Letter 625: Spectatus has been a good man to us.

To Italicianus. Spectatus proves himself a good man toward us, and he writes to his mother such praises and such exhortations that he has left me nothing more to add, but the very things I myself employ when present, these he sent in his letters. And what is still finer: for he did not write the better things in the letters carried by your people, and not such things in those carried by his own, which is the way of deceivers, but he is himself throughout the whole letter. Well, then, does he manage the matter for us. For his grandmother must rejoice when she hears such things, and, rejoicing, she is likely to bring about the marriage as well. But you, I think, must do the things I urged you to do; for there is nothing that could be found better suited to the present effort.

Ἰταλικιανῷ. (361) Ὁ Σπεκτάτος ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς εἰς ἡμᾶς γίγνεται καὶ γράφει πρὸς τὴν μητέρα τοιούτους μὲν ἐπαίνους, τοιαύτας δὲ παρα- κλήσεις, ὥστ’ οὐδέν μοι πλέον ἀφῆκεν, ἀλλ’ οἷς αὐτὸς χρῶμαι παρών, ταῦτ’ ἔπεμπεν ἐν ἐπιστολαῖς. καὶ τὸ ἔτι κάλλιον, οὐ γὰρ ἀμείνω μὲν ἐν ταῖς ὑπὸ τῶν σῶν κομιζομέναις ἔγρα- φεν, οὐ τοιαῦτα δὲ ἐν ταῖς ὑπὸ τῶν αὑτοῦ, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ τῶν ἐξαπατώντων, ἀλλ’ ἔστιν αὐτὸς διὰ πάσης ἐπιστολῆς. καλῶς οὖν ἡμῖν οἰκονομεῖ τὸ πρᾶγμα. χαίρειν γὰρ ἀνάγκη τὴν τήθην τοιαῦτα ἀκούουσαν χαίρουσαν δὲ καὶ ζεύξειν εἰ- κός. σὲ δὲ οἶμαι δεῖν ποιεῖν ἃ παρῄνουν ποιεῖν· ὡς οὐκ ἔσθ’ ὅ τι ἂν εὑρεθείη βέλτιον εἰς τὴν παροῦσαν σπουδήν.