Letter 722: You did not grieve me by being silent toward me, because the reputation you were winning elsewhere was enough to...

To Albanius. (362) You did not grieve me by keeping silent toward me; for from the things in which, by speaking among others, you won esteem, you gladdened me. Of this there are many messengers, but none such as our fellow citizen who, though unlucky in respect of his hand, found your household no worse than his own. For, being a man who in long sitting and moreover formidable at examining the capacity of one engaged in public affairs, as one living in those same circumstances, he gathered everything and reported everything. And there was nothing in which it was not possible to rejoice greatly; for he kept saying that you had handed over your property to your people, and what is still finer, that from just resources both you and your brother are among those who win esteem by speaking, and that the city, after your uncle, looks to you, and that in its hopes there is something more brilliant. But also how you went off, with a lawsuit summoning you into Thrace, and how you came away according to your wish, and many other fine things he related to me, and he will not even cease relating them; for I will not let him, but whenever he has gone through everything, I will bring him back again to the same things. For the narration is sweet; for indeed it gives me to understand that you do not blame your father for sending you to the very place to which he sent you. And of this I have yet another proof; for you would not have been procuring [advancement] for the children of friends by whom you considered yourself to have been harmed. Reading the letter, then, I saw how you not only manage public affairs, but also keep hold of your books; and I took the more pleasure because you have also added to your ancestral fields.

Ἀλβανίῳ. (362) Οὐκ ἐλύπεις με πρός με σιγῶν· ἐκ γὰρ ὧν ἐν ἄλλοις λέγων εὐδοκίμεις εὔφραινες. ἄγγελοι δὲ τούτου πολλοὶ μέν, οὐδεὶς δὲ οἷος ὁ περὶ μὲν χεῖρα ἀτυχήσας πολίτης ἡμέτερος, τὴν δ᾿ ὑμετέ- ραν οὐ χείρω τῆς οἰκείας εὑρών. οἷα γὰρ ἐν μακρᾷ καθέδρᾳ καὶ προσέτι δεινὸς ὢν ἐξετάσαι πολιτευομένου δύναμιν ὡς ἂν ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ζῶν πάντα μὲν συνέλεξε, πάντα δὲ ἐμήνυσεν. οὐδὲν δὲ ἦν ἐφ’ ᾧ μὴ πάνυ χαίρειν παρῆν· τήν τε γὰρ οὐσίαν ὑμῖν ἔφασκεν ἐπιδεδωκέναι, καὶ τὸ ἔτι κάλλιον, ἐκ δικαίων ἀφορμῶν, τῶν τε ἐκ τοῦ λέγειν εὐδοκιμούντων εἶναι καὶ σὲ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν βλέπειν τε εἰς ὑμᾶς τὴν πόλιν μετὰ τὸν ὑμέτερον θεῖον ἔν τε ταῖς ἐλπίσιν εἶναί τι λαμπρότερον. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς ᾤχου δίκης καλούσης εἰς Θρᾴκην καὶ ὡς ἀπήλλαττες κατὰ νοῦν, καἰ ἄλλα πολλὰ καὶ κόλα διηγεῖτό μοι καὶ οὐδὲ παύσεταί γε διηγούμενος· οὐ γὰρ ἐάσω, ἀλλ᾿ ὅταν πάντα διεξέλθῃ, πάλιν αὐτὸν ἐπανάξω πρὸς ταὐτά γλυκεῖα γὰρ ἡ διήγησις κοὶ γὰρ ἐννοεῖν μοι δίδωσιν ὡς οὐ μέμφῃ τὸν πατέρα πέμψαντά σε οἷπερ ἐξέπεμψε. τούτου δὲ καὶ ἑτέρα μοι πίστις· οὐ γὰρ ἂν φίλων παισίν, ὑφ᾿ ὧν ἡγοῦ βεβλάφθαι προὐξένεις. ἀναγινώσκων δὴ τὴν ἐπιστο- λὴν ἑώρων μὶν ὡς οὐ μόνον τὰ κοινὰ πράττεις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν βιβλίων ἔχῃ· πλέον ἴε ἡδόμην, ὅτι κοὶ προσέθηκας τοῖς πατρῴοις ἀγροῖς.