Letter 546: Do you not think I would give anything to have delivered that speech with you in the audience?

To Themistius. (356/57) Do you really suppose, then, that I would not have paid any price to deliver the speech with you seated in the audience? But, I think, it was not seemly for me to prevent you, nor was it yet possible for me to speak. Yet as for how these matters, and not a few of the others as well, will stand in your estimation, that I shall take to heart. For one could find no better helper for what has been done amiss, nor a more skillful praiser for what has not been ill said. Letoius you came to know even before, at the time when I was with you, and he was passing through your hands on his way to the emperor; and on arriving here you found him in good repute. And now, having met him, if you make him truly your friend, you will not say that you have taken bad counsel. For besides knowing how to love, he also knows how to abide in his love-the very thing which you above all both practice and honor. For us he has stood in the place of many, speaking where it was needful to speak, acting where it was needful to act, giving in the moment when one ought to have spent [...] and his goodwill. Let him then be held in honor with you, both for his nature's sake and for what he has done toward us.

Θεμιστίῳ. (356/57) Εἶτ᾿ οὐκ οἴει με τοῦ παντὸς ἂν πρίασθαι τὸ σοῦ καθη- μένου δεῖξαι τὸν λόγον; ἀλλ’, οἶμαι, σέ τε κωλύειν οὐκ ἦν καλὸν ἐμοί τε λέγειν οὐκ ἦν πω δυνατόν. τοῦ δὲ ὅπως κείσεται παρὰ σοὶ καὶ ταῦτα καὶ τῶν ἄλλων οὐκ ὀλίγα φρον- τιῶ. τοῖς τε γὰρ ἡμαρτημένοις οὐκ ἂν ἄλλος ἄμεινον βοηθοὶ τά τε μὴ κακῶς εἰρημένα δεξιώτερον ἐπαινέτην οὐκ ἂν λάβοι. Λητόιον δὲ καὶ πρότερον ἔγνως, ἡνίκα παρ’ ὑμῖν μὲν ἦν ἐγώ, παρὰ δὲ τὸν βασιλέα δι’ ὑμῶν οὗτος ἐχώρει, καὶ δεῦρο ἥκων εὗρες ἐν δόξῃ. καὶ νῦν ἐντυχών, εἰ πάνυ ποιήσαιο φί- λον, οὐ φήσεις βεβουλεῦσθαι κακῶς. πρὸς γὰρ τῷ φιλεῖν εἰδέναι καὶ μένειν οἶδεν ἐν τῷ φιλεῖν, ὃ δὴ καὶ σὺ μάλιστα ποιεῖς τε καὶ τιμᾷς. ἡμῖν δὲ ἀντὶ πολλῶν κατέστη λέγων, οὗ λέγειν ἔδει, πράττων, οὗ πράττειν ἴδει, διδούς, ἐν ᾧ χρῆν ἀναλώσαντα Μαὶ τὴν εὔνοιαν. ἔστω δὴ παρὰ σοὶ τίμιος καὶ φύσεως εἵνεκα καὶ τῶν πρὸς ἡμᾶς.