Letter 405: Since you began helping me long ago -- help through which I recovered what was mine -- a brief word will suffice.

To Datianus. (355) Since it was long ago that you began the help by which I recovered what was my own, a brief speech will suffice for me; for one who must persuade would need a long discourse, but one who is rousing a man already persuaded would have no need of many words. Stretch out your hand, most excellent of men, keep firm your own resolve, grant the favor through to the end, do not look on while I am dragged away from an unfortunate uncle and from brothers living in poverty and from a mother laid low by old age, and while I myself am hauled off into a foreign land, and for them their homeland becomes a bitter thing. But my own misfortunes make your speeches on our behalf seemly. For my head has been seized by an illness, on account of which I drink wine the more as a remedy, and my kidneys have given us over to the sickbed, and from those things which make life most pleasant we have been shut out. A witness for us of these sufferings is Olympius, who has himself wrestled with these afflictions, your comrade and a comrade of Hippocrates and of Plato. Of him we have begged to take hold of your knees and to weep over them and to leave out no form of supplication. With these things I call upon you, but to another man I would write nothing of the sort, reckoning that, if you are willing, you will suffice even by yourself, but if you are not willing, then all the rest is in vain.

Δατιανῷ. (355) Ἐπειδὴ πάλαι τῆς βοηθείας ἤρξω, καθ’ ἣν ἐκομισάμην τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ, βραχὺς ἀρκέσει μοι λόγος· πείθοντι μὲν γὰρ μα- κρῶν ἂν ἔδει, κινοῦντι δὲ τὸν πεπεισμένον οὐδὲν ἂν δέοι πολλῶν. χεῖρα ὄρεξον, ὦ ἄριστε, τήρησον τὴν σαυτοῦ γνώ- μην, δὸς διὰ τέλους τὴν χάριν, μή με περιίδῃς ἀποσπώμενον ἀτυχοῦντος θείου καὶ πενομένων ἀδελφῶν καὶ μητρὸς ὑπὸ γήρως κειμένης μηδὲ ἐμὲ μὲν ἑλκόμενον εἰς γῆν ξένην, ἐκεί- ὄις δὲ πικρὰν τὴν πατρίδα γινομένην. ποιεῖ δέ σοι τοὺς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν λόγους εὐσχήμονας τὰ ἐμὰ κακά. ἥ τε γὰρ κεφαλὴ μοι κατείληπται νοσήματι, δι’ ὃ πλέον οἴνου πίνω φάρμακον, οἵ τε νεφροὶ τῇ κλίνῃ δεδώκασιν ἡμᾶς, ἃ δὲ ἥδιστον ποιεί τὸ ζῆν, τούτων ἀποκεκλείσμεθα. μάρτυς δὲ ἡμῖν τῶν πα. θῶν ὁ παλαίσας τοῖς πάθεσιν Ὀλύμπιος, ὁ σός τε ἑταῖρος καὶ Ἱπποκράτους καὶ Πλάτωνος. οὗ δεδεήμεθα λαβέσθαι σου τῶν γονάτων καὶ ἐπιδακρύσαι καὶ μηδὲν ἱκετείας εἶδος ἀφεῖναι. τούτοις σε παρακαλῶ, πρὸς δὲ ἄλλον οὐδὲν ἂν γράψαιμι τοιοῦτον λογιζόμενος, ὡς ἐθελήσας μὲν ἀρκέσεις καὶ μόνος, οὐ βουληθέντος δὲ σοῦ καὶ τἄλλα μάταια.