Letter 575: I could have refuted you for writing that way -- not for complaining about the frequency of my letters, but for...

To Aristaenetus. (357) I was in a position to refute you for having written in that manner, finding fault not because you do not write often, but because your letters are not long; but, so that a war may not be kindled from a small spark, and so that we may not pelt one another with letters instead of delighting one another with letters, let it be granted that the customs of Lacedaemon [Sparta, where brevity was prized] are honored in your case, and that I am not right to bring the charge. So win this victory, while we are willingly defeated. But as for the books, it is for me to remind you that you promised them to me, and for you to say why you did not give them. For when, in the Great City, having escaped the great sickness, I was reading you a discourse, a eulogy of Strategius's daughter, we marveled when we saw a certain ancient book written with beauty, and we discussed how there once was beauty of writing, but now there is none. Then you, perceiving that I had a desire for such things, said that you had many of them and an inheritance from your grandfather, and that you would send some from Nicaea. After that you became a Philip making promises to the Athenians [a proverbial promise-maker who never delivered]. And you know how to give fields to others on our behalf, but you do not know how to give books to us. Why then? you might ask. Or here too it is time for me to bring up Philip for you: does Aristaenetus not give books to his friends, so that he may not be slandered before the Greeks? So again I say this to you, that, unless you send those books, you will not receive these of mine, among which you will also find a gray-haired one. For I am not, like Iolaus, made young again out of an old man; the laws are not so trifling for me.

Ἀρισταινέτῳ. (357) Εἶχον μέν σε ἐλέγχειν ἐκείνως ἐπεσταλκότα καὶ οὐ τὸ μὴ πολλάκις λαβεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὴ μακρὰς αἰτιώμενον· ἕνα μὴ πόλεμος ἐκ μικροῦ σπινθῆρος ἁφθῇ καὶ βάλλωμεν ἀλλή- λους γράμμασιν ἀντὶ τοῦ τέρπειν ἐπιστολαῖς, δεδόσθω σὲ μὲν τιμᾶν τὰ τῆς Λακεδαίμονος, ἐμὲ δὲ οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἐγκαλεῖν. καὶ νίκα τὴν νίκην ταύτην ἡττημένων ἡμῶν ἑκόντων. βιβλία δὲ ὅτι μὲν ὑπέσχου μοι, ἐμὸν ἀναμνῆσαι, ὅτι δὲ οὐκ ἔδωκας, σὸν εἰπεῖν. ὅτε γὰρ ἐν τῇ Μεγάλη πόλει τὴν νόσον τὴν με- γάλην διαφυγὼν ἀνεγίνωσκόν σοι λόγον, ἔπαινον τῆς Στρα- τηγίου θυγατρός, βιβλίον τι παλαιὸν εἰς κάλλος γεγραμμένον ἐθαυμάσαμεν ἰδόντες καὶ διελέχθημεν, ὡς ἦν ποτε κάλλος γραμμάτων, νῦν δὲ οὐκ ἔστιν. ἐνιδὼν δή μοι σὺ τῶν τοιούτων ἐπιθυμίαν ἔχειν ἔφης πολλὰ καὶ κτῆμα παππῷον καὶ πέμψειν ἀπὸ τῆς Νικαίας. εἶτα ἐγένου Φίλιππος ὑπισχνού- μενος Ἀθηναίοις. καὶ ἀγροὺς μὲν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἄλλοις οἶσθα δοῦναι, βιβλία δὲ ἡμῖν οὐκ οἶσθα. διὰ δή; λέγοις ἄν. ἢ κἀνταῦθα τὸν Φίλιππόν μοι καιρὸς εἰπεῖν· οὐ δίδωσιν Ἀρισταίνετος βιβλία τοῖς φίλοις, ἵνα μὴ διαβληθῇ πρὸς Ἕλληνας; πάλιν δή σοι λέγω ταῦτα, ὡς, ἂν μὴ πέμψῃς ἐκείνων, οὐ λήψῃ τούτων, ἐν οἷς καὶ αὐτοῖς εὑρή- σεις πολιόν. οὐ γὰρ κατὰ τὸν Ἰόλεων ἐκ γέροντος ἐγὼ νέος· οὐχ οὕτω μοι φαῦλον οἱ νόμοι.