Letter 510: Either you are joking in your letter or you are completely out of touch with reality.

To Andronikos. (356/57) You seem either to be joking in your letter or to be entirely ignorant: first, if you suppose that your own uncle will do something kindly toward you; and second, if [you suppose he will do it] for our sake. For this man here has become harsher toward me than the harsh men among us, and he does all the harm he can; and he can do much, and he is rich, the source of which, you know. He has been ill-disposed toward me because he did not obtain from you the things he was demanding. For I, even so, did not cease to love [you], but he, because I went on hating you without changing, thought that I ought to hate [you]. But you, in seeking to receive some benefit from that man, are seeking wings of a wolf [an impossibility]. Since even now there is Themistios, to whom what could you compare him? At whose utterance even Scythians would become tame, what did he not say, what did he not do? What road of persuasion did he not travel? But in his breast the gods set an unceasing and evil spirit on account of the girl. For it seems to me that, looking to his little daughter, he considers even the treasures of Cinyras [a proverbially wealthy king] to be small, so that he snatches from every quarter, and if, having asked, he does not receive, the one who did not give is at once an enemy, and has not merely been spoken ill of, but has suffered ill. So either withdraw from the things he asks and end the war, or, keeping mastery over your own affairs, endure the war.

Ανδρονίκῳ. (356/57) Ἢ παίζειν ἔοικας ἐν τοῖς γράμμασιν ἢ τὸ πᾶν ἀγνοεῖν, πρῶτον μέν, εἰ νομίζεις τὸν σαυτοῦ θεῖον θείου τι πρὸς σὲ ποιήσειν· ἔπειτα, εἰ δι’ ἡμᾶς. ἐμοὶ γὰρ οὑτοσὶ χαλεπώτερος γέγονε τῶν παρ’ ἡμῖν χαλεπῶν καὶ κακῶς ὅσα δύναται ποιεῖ· δύναται δὲ πολλὰ καὶ πλουτεῖ· τὸ ὁ ὅθεν, ἴστε. ἔσχε δὲ πρὸς ἐμὲ δυσκόλως ἀπὸ τοῦ μὴ παρὰ σοῦ τυχεῖν ὧν ἐπέ- ταττεν. ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οὐδ’ οὕτως ἐπαυόμην φιλῶν, ὁ δ’ ὅτι σε μὴ μεταβαλὼν ἐμίσουν, μισεῖν ᾠήθη με δεῖν. σὺ δ’ εὖ τι παθεῖν παρ’ ἐκείνου ζητῶν λύκου πτερὰ ζητεῖς· ἐπεὶ καὶ νῦν ὁ Θεμίστιος, ᾧ τί παραπλήσιον εἴποις ἄν; οὗ φθεγγομένου κἂν Σκύθαι γένοιντο ἥμεροι, τί μὲν οὐκ εἶπε, τί δὲ οὐκ ἔδρασε; ποίαν δὲ οὐκ ἧλθε πειθοῦς ὁδόν; Τῷ δ᾿ ἄλληκτόν τε κακόν τε Θυμὸν ἐνὶ στήθεσσι θεοὶ θέσαν εἵνεκα κούρης. Δοκεῖ γάρ μοι πρὸς τὸ θυγάτριον βλέπων καὶ τὰ Κινύρου Μικρὰ νομίζειν, ὥστε πανταχόθεν ἀρπάζειν, κἂν αἰτήσας μὴ Λάβῃ, ἐχθρὸς εὐθέως ὁ μὴ δοὺς καὶ κακῶς οὐκ ἀκήκοεν, ἀλλὰ Πέπονθεν. ἢ οὖν ἀποστὰς ὧν αἰτεῖ λῦσον τὸν πόλεμον ἢ Τῶν σαυτοῦ κρατῶν ἀνέχου τοῦ πολέμου.