Letter 697: Oh, how many times you must have shaken your head and said to yourself in some solitary moment or in the dead of...

To Hyperechius. (362) Alas, alas, how often have you shaken your head and said to yourself, in solitude or at night: I have been neglected, I have been despised, everything has changed. And your proof of this is that, while the multitude of those who hurried off to Thrace through your offices was great, no letter, neither small nor larger, has come to you from us. Many people asked me for one, but I gave it to no one; and why, I shall explain. I knew that they all wished to lodge at your house and to live luxuriously; and if you did not receive them, you would seem to be doing wrong, while if you stayed at home and entertained more guests than there are leaves, it would be burdensome—not so much on account of the expense, as because the affairs of your farms would then have to be neglected. And at the same time I knew that these men, while they eat with pleasure, do not know how to remember hospitality, but think it manly if they speak ill of those who have entertained them. So I was not keeping silent because I had withdrawn my own affection from you, but rather, that I might become to you the cause of nothing either disagreeable or evil, I thought it right to delay. But since, then, I have laid hold of Miccalus—and this is my very self—I write both to dissolve the charge and to remind you of the old prophecies, in which I foretold that a time would come demanding speeches and loosening girdles. For you it has fallen out both not to fail of those things, and also in the present circumstances there is some room; and I should like to know what your judgment is, and what you intend to do with yourself.

Ὑπερεχίῳ. (362) Ἰοῦ, ἰού, ποσάκις τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐκίνησας καὶ πρὸς σαυτὸν εἶπες ἐπ᾿ ἐρημίας ἢ νυκτός· ἠμέλημαι, καταπεφρόνημαι, μεταβέβληται τὰ πάντα. καὶ τούτου σοι πίστις ἤ τὸ πλῆθος μὲν εἶναι τῶν δι’ ὑμῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης δραμόντων, ἐλθεῖν δὲ σοὶ μήτε μικρὰν μήτε μείζω παρ’ ἡμῶν ἐπιστολὴν. ἐμὲ δὲ πολλοὶ μὲν ᾔτησάν, ἔδωκα δὲ οὐδενί· δι’ δέ, φράσω. πάντας ᾔδειν ἐθελήσοντας παρὰ σοὶ καταλύειν καὶ τρυφᾶν · σὺ δ’ οὐ δεχόμενος μὲν ἐδόκεις ἂν ἀδικεῖν· εἰ δὲ καθήμενος ἐξένιζες πλείους τῶν φύλλων, ὀχληρὸν ἂν ἦν, οὐχ οὕτω κατὰ τὴν δαπάνην, ἀλλ’ ὅτι τὰ τῶν ἀγρῶν ἐχρῆν ὁλι- γωρεῖσθαι. καὶ ἅμα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ᾔδειν ἐσθίοντας μὶν ἡδέως, μεμνῆσθαι δὲ ξενίας οὐκ εἰδότας, ἀλλ’ ἡγουμένους ἀνδρεῖον, ἂν εἴπωσι κακῶς τοὺς ὑποδεξαμένοις. οὔκουν ἀποστήσας σου τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ ψυχὴν ἐσίγων, ἀλλ’ ὅπως μηδενός σοι γενοίμην μήτ’ ἀηδοῦς αἴτιος μήτε κακοῦ, μέλλειν ἠξίουν. ἐπεὶ δ’ οὖν ἐλαβόμην Μικκάλου, τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἐμαυτοῦ, γράφω λύων τε τὴν αἰτίαν καὶ ἀναμιμνήσκων σε τῶν πα- λαιῶν μαντευμάτων, ἐν οἶς προὔλεγον ὡς ἥξοι χρόνος ἀπαι- τῶν λόγους καὶ λύων ζώνας. σοὶ δ’ ἐκείνων τε μὴ διαμαρ- τεῖν ὑπῆρξε κἀν τοῖς παροῦσιν ἔστι τις χώρα, βουλοίμην δ’ ἂν εἰδέναι, τίς σοι γνώμη καὶ τί σαυτῷ χρήσασθαι διανοῇ.