Letter 810: I thought I had been cleared of every charge after that letter, and that your feelings toward me had returned to...

To Themistius. (363) I thought that I had been released from every accusation after that letter, and that the disposition you held toward me was the one you had before the charges. But you, it seems, both considered me an enemy and were intending to inflict a penalty. And yet the admirable Harpocration declared that our old friendship remained, and urged me to take heart, on the grounds that you at least had not changed. But we were deceived, as it appears, both I and he, for no small length of time; and perhaps I gained by being deceived, if not being grieved was a gain. But when the report came and was spread abroad along with the letters, and I kept hearing this or that person saying, "Themistius has sent me a book," and the same from a second, and a third, and a fourth, and I alone of the Argives was left without my prize [an allusion to Homer], then I said to myself that there were as yet no reconciliations, but that anger still prevailed; and though it was within my power to take the discourse, I did not take it, so that I might not learn what you do not wish, and I was pained at abstaining from so fine a feast, but I held back, so that none of the things you did not want might come about. If, then, you still think you ought to be angry, do not write, and do not feign; but if you have ceased from your wrath, add the discourse to your letter. For I shall read it with more pleasure when the craftsman himself sends his handiwork.

Θεμιστίῳ. (363) Ὤιμην ἀφεῖσθαι πάσης αἰτίας μετ’ ἐκείνην τὴν ἐπιστο- Λὴν καὶ γνώμην εἶναι σοὶ πρὸς ἐμὲ τὴν πρὸ τῶν ἐγκλημάτων. σὺ δ’ ἄρα ἐχθρόν τέ με ἡγοῦ καὶ δίκην ἐπιθήσειν ἔμελλες. καίτοι ὅ γε θαυμαστὸς Ἁρποκρατίων μένειν ἔφασκε τὴν παλαιὰν φιλίαν θαρρεῖν τε ἐκέλευεν ὡς σοῦ γε οὐ μεταβεβλη- μένου. ἐξηπατώμεθα δέ, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐγώ τε κἀκεῖνος οὐ μι- κρόν τινα χρόνον, καὶ ἴσως ἐκέρδαινον ἀπατώμενος, εἰ τὸ μὴ λυπεῖσθαι κέρδος ἦν. ὡς δὲ ἦλθεν ὁ λόγος καὶ διεδόθη μετὰ τῶν γραμμάτων καὶ ἤκουον τοῦ δεῖνος ἐμοὶ πέπομφε βιβλίον Θεμίστιος λέγοντος καὶ τοὐ ταὺτὸ κοὶ τρί- του καὶ τετάρτου καὶ μόνος ἦν Ἀργείων ἀγέραστος, τοτ’ ἔφην πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν ὡς οὔπω διαλλαγαί, κρατεῖ δὲ ὁ θυμὸς ἔτι καὶ παρόν μοι λαβεῖν τὸν λόγον οὐκ ἔλαβον, ὅπως μὴ γνοίην ἃ μὴ ἐθέλεις, καὶ ὠδυνώμην μὶν ἀπεχόμενος θοίνης οὕτω καλῆς, ἠνειχόμην δέ, ὅπως μὴ γένηταί τι ὧν οὐκ ἐβού- λου. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἔτι χαλεπαίνειν οἴει δεῖν, μὴ ἐπίστελλε μηδ’ εἰρωνεύου τῆς ὀργῆς δὲ πέπαυσαι, πρόσθες ἐπιστολῇ τὸν λόγον. ἥδιον γὰρ ἀναγνώσομαι πέμποντος αὐτοῦ τοῦ δη- μιουργοῦ τὸ τέχνημα.