Letter 802: It is obvious that in every city you passed through, you filled them all with talk about me.

To Nicocles. (363) It is no secret that, through however many cities you passed, you filled them all with words on our behalf; for here too, once you began to do this, you filled every ear, both of those who wished it and of those who did not want it, gratifying the one group while vexing the other, so that I would be surprised if you were not crying out much the same even to the farmers, all those who were cutting their furrows right up to the highway. To me, however, these things are greater than the tithe of the Syracusans, yet a little less than what was said by the god concerning your lawgiver. For you, who could neither flatter, since you would not so flatter even a king's fortune, much less a sophist's, nor be ignorant of the beauty or the ugliness of a speech, how is it that, by praising, you do not make the one you praise great and brilliant in the choruses of the Greeks? And we do not cease from praising you, but we do something much like what a man would do who, having borrowed wheat, should pay back barley by the very same measure; for this man has kept the measure, but he has not paid back in full. For not even that man whom I have just now mentioned, the Laconian honored by the oracle, if he himself had requited the Pythian with verses in return, would it have been equal, not even if the verses were very many indeed. In this respect, then, we fall short, but in loving we either win or at any rate are by no means defeated. And I have come to such a point of confidence in you, and of thinking that I would obtain anything at all, that I even send to your doors those of our friends who are going there and are in need of friends, as one who will imitate toward them my own resolve, but will employ a greater strength. And as for the man through whom you receive this letter, do not consider him one of the many, but reckon that he differs in nothing from a son of mine. The cause of this is his fairness and his being modest and his caring for reputation and for gaining the old men as his praisers, among whom, first and most of all, my uncle; and knowing him, you would know this man too; for that one would not have admired the man who was not good. Modestus too has a care for the young man, having at first been urged on by me, but after the trial, by his own self. And you will see him zealous about his father's affairs toward this Hyperechius here; but there is nothing like the divine Nicocles for patronage; for so will that man too praise him as he labors, if he should learn that he will thereby gratify you as well. Let this man, then, learn, hearing it expressly from your mouth, that in approaching he will not be a nuisance; or rather, that if through another of his own people he shall lay anything down, you indeed have been wronged, and you [...] exact a penalty from him.

Νικοκλεῖ. (363) Οὐκ ἄδηλον ὅτι δι’ ὅσων ἦλθες πολίων, πάσας ἐνέπλη- σας τῶν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν λόγων καὶ γὰρ ἐνταῦθα, ὡς ἤρξω τοῦτο ποιεῖν, πάντα ὦτα ἐνέπλησας τῶν τε βουλομένων τῶν τε οὐκ ἐθελόντων, τοῖς μὲν χαριζόμενος, τοὺς δὲ ἀνιῶν ὥστε θαυ- μάσαιμ’ ἂν εἰ μὴ παραπλήσια καἰ πρὸς τοὺς γεωργοὺς ἐβόας, ὅσοι μέχρι τῆς λεωφόρου τὰς αὔλακας ἔτεμνον. ἐμοὶ δὲ μείζω μὲν ταῦτα τῆς Συρακουσίων δεκάτης, μικρῷ δὲ ἐλάττω τῶν εἰς τὸν ὑμέτερον νομοθέτην ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ λεχθέντων. ὃς γὰρ οὔτ᾿ ἂν κολακεύσαις, οὐδὲ γὰρ βασιλέως σύ γε τύχην, μὴ ὅτι γε σοφιστήν, οὔτ’ ἂν ἀγνοήσαις λόγου κάλλος ἢ αἶσχος, πῶς οὐκ ἐπαινῶν τόν γε ἐπαινούμενον μέγαν ποιεῖς καὶ λαμ- πρὸν ἐν Ἑλλήνων χοροῖς; ἡμεῖς δὲ σὲ ἐπαινοῦντες ν οὐ παυόμεθα, ποιοῦμεν δὲ παραπλήσιον ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις πυ- ροὺς χρησάμενος ἀποδοίη κριθὰς αὐτῷ τῷ μέτρῳ τὸ μὶν γὰρ μέτρον οὗτος ἐτήρησεν, ἀπέδωκε δὲ οὐκ εἰς ἅπαν. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος, οὗ νῦν ἐμνήσθην, ὁ Λακωνικὸς τιμηθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ χρησμοῦ εἰ τὸν Πύθιον αὐτὸς ἀντεκόσμησεν ἔπεσιν, ἴσον ἂν ἦν, οὐδ’ εἰ πάνυ πολλὰ ἦν τὰ ἔπη. ἐνταῦθα μὲν οὖν λειπόμεθα, φιλοῦντες δὲ ἡ νικῶμεν ἢ πάντως γε οὐ νικώμεθα. πρὸς τοσοῦτον δὲ ἥκω τοῦ θαρρεῖν σοι καὶ οἴεσθαι παντὸς ἂν τυχεῖν, ὥστε καὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων φίλων τοὺς ἐκεῖσε ἰόντας καὶ δεομένους φίλων ἐπὶ τὰς δὰς πέμπω θύρας ὡς σοῦ γνώμην μὲν τὴν ἐμὴν εἰς αὐτοὺς μιμησομένου, ῥώμῃ δὲ μείζονι χρη- σομένου. δι’ οὗ δὲ ταύτην λαμβάνεις τὴν ἐπιστολήν, μὴ ἴνα νόμιζε τῶν πολλῶν, ἀλλ’ υἱέος μοι διαφέρειν οὐδέν. αἰ· τίον δὲ <ἡ> ἐπιείκεια καὶ τὸ αἰδεῖσθαί τε καὶ δόξης καὶ λαβεῖν ἐπαινέτας τοὺς γέροντας, ὧν καὶ πρῶτον καὶ μάλι- στα τὸν θεῖον τὸν ἐμόν, ὃν εἰδὼς εἰδείης ἂν καὶ τοῦτον· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἐκεῖνος τὸν οὐκ ἀγαθὸν ἐθαύμασε. μέλει δὲ καὶ Μοδέστῳ τοῦ νεανίσκου τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ὑπ’ ἐμοῦ παρακλη- θέντι, μετὰ δὲ τὴν πεῖραν ὑφ’ ἑαυτοῦ. ὄψει δὲ αὐτὸν τὰ πα- τρὸς εἰς Ὑπερέχιον τουτονὶ σπουδάζοντα, ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν οἷον εἰς προστασίαν ὁ δαιμόνιος Νικοκλῆς· οὕτω γὰρ κἀκεῖνος αὐτὸν ἐπαινέσεται σπουδάζων, εἰ ὅτι καὶ σοὶ χαριεῖται γνοίη. 8, μα- θέτω τοίνυν οὗτος ἀκούσας διαρρήδην ἐκ τοῦ σοῦ στόματος ὡς προσιὼν οὐκ ἐνοχλήσει, μᾶλλον δὲ ὡς, εἰ δι᾿ ἄλλου τῶν αὑτοῦ τι θήσεται, σύ γε ἠδίκησαι καἰ λήνη παρὰ τοῦδε δίκην