Letter 504: I was sitting with my uncle in conversation when someone walked up and handed him a letter.

I was sitting beside the divine one [the uncle] and conversing with him, when someone came up and handed him a letter, and the thing handed over drew both my eyes toward itself, and your name appeared on it. So I asked him: where, then, is the letter for me? supposing that you would not, while writing to others, fail to make mention of us. But he said, what sort of letter? for nothing comes to you through us. I reflected, then, that all that was a fabrication and that your love was talk, not love. For if indeed you say that it was I who stopped him by not writing, by this you show him that the god [Eros] did not become great within you; for if he were, as you so often used to say, both great and strong, he would never have been dislodged by a trivial pretext. Now, then, it is rivers flowing upward: you look down on me, while I am in love. And, the potsherd having fallen the other way, you flee, while I am the pursuer. But it consoles me that I am insulted along with many nations, many cities, and most men. For if some pray to obtain you as their charioteer, yet you, though it is open to you to rule, are unwilling. But rather to live softly than to toil, and to sleep than to do good - how have not all things come to be reckoned small by you? But indeed I do not seem to be playing the orator well, if, while resenting your haughtiness, I speak in terms that will make it greater; for such is to assert that so many gape after you. So, that this may not be the case, learn that you do not please everyone. For those to whom the misfortunes of others are revenues would gladly cut you up and eat you - and perhaps that is nothing to wonder at. For the wolves too hate the dogs.

Ἀνατολίῳ. (356/57) Παρεκαθήμην τῷ θείῳ καὶ διελεγόμην, καί τις ἐπιστὰς ἔδωκεν ἐπιστολὴν ἐκείνῳ, καὶ τὸ δοθὲν ἔλκει μου τὼ ὀφθαλμὼ πρὸς αὑτό, καὶ τὸ σὸν ὄνομα ἐφαίνετο. ἠρόμην οὑν αὐτόν· ποῦ δὲ τὰ πρὸς ἐμὲ γράμματα; νομίζων οὐκ ἄν σε ἐτέ- ροις γράφοντα μνήμην ἡμῶν μὴ λαβεῖν. ὁ δὲ ποῖα ἔφη γράμματα;σοὶ γὰρ ἔρχεται δι᾿ ἡμῶν οὐδέν: ἐνεθυ- μούμην οὖν ὅτι πλάσμα ἦν ἅπαν ἐκεῖνο καὶ ὁ σὸς ἔρως λόγος ἦν, οὐκ ἔοως. εἰ γὰρ δὴ φὴς ὅτι αὐτὸν οὐκ ἐπιστείλας ἔπαυσα ἐγώ, τούτῳ δεικνύεις αὐτῷ τὸ μὴ πολὺν ἐν σοὶ γενέ- σθαι τὸν θεόν εἰ γὰρ ἦν, ὃ πολλάκις ἔλεγες, πολύς τε καὶ ἰσχυρός, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐκινήθη φαύλη προφάσει. νῦν οὖν ἄνω ποταμῶν· σὺ μὲν ὑπερορᾷς, ἐγὼ δὲ ἐρῶ. καὶ μεταπεσόν- τος ὀστράκου φεύγεις, ἐγὼ δὲ ὁ διώκων εἰμί. παραμυθεῖται δέ με τὸ μετὰ πολλῶν μὶν ἐθνῶν, πολλῶν δὲ πόλεων, πλείστων δὲ ἀνθρώπων ὑβρίζεσθαι. εἰ γὰρ οἱ μὲν εὔχονταί σε λαβεῖν ἡνίοχον, σὺ δ’ ἐξὸν ἄρχειν οὐκ ἐθέλεις. ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον τρυφᾶν ἢ πονεῖν, καὶ καθεύδειν ἢ εὖ ποιεῖν, πῶς οὐ πάντα μικρά σοι νενόμισται; ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐ καλῶς ἔοικα ῥητορεύειν, εἰ δυσ- χεραίνων σου τὴν ὑπεροψίαν ἀφ’ ὧι ἔσται μείζων λέγω· τοι- οῦτον γὰρ τὸ φάσκειν εἰς σὲ κεχηνέναι τοσούτους. 7, ἕν’ οὖν μὴ τοῦτο 7], μάνθανε ὡς οὐ πᾶσιν ἀρέσκεις. οἷς γὰρ αἱ τῶν ἄλλων συμφοραὶ πρόσοδοι, κἂν ἀποτεμόντες σε φάγοιεν ἂν ἡδέως, θαυμαστὸν δὲ ἴσως οὐδέν. καὶ γὰρ οἱ λύκοι μισοῦσι τοὺς κύνας.