Letter 270: If you have ever wondered what kind of man Callimachus is, you will find out from this visit.

To Acacius. (361) You were right to leave it to me to write first. For this privilege is granted to the accuser, and I am the accuser; while it falls to you to attempt to dissolve the charges. For this reason you have waited, not thinking it right to follow the example of the Plataeans rather than the common law. What, then, is it that both I and the city charge you with? That you, my good fellow, having become great among us, made us second to others, and, having set out for the summer as the pretext of your scheme, you departed as though you would run back here again, yet you stayed, as if you had tasted of the lotus. Or rather, that lotus, over which you have often proved the stronger, you have now, after many a back-and-forth course, come to admire it, even though all the things that are naturally fit to persuade a sophist to endure the toils of teaching were here at hand for you to reap. For if applause and being praised is a great thing, you carried off much of this; or if a great throng of a chorus is sweet, consider how it was not seldom that you departed in the late evening from the gathering. But surely the income, at least, is greater—so I persuade myself—than what would have come from elsewhere. As for children, you had some of them with us, and others would have come, and we would have been celebrating marriages, choosing suitors out of the many who are worthy. But the greatest thing of all is this: that we had already been freed from the strife we had with one another—a strife that never at any time held anything savage, and that had by now even ceased, our age, I think, persuading us to it, and the matter standing well for each of us. These charges I bring while you are absent, although I have the power, instead of accusing you, to have you here present. For I, you see, am weak in all other respects, but for the task of displaying you here again I know I have a greater power than that Midas who accomplished those greatest of feats. But the very men to whom you sent letters, begging that he remain there, these same men, when they begged me and called my zeal an act of impiety, restrained him—and that too when he was already drawing near to the doors of the magistrates. Will you, then, have anything to say in reply to this? Clever you are; but I would be astonished if even now you are not at a loss.

Ἀκακίῳ. (361) Εἰκότως ἀφῆκας ἐμοὶ τὸ προτέρῳ γράψαι. τῷ μὲν γὰρ κατηγόρῳ τοῦτο δέδοται, κατηγορῶ δὲ ἐγώ· δεῖ δὲ σὲ τὰς αἰτίας πειρᾶσθαι λύειν. διόπερ ἀνέμεινας οὐκ οἰηθεὶς δεῖ Πλαταιεῦσιν ἀκολουθῆσαι μᾶλλον ἢ κοινῷ νόμῳ. τί οὖν ἐγώ τε καὶ ἡ πόλις αἰτιώμεθα; ὅτι, ὦ δαιμόνιέ, μέγας παρ’ ἡμῖν γεγενημένος ἑτέρων ἡμᾶς ἐποίησας δευτέρους καὶ τὸ θέρος προστησάμενος τοῦ ἐπιβουλεύματος ἀπῆλθες μὲν ὡς αὖθις δεῦρο δραμούμενος, ἔμεινας καθάπερ λωτοῦ γευσά- μενος. μᾶλλον δέ, οὗ πολλάκις κρείττων ἐγένου λωτοῦ, τοῦτον νῦν μετὰ πολλοὺς διαύλους ἐθαύμασας, καίτοι πάντα ἃ πείθειν πέφυκε σοφιστὴν τοὺς ἐν τῷ παιδεύειν ὑπομένειν πόνους καρποῦσθαί σοι τῇδε παρῆν. εἴτε γὰρ ὁ κρότος καὶ τὸ ἐπαινεῖσθαι μέγα, πολὺ τοῦτο ἔφερες, εἴτε χοροῦ πλῆ- θος ἡδύ, ἐννόησον ὡς οὐκ ὀλιγάκις ἀπῆλθες περὶ δείλην ὀψίαν ἀπὸ τῆς συνουσίας. ἀλλὰ μὴν ἥ γε πρόσοδος μείζων, ὥς γε ἐμαυτὸν πείθω, τῆς ἄλλοθεν ἂν γενομένης. τέκνα δὲ τὰ μὲν ἦν σοι παρ’ ἡμῖν, τὰ δὲ ἦλθεν ἄν, καὶ γάμους ἂν ἐτελοῦμεν ἐκλεγόμενοι μνηστῆρας ἐκ πολλῶν οὓς ἄξιον. τὸ δὲ μέγιστον, ἤδη ἦμεν ἀπηλλαγμένοι τῆς πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἔριδος ὠμὸν μὲν οὐδὲν πώποτε σχούσης, ἤδη δὲ καὶ πεπαυμένης τῆς τε ἡλικίας, οἶμαι, πειθούσης καὶ τοῦ τὸ πρᾶγμα ἔχειν ἑκατέρῳ καλῶς. ταῦτα ἀπόντος κατηγορῶ καίτοι κύριος ὢν ἀντὶ τοῦ κατηγορεῖν παρόντα ἔχειν. ἐγὼ γάρτοι τὰ μὲν ἄλλα ἀσθενής, εἰς δὲ τὸ σὲ πάλιν ἐνθάδε δεῖξαι μείζω δύνα- μιν οἶδα ἔχων τοῦ τὰ μέγιστα ἐκεῖνα πεποιηκότος Μίδου. ἀλλ’ οἷς ἐπέσταλκας αὐτοῦ δεόμενος μένειν, οὗτοι δεηθέν- τες ἐμοῦ καὶ καλοῦντες ἀσέβημα τὴν σπουδὴν ἔσχον καὶ δὴ πελάζοντα ταῖς τῶν ἀρχόντων θύραις. ἆρ’ ἕξεις, ὅ τι πρὸς ταῦτα ἐρεῖς; δεινὸς μὲν εἶ, θαυμάσαιμι δ’ ἂν εἰ μὴ νῦν ἀπορήσεις.