Letter 220: Your letter arrived at exactly the right moment -- when I was beginning to wonder whether the world contained anyone...

To Hyperechius. (360) Never before have I been at once so delighted and so pained as I am now in both ways. It was the worthy Gaudentius who brought the causes of these feelings, and he too, in the telling, suffered the very things that I did. By this he moved me all the more to love him. The first things were these: that on your return you straightway won the whole city to hang upon you, young men and old alike, many of them and clever, both by the swiftness of your tongue and by your appearing affable in company. For you shunned strife and contentiousness and disdain, whence you even surpassed the Artemon of the proverb, since while the rest credit to you what belongs to their fathers, your own father all but takes wing for you, and your mother is called the bearer of a noble child. As I heard these things and such as these -- not in so few words, but in as many as it is natural for one who delights in the narration to speak, for Gaudentius rejoiced in what he reported, and I do not know whether he would have rejoiced more had he been telling of a child of his own -- I for my part knew such gratitude toward the gods as I had felt over none of the others; but he, growing suddenly gloomy, threw me into confusion. "And what is this?" said I. But he kept silent. And the more I pressed him, the more he shrank from speaking. Then he is forced to add those dreadful and shuddersome things -- both the two dangers and the nooses made ready for your parents. And seeing me undone by these, he quickly applied the remedy, saying that you had risen up and that the fear was gone which the city had feared for you in common. But Gaudentius, afraid that he might seem to be speaking exaggerations that were not so, looked toward a certain man and, addressing him as Romanus, called him to witness. And he, coming forward, said he had nothing so great to tell as that which he knew. And this man too, from that word, became a friend to me. Since, then, the excellent Gaudentius left out nothing of praise, I asked how many years old his daughter had become. And learning this, I said I wondered that anyone, passing over the kinsman whom he praises, should seek another. And the dearest to me of all men, blushing, said nothing, but showed by his face that he did not, after all, count you people of no account. Thus, on behalf of the affairs among you, I, standing at so great a distance, look out for you; and, having spread the nets, I try to deliver Heortios to you -- and yet your father has lived his life in the hunt.

Ὑπερεχίῳ. (360) Οὔτε ἥσθην οὔτ’ ἠνιάθην οὐδεπώποτε οὕτως ὡς νῦν ἀμφότερα. ἐκόμιζε δὲ τὰ τούτων αἴτια Γαυδέντιος ὁ χρηστός, καὶ οὗτος ἐν τῷ διηγεῖσθαι πάσχων ἅπερ ἐγώ. δι’ ὧν δή με καὶ μᾶλλον ἐκίνησε φιλεῖν αὐτόν. ἦν δὲ τὰ πρῶτα μέν, ὡς ἐπανήκων εὐθὺς ἀναρτήσαις τὴν πόλιν, νέους ὁμοίως καὶ γέ- ροντας καὶ πολλοὺς καὶ δεξιούς, τῆς τε γλώττης τῷ τάχει τῷ τε ὁμιλητικὸς φαίνεσθαι· φυγεῖν γάρ σε ἔριν τε καὶ φιλονει- κίαν καὶ ὑπεροψίαν, ὅθεν καὶ τὸν ἐν τῇ παροιμίᾳ παρελθεῖν Ἀρτέμωνα τῶν μὲν ἄλλων τὰ πατέρων εἰς σὲ ποιούντων, τοῦ πατρὸς δέ σοι μικροῦ πετομένου, τῆς μητρὸς ἴε καλλίπαιδος καλουμένης. ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἀκούων, οὐχ οὕτως ἐν βραχέσιν, ἀλλὰ δι’ ὅσων εἰκὸς τὸν τῇ διηγήσει χαίροντα λέγειν, ἔχαιρε γὰρ οἷς ἀπήγγειλε Γαυδέντιος, οὐκ οἶδα, εἰ μᾶλλον ἂν περὶ παιδὸς διηγούμενος. ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν ὅσην ἐπ’ οὐδενὶ τῶν ἄλλων τοῖς θεοῖς ᾔδειν χάριν, ὁ δὲ σκυθρωπάσας ἐξαίφνης ἐτάραξέ με. καὶ τί τοῦτο; ἔφην. ὁ δὲ ἐσίγα. καὶ μᾶλλον εκείμην, ὁ δὲ ὤκνει λέγειν ἔπειτα ἀναγκάζεται προσθεῖναι τὰ δεινὰ ἐκεῖνα καὶ φρικώδη καὶ τοὺς δύο κινδύνους καὶ τοὺς ἡτοιμασμένους τοῖς τοκεῦσι βρόχους. ἐφ’ οἷς ὁρῶν με ἀπολω- λότα ταχέως προσήγαγε τὸ φάρμακον ὡς ἀνέστης εἰπὼν καὶ ὡς ἄπεστιν ὁ φόβος ὃν ἡ πόλις ὑμῖν ἐφοβήθη κοινῇ. δεί- σας δὲ ὁ Γαυδέντιος μὴ δοκῇ λέγειν οὐκ οὔσας ὑπερβολάς, βλέψας εἴς τινα καὶ Ῥωμανὸν προσειπὼν ἐκάλει μάρτυρα. καὶ ὃς ἐπελθὼν οὐδὲν ἴφη τοσοῦτον ἔχειν εἰπεῖν, ὅσον οἶδε. καὶ ἦν καὶ οὗτος ἀπὸ τοῦ ῥήματός μοι φίλος. ἐπεὶ οὖν οὐδὲν ἀπέλιπεν ὁ καλὸς Γαυδέντιος εὐφημίας, ἠρόμην ὁπόσα ἔτη γέγονεν ἡ θυγάτηρ αὐτῷ. καὶ μαθὼν θαυμάζειν ἔφην, εἔτις ἀφεὶς ὃν ἐπαινεῖ κηδεστὴν ἕτερον ζητεῖ. καὶ ὁ πάντων ἐμοὶ φίλτατος ἀνθρώπων φοινιχθεὶς εἶπε μὲν οὐδέν, προσώπῳ δὲ ἐδήλωσεν ὡς οὐκ ἄρα ὑμᾶς ἡγοῖτο φαύλους. οὕτως ὑπὲρ τῶν παρ’ ὑμῖν ὁ τοσοῦτον ἀφεστηκὼς σκοπῶ καὶ τὰ δίκτυα πετά- πετάσας ὑμῖν πειρῶμαι παραδοῦναι τὴν Ἑορτίου, καίτοι ὁ πατήρ σοι βεβίωκεν ἐν θήρᾳ.