Letter 468: That you did not receive the letter Clematios carried — I cannot believe it.

To Aristaenetus. (355/56) That you did not receive the letter which Clematius was carrying I would not be persuaded; but I cannot see, though I seek it, the reason why you have written nothing back to us in return, unless it be that your sitting beside the tomb keeps you apart from all other concerns. And yet on this very account you ought to have written to me, teaching me your wife's virtue, since you reckon that a speech is part of the honor paid to her. And for her this would have been a greater adornment than the things you are now doing. Concerning this matter, then, you will do whatever seems to you better; but as for us, the illness we feigned ourselves to have when we departed from there, with that we are now truly sick. So that before we used to be vexed at a particular place, but now at life itself. For in addition to the trouble about our head, a kidney ailment besieges us, now striking more violently, now more gently, but always causing some pain. And everything from every quarter is gathered for the cure, yet the malady prevails, and our kidney is a mortar, as they say, set over our head. But nevertheless we try not to keep silent. And the informant to you of both these matters and those will be Meterius, who, though able to set our city against his fatherland, and against his fellow citizens the friends here, is being drawn back by you into Bithynia, leaving behind among the Syrians a wonderful longing for himself. Of these things do not let the old man be ignorant, nor, once he knows them, let him be prone to anger.

Ἀρισταινέτῳ. (355/56) Μὴ λαβεῖν μέν σε τὰ γράμματα ἃ Κλημάτιος ἐκόμιζεν οὐκ ἂν πεισθείην· τοῦ δὲ μηδὲν ἡμῖν ἀντεπιστεnαι τὴν αἰτίαν ζητῶν οὐχ ὁρῶ, πλὴν εἰ τὸ τῷ μνήματι προσκεῖσθαι πάντων σε τῶν ἄλλων ἀφίστησι. καίτοι καὶ κατ’ αὐτό γε τοῦτο χρῆν σε ἐπιστεῖλαι διδάσκοντά με τὴν τῆς γυναικὸς ἀρετὴν νομί- ζοντα μέρος εἶναι τῆς εἰς ἐκείνην τιμῆς τὸν λόγον. τῇ δὲ ἦν ἂν μείζων ὁ κόσμος οὗτος ὧν νῦν ποιεῖς. περὶ μὲν οὑν τούτου πράξεις ὅ τι ἄν σοι φαίνηται βέλτιον, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἃ πλα- σάμενοι νοσεῖν ἀνέστημεν ἐκεῖθεν, τῇδε νοσοῦμεν. ὥστε πρὸ τοῦ μὲν ἐδυσχεραίνομεν τόπον τινά, νῦν δὲ αὐτὸ τὸ ζῆν. πρὸς γὰρ τῷ περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν κακῷ νεφρῖτις ἡμᾶς πο- λιορκεῖ νῦν μὲν σφοδρότερον ἐμβάλλουσα, νῦν δὲ ἡσυχαίτερον, πάντως δέ τι λυποῦσα. καὶ πάντα μὲν πανταχόθεν εἰς τὴν ἴασιν ἀγείρεται, κρατεῖ δὲ τὸ κακόν, καὶ ὁ νεφρὸς ἡμῖν ὅλμος, φασίν, ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς. ἀλλ’ ὅμως πειρώμεθα μὴ σιγᾶν. μη- νυτὴς δέ σοι καὶ τούτων κἀκείνων ἔσται Μητέριος, ὃς τῇ πατρίδι μὲν ἔχων ἀντιθεῖναι τὴν ἡμετέραν, τοῖς πολίταις δὲ τοὺς ἐνταῦθα φίλους ὑπὸ σοῦ πάλιν εἰς Βιθυνίαν ἕλκεται θαυμαστὸν αὑτοῦ πόθον ἐγκαταλιπὼν Σύροις. ἃ μήτ’ ἀγνοεῖν ἔα τὸν πρεσβύτην μήτ’ εἰδότα ὀργίλον εἶναι.