Letter 617: In my previous letters I showed that you would rightly grant me favors, and I urged you to do well by Maximus — an...

To Acacius. (361) In my earlier letters I showed that I might reasonably receive favors from you, and I urged you to do good to Maximus, a man both excellent and a friend of ours; and I do indeed believe that he has already obtained many things. But now I have a matter that has long been deemed worthy of my zeal, yet has not yet reached its conclusion, to bring to its end. And the affair is this: that the household of Maximus should fare well. Now if the man carrying this letter were not an orator, I would set forth the matter myself; but since Eusebius has acquired, in addition to his power of speech, the rest of his ability as well, why should one prolong the matter when one is employing such an envoy? This much, however, I would add: that we promise nothing outside the laws, and that we shall be the more grateful, since it is the unjust who demand unjust things from the unjust.

Ἀκακίῳ. (361) Ἐν μὲν τοῖς πρότερον γράμμασιν, ὅτι τε εἰκότως ἂν παρὰ σοῦ λαμβάνοιμι χάριτας, ἐδείκνυον καὶ παρεκάλουν ἐπὶ τὸ Μάξιμον ἄνδρα βέλτιστόν τε καὶ φίλον ἡμῖν εὖ ποιεῖν καὶ πιστεύω γε πολλῶν αὐτὸν ἤδη τετυχηκέναι· νῦν δέ μοι πρᾶγμα πάλαι μὲν σπουδῆς ἠξιωμένον, τέλος δὲ οὔπω λαβὸν ἐπὶ πέρας ἄγειν. ἔστι δὲ γᾶι τούτῳ τὸ τὴν οἰκίαν εὖ πάσχειν τὴν Μαξίμου. εἰ μὲν οὖν μὴ ῥήτωρ ἦν ὁ κομίζων τὴν ἐπιστολήν, αὐτὸς ἂν διηγούμην· ἐπεὶ δὲ τῷ λέγειν δύνασθαι καὶ τὴν ἄλλην δύναμιν Εὐσέβιος προσεκτήσατο, τί ἄν τις μη- κύνοι πρεσβευτῇ τοιούτῳ χρώμενος; τοσοῦτο μέντοι προσ- θείην ἄν, ὡς οὔτε ἔξω τῶν νόμων οὐδὲν ἐπαγγέλλομεν πλείω τε εἰσόμεθα χάριν τῶν τὰ ἄδικα παρὰ τῶν ἀδίκων αἰτούντων.