὸ τέλος. ἔχων δὲ ταῦτα ἐν χεροῖν λαμβάνει γράμματα. ἃ ἠπίστησα παρ’ ὑμῶν ἥκειν, τὰ μὲν γὰρ ὑμέτερα ἀεὶ καὶ καλὰ καὶ μέτρια καί τινος προσόζοντα ἡμερότητος, τὸ παρὸν δὲ οὐ μάλα τοῖς ἔμ- πρόσθεν ἐοικός. τὰ μὲν γὰρ βήματα μικρά· μὴ σφάττε τὰ θηρία, τὰ δὲ ἀτ᾿ αὐτῶν· ἔκδυθι τῶν ἱματίων, μετ- ἀμπίσχου, τὸν στέφανον λύε, τοὺς θεωροὺς ἔλαυνε, μὴ χρῶ τοῖς σαυτοῦ. ἢ τοῦτο μὲν οὐχί, μένε δὲ τρέ- φων, κἂν δέῃ τὸν ἀγρὸν πωλεῖν, τοῦτο πρᾶττε γελῶν. ἆρά σοι δοκῶ δικαίως ἄλλοις ἡγεῖσθαι προσήκειν τὴν ἐπιστο- λήν; ἔδωκς τῷ βασιλεῖ παρδάλεις πτηνάς. τούτων ἀφέξε- ται, δέδωκε γάρ῾ καὶ ἄρκτους φοβερωτέρας τῶν πάλαι ποτὶ περὶ τὴν Μουνυχίαν. καὶ τούτων ἀφέξεται, δέδωκε γάρ. τῶν λοιπῶν δὲ εἰ μή τις αὐτὸν ἐάσει κύριον, σκόπει, τί τοῦτο ἤδη γίγνεται. ἐγὼ μέν σε ἠξίουν καὶ παρειληφότα τοιαῦτα ἔθη παύειν ἄνδρα ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἥκοντα φρενῶν, αὐτὸν δὲ εἰσάγειν καλὰ μὲν ἄξιον, ὃ πεποίηκας ἀεί, τὰ τοιαῦτα δὲ χαίρειν ἐᾶν. ὅπως οὖν ἡμᾶς ἀνακτήσῃ τοῖς δευτέροις νομίσας ταυτὶ τὰ γράμματα φίλου παρρησίαν, ἡ κολακεία δὲ ἑτέρων