Letter 788: I was amazed that you considered my not writing to you worthy of reproach, yet make nothing of the emperor's letter...

To Hierax (362/63) I was astonished that, while you thought my not having written to you worthy of an accusation, you set no store by the fact that the emperor's letter has come to you. And yet it was I who, displaying what had been written on your behalf, and having done this four times, and crying aloud that Troy would suffer dreadful things, and Alexander dreadful things, and along with them the god as well, if we did not honor Hierax with the rewards prescribed by the law [the privileges due under the law for performers]—saying such things now to Elpidius, now to the emperor, the best of all men—I, together with the others, helped to arrange that the letter befitting you should come. I say this not as though the emperor had granted this favor to me, but rather: he both knows you well and honors you and wished to see you; yet again, amid a multitude of affairs, even a lover may grow somewhat dull toward the one he loves. There is need, then, of one who prompts him and does not allow him to be forgetful—which I too have done. But it happened somehow that the one who was summoning you to us told us that he had summoned you only afterward, at a time when we approved the deed but were not in a position to write. And there was no cause for blame, if a man deliberating on behalf of all the earth and the sea overlooked some small matter against his will. Do you too, then, grant me pardon for not having heard of it on the spot, and do not suppose that declamations are so very much honored among us that for their sake we would choose to wrong our friends. For if we were too few to suffice for both, even so we would not have neglected the noble Hierax while trifling over Miltiades or Themistocles.

Ἱέρακι (362/63) Ἐθαύμασα, ὅπως τὸ μὲν μὴ ἐπιστεῖλαί με πρὸς σὲ κατη- γορίας ἄξιον ἡγήσω, τοῦ δ’ ἐλθεῖν σοι τὴν βασιλέως ἐπιστο- λὴν οὐδὲν ἄγεις. καίτοι δεικνὺς ἐγὼ τὰ πρὸς σοι γεγραμμένα καὶ τοῦτο πεποιηκὼς τετράκις καὶ βοῶν ὡς δεινὰ μὲν ἂν ἡ Τρῶάς, δεινὰ δὲ Ἀλέξανδρος πάθοι καὶ μετὰ τούτων γε ὁ θεός, εἰ μὴ Ἱέρακα τοῖς ἐκ τοῦ νόμου κοσμήσαιμεν, τοιαῦτα νῦν μὲν πρὸς Ἐλπίδιον λέγων, νῦν δὲ πρὸς τὸν πάντα ἄριστοι βασιλέα τὰ σοὶ πρέποντα συμπαρεσκεύασα γράμματα έλθεῖν. λέγω δὲ οὐχ ὡς ἐμοὶ ταύτην δόντος τοῦ βασιλέως τὴν χάριν, ἀλλὰ σὲ μὲν καὶ εὖ οἶδε καὶ τιμᾷ καὶ ἰδεῖν ἤθελεν· ἐν δ’ αὖ πλήθει πραγμάτων καὶ ἐραστὴς ἀμβλύτερος εἰς ἐρώμενον ἂν εἴη. δεῖ δὴ τοῦ γε κινοῦντος καὶ οὐκ ἐῶντος ἀμνημονεῖν, ὃ καὶ ἐμοὶ πέπρακται. συνέβη δέ πως τὸν σὲ καλοῦντα πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὕστερον ὅτι κέκληκεν εἰπεῖν, ἡνίκα τὸ μὲν ἔργον ἐπῃνοῦμεν, ἐπιστέλλειν δὲ οὐκ εἴχομεν. ἐπιτιμᾶν δὲ οὐκ ἦν, εἴ τις ὑπὲρ γῆς ἁπάσης καὶ θαλάττης βουλευόμενος ὑπερέβη τι σμικρὸν ἄκων. δὸς δὴ Λαὶ αὐτός μοι συγγνώμην τῷ μὴ παραχρῆμα ἀκούσαντι καὶ μὴ νόμιζε οὕτω σφόδρα παρ’ ἡμῖν τιμᾶσθαι τὰς μελέτας, ὥσθ’ ἕνεκα αὐτῶν αἱρεῖσθαι τοὺς φίλους ἀδικεῖν. εἰ γὰρ ἐλάττους ἦμεν ἢ ἀρκεῖν ἀμφοτέροις, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἂν ἠμε- λήσαμεν Ἱέρακος τοῦ καλοῦ περὶ Μιλτιάδην ἢ Θεμιστοκλέα ληροῦντες.