Letter 312: Even before your letter arrived, I knew both that you had fallen into terrible illness and that you had recovered...

To Acacius. (357) Even before your letter I knew both that you had come into troubles and that you had been delivered from those troubles. For a certain man arriving from there, one not very well known to me, said that you had been gravely ill and had even made mention of a will; but when he saw that I had fallen out of my senses and was undone, he said that there was no need of the will after all, for the danger had been dissolved. Thus I once more came to myself and recounted to my friends what you had suffered and escaped, joining the better news to the things that had alarmed me. But when I received your letter and saw exactly, set out in order, the nature of the illness—and it was Hippocrates together with Plato who enabled you to do this, for you are a pupil of both—I grieved with you over your sufferings, and I was vexed on the city's account, since it nourishes many men of the sort of Acesias. Yet I had sympathy, if while you were ill the wine got the better of you. For I too am one of those who are slaves to wine when I am sick. But when I heard of the streams of sweat, I breathed again. And I am grateful to Asclepius for halting the weakness, and to you for reporting it. For it is a common festival of the Greeks that the foremost of the Greeks is in good health. For what you call me, you yourself happen to be. By keeping company with my discourses you make me happy—if indeed I am so great a thing. And I will not say what the many say, that it is because you love the father of discourses, but not that you praise the offspring, that you keep company with the discourses. For you would neither call a man a skillful orator who was an agreeable friend but not a skillful orator, nor would you reckon a man a poor orator who was not your friend but was a good orator. For, cutting away all else, you come to be a judge of the discourses themselves, and you think it right to look not at whose they are, but at what sort they are; so that I now think great things of myself, persuaded by your vote, that I too am after all somebody. As for Titianus, in the summer let him make whatever use of it is fitting in summer, but in winter let him know that his place is with us. And let him take a part in my affairs, since this seems good to his father, but let him cling more to his father's footsteps; and, even before Nestor, let Peisistratus admire no one.

Ἀκακίῳ. (357) Καὶ πρὸ τῆς σῆς ἐπιστολῆς ἠπιστάμην οἱ κακῶν τε ἀφῖξο καὶ ὅτι τῶν κακῶν ἀπηλλάγης. ἀνὴρ γάρ τις ἐκεῖθεν ἥκων οὐ πάνυ μοι γνώριμος εἰπών σε νοσῆσαι σφόδρα καὶ μνησθῆναί γε διαθηκῶν, ὡς εἶδεν ἐμαυτοῦ με ἐκπεσόντα καὶ ἀπολωλότα, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐδέησε μέντοι τῶν διαθηκῶν, ἔγη, λέλυται γὰρ τὸ δεινόν. οὕτως αὖθις ἐν ἐμαυτῷ τε ἐγενόμην καὶ πρὸς τοὺς φίλους διηγούμην, ἃ παθὼν δια- φύγοις, συνάπτων τοῖς ταράττουσι τὰ βελτίω. λαβὼν δέ σου τὰ γράμματα καὶ τοῦ νοσήματος τὴν φύσιν ἀκριβῶς ἐν τῇ τάξει καθορῶν, παρεῖχε δέ σοι τοῦτο ποιεῖν μετὰ τοῦ Πλά- τωνος Ἱπποκράτης, σὺ γὰρ ἀμφοῖν μαθητής, συνήλγουν μὲν ἐπὶ τοῖς πόνοις, συνηχθόμην δὲ τῇ πόλει πολλοὺς τρεφούσῃ τοὺς Ἀκεσίας. συγγνώμην δὲ εἶχον, εἰ σοῦ κάμνοντος οἶνος ἐκράτει. καὶ γὰρ αὐτός εἰμι τῶν οἴνῳ δουλευόντων ἐν τῷ νοσεῖν. ὡς δ’ ἤκουσα κρουνοὺς ἱδρῶτος, ἀνέπνευσα. καὶ χάριν ἔχω τῷ μὲν Ἀσκληπιῷ τοῦ στῆσαι τὴν ἀσθένειαν, σοὶ δὲ τοῦ μηνῦσαι. κοινὴ γὰρ δὴ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἑορτὴ τὸν τῶν Ελλήνων ἄκρον ἐρρῶσθαι. ὃ γὰρ ἐμὲ σὺ καλεῖς, αὐτὸς ὢν τυγχάνεις. λόγοις δὲ ἐμοῖς ὁμιλῶν εὐδαίμονά με ποιεῖς, εἰ δὴ τοσοῦτον ἐγώ. καὶ οὐκ ἐρῶ γε τὸ τῶν πολλῶν, ὅτι τὸν πατέρα τῶν λόγων φιλῶν, ἀλλ’ οὐ τοὺς ἐκγόνους ἐπαινῶν ὁμιλεῖς τοῖς λόγοις. σὺ γὰρ οὔτ’ ἂν φίλον μὲν δεξιόν, ῥήτορα δὲ μὴ δεξιὸν ῥήτορα προσείποις δεξιὸν οὔτ’ ἇι μὴ φίλον μέν, ῥήτορα δὲ ἀγαθὸν φαῦλον ἡγήσαιο ῥήτορα. πάντα γὰρ δὴ περικόπτων αὐτῶν γίγνῃ τῶν λόγων καἰ οὐχ ὧν εἰσιν, ἀλλ’ οἷοί τινές εἰσιν ἀξιοῖς ὁρᾶν, ὥστ’ ἤδη μεγάλα φρονῶ τῇ σῇ ψήφῳ πειθόμενος, ὡς ἄρα τις εἴην καὶ αὐτός. Τιτια- νὸς δὲ τῷ θέρει μέν, ὅσα εἰκὸς τῷ θέρει, χρήσθω, τοῦ χει- μῶνος δὲ παρ’ ἡμῖν ἴστω. καὶ προσαπτέσθω μὲν τῶν ἐμῶν, ἐπειδὴ τῷ πατρὶ δοκεῖ, τῶν δὲ τοῦ πατρὸς ἰχνῶν ἐχέσθω πλέον καὶ πρὸ τοῦ Νέστορος Πεισίστρατος θαυμαζέτω μηδένα.