Letter 391: Whenever I write to Hierocles — and I have done so many times — I never fail to add: "Please do our friend Anthios a...

To Anthius. (355) When I write to Hierocles, and I have done this often, there is no occasion on which I have failed to add this: that you do well by us our comrade Anthius. And perhaps that man too has rendered you some help; but if he has paid no attention to it, still I have at any rate discovered an ally who, to do me a favor, would go even through fire. Whether, then, some good thing must accrue to you, he will be eager for it; or whether some grievous thing must be undone, he will not shrink from it; or whether another magistrate must be persuaded to act justly toward you, not even this will he avoid. And he has done a favor before all else, in that letters come to you through him from me. Take courage, then, and approach him, and tend to your own affairs, and consider that a certain opportune moment has been seized.

Ἀνθίῳ. (355) Ἐγὼ πρὸς Ἱεροκλέα γράφων, πολλάκις δὲ τοῦτο ἐποίησα, οὐκ ἔστιν ὅτε προσέθξκα τό· ὅπως ἡμῖν εὖ ποιῇς ἑταῖσον Ἄνθιον. καὶ ἴσως μέν τί σοι κἀΚεῖνος βεβοήθηκεν· εἰ δὲ οὐδέν τι προσέσχεν, ἀλλ’ ἐξεύρηκά γε σύμμαχον, ὃς ἐμήν γε χάριν κἂν διὰ πυρὸς ἔλθοι. εἶτε οὖν δεῖ σοί τι προσ- γενέσθαι ἀγαθόν, προθυμήσεται· εἴτε λυθῆναι λυπηρόν, οὐκ ἀποκνήσει· εἴθ’ ἕτερον ἄρχοντα πεῖσαι τὰ δίκαια πρὸς σὲ ποι- εἰν, οὐδὲ τοῦτο φεύξεται. κεχάρισται δὲ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλωι τῷ γράμματά σοι δι’ αὐτοῦ παρ’ ἐμοῦ φοιτᾶν. θάρρει δὴ καὶ πρόσιθι καὶ τὰ σαυτοῦ θεράπευε καὶ νόμιζε καιροῦ τινος εἰλῆφθαι.