Letter 350: Was anyone ever so pleased digging the earth for one purpose only to stumble upon gold, as Jovinus was at seeing you...

To Clematius. (358) Was anyone ever so delighted who, while digging the earth in search of some other thing, chanced upon gold, as you are now, beholding yourself a magistrate while Jovinus looks on, and you have welcomed this man here? Your part I call good fortune, but his part virtue; for he ran so long a road to see his friend, while to you, sitting still, so great a matter has come. Or rather, his running shows your virtue too, since it is likely that the good man would run to the side of such a comrade. The things that you will say and do when you are together, consider that I too, though absent, in part see and in part hear them: the stirrings and the leapings and the great laughter flowing from you both, and the recollection of old times, and the talk about present affairs, and the grace of your jests, and the narrative concerning both me and my own people, by which above all you are held fast and from which you scarcely come away. At home, then, let Jovinus be allowed to play his former games; but if he should carry any of these things out into the marketplace, exact from him the same penalty as from me, because I did not walk stooping toward the ground and trembling alongside a man who was governing Palestine.

Κληματiῳ. (358) Ἆρ’ ἥσθη τις οὕτω ποτὲ γῆν μὲν ὀρύττων ἐπ’ ἄλλῳ τῳ, χρυσῷ δὲ ἐντυχών, ὡς νῦν σὲ μὲν ἄρχοντα Ἰοβῖνος ὁρῶν, σὺ δὲ 18 Vl γ΄, μδ΄ ωλ). τουτονὶ δεδεγμένος; καλῶ δὴ τὸ μὲν σὸν εὐτυχίαν, τὸ τού- του δὲ ἀρετήν· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἔδραμε τοσαύτην ὁδὸν τοῦ φίλον ἰδεῖν, σοὶ δὲ ἥκει καθημένῳ πρᾶγμα τοσοῦτον. μᾶλλον δέ, καὶ σὴν ἀρετὴν ὁ τούτου δεικνύει δρόμος, εἵπερ τὸν ἀγα- θὸν εἰκὸς παρὰ τοιοῦτον ἑταῖρον τρέχειν. ἃ δὲ συνόντες ἐρεῖτε καὶ δράσετε, νομίζετε καὶ ἐμὲ τὸν ἀπόντα τὰ μὲν ὁρᾶν, τὰ δὲ ἀκούειν, κινήματά τε καὶ σκιρτήματα γέλωτά τε πολὺν ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ῥέοντα καὶ μνήμην τῶν ἀρχαίων καὶ περὶ τῶν παρόντων λόγους καὶ σκωμμάτων χάριν καὶ διήγησιν περί τε ἐμοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐμῶν, ὑφ’ ὣν μάλιστα δὴ κατέχεσθε καὶ ὅθεν μόλις ἐκβαίνετε. οἴκοι μὲν οὖν ἐξέστω Ἰοβίνῳ παί- ζειν ἃ πρότερον· εἰ δέ τι τούτων εἰς ἀγορὰν ἐξάγοι, λάμβανε παρ’ αὐτοῦ δίκην ἣν καὶ παρ’ ἐμοῦ, διότι μὴ κύπτων εἰς γῆν καὶ τρέμων ἐβάδιζον μετ’ ἀνδρὸς τὴν Παλαιστίνην ἄγοντος.