Letter 136

To Conon the Illustrious. [illustris, a high senatorial honorific rank] You grow rich unjustly, appropriating to yourself the honors owed to others. For having beheld a topsy-turvy spectacle, I was amazed, seeing the men worthy of admiration reviled in the present time, while seeing the worthless men praised. And this I think to be a contrivance of the demons; wherefore, lest, being glorified for many things to no purpose, you be punished the more grievously in the time to come, I urge you rather to perform the works of virtue, so that you may receive the glory becomingly and as is fitting.

Πλουτεῖς ἀδίκως, τὰς ἑτέροις ὀφειλομένας δόξας σφετεριζόμενος. Εὐτράπελον γὰρ θέαν θεασάμενος, τεθαύμακα, τοὺς μὲν ἀξιαγάστους λοιδορουμένους βλέπων ἐν τῷ παρόντι χρόνῳ, τοὺς δὲ ἀχρείους εὐφημουμένους ὁρῶν. Καὶ τοῦτο οἶμαι τῶν δαιμόνων ὑπάρχειν μηχάνημα· ὅθεν ἵνα μὴ διὰ κενῆς δοξάζων πολλά, μειζόνως κατὰ τὸ μέλλον τιμωρηθῇς, παρακαλῶ σε μᾶλλον πρᾶξαι τὰ ἔργα τῆς ἀρετῆς, ἵνα εὐπροσώπως καὶ προσηκόντως τὴν δόξαν κομίζοιο.