Letter 311: I was still delighting in your letter -- which described the clever capture of a bandit with an elaborate escape...

To Clematius (357) While I was still delighting in the letter that reported the arrest of a certain brigand who had clever means of slipping away, and the crowd that came to the trial, and your fluency, and the applause of the bystanders, while I was rejoicing in these things, Asclepiades the physician came and cast me into despondency; for he said that you had done deeds that were the deeds of a madman, and by saying it he persuaded those whom he persuaded, and the storm was great. But I, perceiving this, restrained the governor, calling the physician a slanderer and asking that the matter be put to the test, while I worked on Asclepiades, telling him that it was not honorable to stir up disturbances; and I had men of the same mind as myself, both willing and speaking the same things—Euagrius, and the one who has the greatest share of good sense, I mean the noble Ampelius. So, then, this is how the governor's disposition stands toward you: the man is neither an enemy nor such a friend as before. For the one part we prevented, but the other part the liar set in motion. But you— [...] by all means master your tongue, and let a bridle be set upon your mouth. For it is better to live without fear by being temperate than to tremble through being reckless. But to your friends too grant favors in keeping with justice, and do not suppose it noble to resemble the Cyclops, [and] to bellow at random, to kick out, and to despise the gods. These things I write to you, having broken a resolution of my own. And it was this—to put an end to writing to you, since you do not even know my companions and dearest friends, Eunomus and Eudaemon, the men from Elusa. And yet I conversed with you much about the two men, asking that they obtain some benefit. They are both orators and make their living from advocacy. But you shrank even from this—from calling and addressing them, on the grounds, that is, that you had received a word about them from me. What, then, has been overlooked by you, let it now come to pass, so that a letter may come to me from those men not like the present one—for the present one is from men lamenting. But if you will not grant these things, you will teach us too no longer to grant the things of which we are masters.

Κληματίῳ (357) Ἔτι με τοῖς γράμμασιν ἡδόμενον, ἃ ἐμήνυε λῃστοῦ τινος σύλληψιν κομψὴν ἔχοντος διάδυσιν καὶ ὄχλον ἥκοντα ἐπὶ τὴν κρίσιν καἰ σὴν εὔροιαν καὶ τῶν περιεστηκότων κρότον, τούτοις με εὐφραινόμενον εἰς ἀθυμίαν ἥκων ἐνέ ἄλεν Ἀσκλη- πιάδης ὁ ἰατρός ἔφησε γάρ σε ποιῆσαι ταῦτα ἃ μεμηνότος ἦν, καὶ εἰπὼν ἔπεισεν οὓς ἔπεισε, καὶ πολὺς ἦν ὁ χειμών. ἐγὼ δὲ αἰσθόμενος τὸν μὲν ἄρχοντα κατεῖχον συκοφάντην καλῶν τὸν ἰατρὸν καὶ δεόμενος βάσανον ἀποδοῦναι τῷ πράγ- ματι, τὸν δ’ Ἀσκληπιάδην ἔπ τθον μὴ καλὸν εἶναι μηδὲ τα- ραχὰς ἐμποιεῖν καὶ εἶχον ταὐτά μοι καὶ βουλομένους καὶ λέ- γοντας Εὐάγριόν τε καὶ ᾧ πλεῖστον μέτεστι φρενῶν, Ἀμπέλιον λέγω τὸν καλόν. οὑτωσὶ δή σοι τὰ τοῦ ἄρχοντος κεῖται· οὔτ᾿ ἐχθρὸς ἁνὴρ οὔθ’ οἷος ἔμπροσθεν φίλος. τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἡμεῖς ἐκωλύσαμεν, τὸ δὲ ἐκίνησεν ὁ ψευσάμενος. σὺ δ’ ὅλως κράτει τῆς γλώττης καὶ ἐπέστω τῷ στόματι χαλινός. βἐλ- τιον γὰρ σωφρονοῦντα ζῆν ἀδεῶς ἢ θρασυνόμενον τρέμειν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς φίλοις τὰς μετὰ τοῦ δικαίου χάριτας δίδου καὶ μήτοι νόμιζε καλὸν ἐοικέναι τῷ Κύκλωπι <καὶ> α βοᾶν εἰκῆ λακτίζειν καὶ καταφρονεῖν τῶν θεῶν. ταῦτα ἐπιστέλλω σοι λύσας ἐμαυτοῦ δόγμα. τὸ δὲ ἦν καταλῦσαι τὸ πρὸς σὲ γρά- φειν, ὃς τοὺς ἑταίρους μοι καὶ φιλτάτους, Εὔνομόν τε καὶ Εὐδαίμονα, τοὺς ἐξ Ἑλούσης, οὐδὲ οἶσθα. καίτοι πολλά σοι περὶ τοῖν ἀνδροῖν διελέχθην ἀξιῶν αὐτοὺς τυχεῖν τινος ἀγα- θοῦ. ῥήτορες δὲ ἄμφω καὶ ποιοῦνται τὸν βίον ἀπὸ τοῦ συνη- γορεῖν. ἀλλὰ σὺ καὶ τοῦτο ὤκνησας καλέσας εἰπεῖν, ὡς ἄρα περὶ αὐτῶν ἐδέξω παρ’ ἐμοῦ λόγον. ὃ δή σοι παρῶπται, γενέσθω νῦν, ὥστ᾿ ἐμοὶ παρ’ ἐκείνων ἐλθεῖν ἐπιστολὴν οὐ κατὰ τὴν νῦν· ὡς ἣ γε νῦν ὀδυρομένων. εἰ δὲ σὺ ταῦτα οὐ δώσεις, διδάξεις καὶ ἡμᾶς ὧν ἡμεῖς κύριοι μηκέτι δοῦναι.