Letter 162: Nilus's exaggerated praise shows how well his tongue can move over falsehood.

You were evidently formidable at making small things great and at showing an unbeatable tongue wherever you wish. You fashioned so many praises against me and reported them so easily that no one starting from truth could have spoken them readily. It seems to me that you poured yourself out with so much tongue because you wanted, perhaps, to show what sort of man you had been without my noticing. You may think that, while present, you went unrecognized for the Muse you had nurtured from the rhetoricians. I knew you well even when you were present, but I did not praise you as much as I should while you were training with me, so that praise would not slacken your eagerness and stop a course always moving toward greater things and hurrying toward its prime. Now I was greatly delighted by your letter, not looking at the praises, for I was lifted high into the air by your words and carried everywhere, but because I have been fortunate enough to call a child mine from the Muses. If you can move your tongue so well over falsehood, what might you become if you seized hold of truth? I was also pleased that you mocked yourself for loving money insatiably and extending your trade even to my words. Fill your right hand then, happiest man; I will bear with moderation the sight of my words for sale. Only be careful that you do not face a lawsuit for demanding payment in advance from home because you dared publish unseemly children of mine.

Νείλωι Δεινὸς ἄρα τις ἦσθα τὰ σμικρὰ μεγάλα ποιεῖν καὶ γλῶτταν ἄμαχον ἐν οἷς ἐθέλεις ἐνδείκνυσθαι. τοσούτους γὰρ ἐπαίνους ἀνέπλασας κατ' ἐμοῦ, καὶ οὕτως εὐκόλως ἀπήγγειλας ὡς οὐκ ἄν τις εἶπε ῥᾳδίως ἐξ ἀληθείας ὁρμώ μενος. καί μοι δοκεῖς τοσαύτῃ χυθῆναι τῇ γλώττῃ, δεῖξαι τάχα βουληθεὶς οἷος ὑπάρχων ἐλάνθανες. οἴει γὰρ ἴσως ἠγνοῆσθαι παρὼν ὁπόσην ἀνεθρέψω Μοῦσαν ἐκ ῥητόρων ὁρμώμενος. ἐγὼ δέ σε καὶ παρόντα καλῶς ἠπιστάμην, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὅσον ἐχρῆν ἐπῄνουν παρ' ἐμοὶ γυμναζόμενον, τοῦ μὴ τοὺς ἐπαί νους τὴν προθυμίαν ἐκλύσαντας ἀνακόψαι δρόμον ἐπὶ μεῖζον ἀεὶ χωροῦντα καὶ πρὸς ἀκμὴν ἐπειγόμενον. νυνὶ δέ σου καὶ λίαν ἥσθην τοῖς γράμμασιν, οὐ τοὺς ἐπαίνους σκοπῶνἦ γὰρ ἀνέπτην μετέωρος τοῖς σοῖς λόγοις παντα χοῦ μεθιπτάμενοςἀλλ' ὅτι παῖδα καλεῖν ἐκ τῶν Μουσῶν εὐτυχήκαμεν. καὶ γὰρ οὕτως ἐπὶ ψευδῆ τὴν γλῶτταν κινῶν τίς ἂν γένοιο τῆς ἀληθείας ἐπειλημμένος; ἥσθην δέ σοι καὶ σαυτὸν ἐπισκώπτοντι διότι χρημάτων ἀπλήστως ἐρῶν καὶ μέχρι τῶν ἐμῶν λόγων τὴν ἐμπορίαν ἐξέτεινας. ἀλλὰ πλήρου τὴν δεξιάν, εὐτυχέστατε, καὶ μετρίως οἴσω τοὺς λόγους ὠνίους θεώμενος. πλὴν ὅρα μὴ καὶ δίκην ὑπόσχῃς, προαπαιτήσας οἴκοθεν, ὅτι μου παῖδας ἀπρεπεῖς δημοσιεύειν ἐτόλμησας.