Letter 373: I have no complaint against your household — quite the contrary, I am deeply grateful.

To Thalassius. (358) I bring no charge against your people, but rather I am very grateful to them. For not only do we obtain the things we requested, but even when we leave off giving orders, they say they are being wronged, because they have nothing to render in service. You yourself, however, both your household and I lay this to your charge: that you have set the hope of some position of power ahead of being together with both your kinsmen and your friends. And yet they say that you conduct yourself there not idly. For you do not spend your time on laughter and ease and jests and sleep, but you both labor and keep sober and are active and take delight in temperate men and make the life of Spectatus your model. For my part, when you had gone there, I thought it right that you do these things; but I think that staying at home is better than going. For when a man has a wife both good and young, but no children yet, and great possessions, as much as would suffice for happiness, why must he abandon these and guard the one set of things while preparing heirs from his seed, and pursue something else as an object of wonder? These things, then, both long ago seemed to me, and now seem, to be advantageous; but you, on the one hand, arranged your departure as though you would return in the summer, yet on the other hand, once you had taken hold of the Paeonians, you set the agreements at naught.

Θαλασσίω. (358) Ἐγὼ τοῖς σοῖς ἐγκαλῶ μὲν οὐδέν, χάριν δὲ οἶδα πολλήν. οὐ γὰρ μόνον ὧν ἐπηγγέλλομεν τυγχάνομεν, ἀλλὰ κἂν διαλεί- πωμεν ἐπιτάττοντες, ἀδικεῖσθαί φασιν, ὅτι μηδὲν ὑπηρετοῦσι. σὲ μέντοι καὶ οἱ σοὶ καὶ αὐτὸς αἰτιῶμαι, ὅτι δὴ τοῦ συν- εῖναι καὶ τοῖς οἰκείοις καὶ τοῖς φίλοις πρότερον ἔθου δυνά- μεώς τινος ἐλπίδα. καίτοι φασὶν οὐκ ἀργῶς σε τοῖς ἐκεῖ προσφέρεσθαι. οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰς γέλωτα καὶ ῥᾳστώνην καὶ σκώμ- μαια καὶ ὕπνον ἀναλίσκειν τὸν χρόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πονεῖν καὶ νήφειν καὶ ἐνεργὸν εἶναι καὶ τοῖς σώφροσι χαίρειν καὶ παρά- δειγμα ποιεῖσθαι τὸν Σπεκτάτου βίον. ἐγὼ δὲ ἐλθόντα μὲν έκεῖσέ <σε> α ταῦτα ποιεῖν ἠξίουν, τοῦ δὲ ἐλθεῖν τὸ μένειν οἴκοι βέλτιον ἄγειν. ὅτῳ γὰρ γυνὴ μὲν ἀγαθὴ καὶ νέα, παῖδες δὲ οὐδέπω, μεγάλα δὲ τὰ ὄντα καὶ ὅσα ἂν εἰς εὐδαιμονίαν ἀρκέσαι, τί δεῖ τοῦτον ἀφέντα τὰ μὲν φυλάττειν, κληρονόμους δὲ ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος ἑτοιμάζειν, ἄλλο τι θαυμά- ζεῖν; ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν ταῦτα πάλαι <τε> α ἐδόκει συμφέρειν νῦν, σὺ δὲ ὡς μὲν ἐπανήξων τῷ θέρει τὴν ἔξοδον εὕρου, λαβό- μενος δὲ Παιόνων τὰς συνθήκας ἠτίμασας.