Letter 422: What a fine thing is about to begin -- something that deserves to be old rather than new: now Spectatus will be a...

To Aristaenetus. [355 AD] What a thing is now about to make its beginning, when it would be just for it to be of long standing! Now Spectatus will become a guest-friend to Aristaenetus. Before this he was not very much so, but soon the loss from the gain will become apparent to you both, and, while admiring one another, you will lay the blame upon the time you have let slip. Now the things which this man has heard about you are of such a kind that he comes already in love with you; and the things which you will find in him are of such a kind that, when he departs, you will not bear it. It is fitting that the beginning of your friendship with the man should become for you the end of the grief which you nourish over your wife. For he will not do the deed of Heracles -- and I think that not even Heracles did it, but that Alcestis returning to life is a fable -- yet, so far as a man has power, he will leave nothing wanting toward your consolation.

Ἀρισταινέτῳ. (355) Οἶον πρᾶγμα νῦν λήψεται τὴν ἀρχὴν δίκαιον ὂν ἀρ- χαῖον εἶναι· νῦν Σπεκτάτος Ἀρισταινέτῳ ξένος ἔσται. πρὸ τοῦδε οὐ σφόδρα, ταχὺ δὲ ὑμῖν ἐκ τοῦ κέρδους ἡ ζημία φαί νεται καὶ θαυμάζοντες ἀλλήλους τὸν προειμένον αἰτιάσεσθε χρόνον. ἃ μὲν οὖν οὗτος ἤκουσε περὶ σοῦ, τοιαῦτά ἐστιν, ὥστε ἐρῶν ἔρχεται· ἃ δὲ εὑρήσεις ἐν τούτῳ σύ, τοιαῦτά ἐστιν, ὤστ’ ἀπιόντος οὐκ οἴσεις. ἄξιον δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα φιλίας πέρας σοι γενέσθαι τῆς λύπης, ἣν ἐπὶ τῇ γυναικὶ τρέφεις. τὸ μὲν γὰρ Ἡρακλέους οὐ ποιήσει — οἴμαι δέ, οὐδ’ Ἡρακλῆς ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ’ ἡ Ἄλκηοτις ἀνιοῦσα μῦθός έστιν — ὅση δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ δύναμις, εἰς παραμυθίαν οὐδὲν ἐλλείψει.