Letter 445: You know how pleasantly good repute is nourished, when it is well tended.

To Kyrekios: Just as wine poured in excess fills all the channels, passages, and membranes of perception, and turns the mind toward madness, so too anger, leaping beyond its proper station, renders the intellect the product of drunkenness, making reason a maenad and dissolving by its riotousness the order of sobriety. Let us therefore abstain from both, besieging the citadel of the mind with neither drink nor rage. To Synesius, concerning the Cappadocians: Again the Cappadocian, as we have learned, courts his wretched office in the military camp, so that a twofold Cappadocian might descend upon us, adding wicked power to his native misanthropy. But some bear better tidings, saying he desires to rule his own fellow countrymen -- and may God grant it, so that he might repay fitting nurture to the nurse from whom he drew his milk, making her drink in return the venom he perhaps imbibed along with that milk. To Seleucus: The corrupter of our citizens, the Cappadocian, is once again at the military camp claiming the office for himself. It is therefore your task -- you who hold your strength from God -- to prevent this and to exact from him an accounting for his former wickedness. Winnow him back to that remote region which begot him, so that his fellow tribesmen may learn to keep their villainy among themselves, and not, spewing it beyond their own borders, corrupt with their pestilential ways the healthy regions and peoples. To Isidore, concerning the same matters: A law forbids the Carthaginians from holding office -- they being lesser evils. But no law bars the Cappadocians, those great villains, from rule. Since, then, you both wish to benefit everyone and possess the power to match your will, either reverse the law -- barring Cappadocians even more than Carthaginians -- or unite the latter with the former. And if, as is likely, they purchase their offices with money -- offices which even a barbarian buying them is not merely prevented from holding, so long as he pays...

ΥΟΘ. – ΚΥΡΗΚΙΟ (70). Ὥσπερ ὁ οἶνος ὑπερκορὴς ἐγχεόμενος, τοὺς τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἅπαντας καὶ πόρους καὶ αὐλοὺς καὶ μήνιγγας πληροῖ, καὶ τρέπει πρὸς ἄνοιαν τὴν διά- νοιαν · οὕτω καὶ [4] θυμὸς ἔξω τῆς οἰκείας τάξεως πηδῶν, μέθης ἔργον ἀποφαίνει τὸν νοῦν, μαινάδα τὴν φρένα ποιῶν, καὶ λύων παροινίᾳ τὴν τάξιν τῆς νήψεως. Αμφοτέρων τοιγαροῦν ἀποσχώμεθα, οὔτε ποτῷ οὔτε θυμῷ πολιορκοῦντες τοῦ νοὸς τὴν ἀκρό πολιν. ΥΠΓ΄. – ΣΥΝΕΣΙΩ. Περὶ Καππαδοκῶν. Πάλιν ὁ Καππαδόκης ἐπὶ στρατοπέδου, ὡς ἔγνωμεν, τὴν ἀρχὴν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἀθλίαν μνηστεύεται, ἵνα δίδυ- μος ἡμῖν ἐπιστῇ Καππαδόκης, πρὸς τῇ ἐνοίκῳ μισανθρωπίᾳ καὶ τὴν κακὴν προσλαβὼν δυναστείαν. Εἰσὶ δὲ μᾶλλον [οἱ] τὰ χρηστὰ ἐπαγγέλλοντες, ὅτι δὴ τῶν οἰκείων συμφυλετῶν ἄρξαι ἱμείρεται. ᾧ καὶ [6] Θεὸς ἐπινεύσειεν, ὡς ἂν πρέποντα τροφεία τῇ τιτθῇ ἀποδῴη ἀνθ᾽ οὗ ἔσπασε γάλακτος, ἰὸν αὐτὴν ἀν- τιποτίζων, ὃν ἴσως σὺν τῷ γάλακτι ἔσπασε. ΥΠΔ΄. – ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟ. Ὁ φθορεὺς τῶν πολιτῶν ἡμῶν Καππαδόκης· (73) νῦν ἐπὶ στρατοπέδου πάλιν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκδι- κεῖ. Σὸν τοίνυν ἐστὶ τοῦ ἔχοντος παρὰ Θεοῦ τὴν ἰσχὺν, τοῦτο κωλύσαι, καὶ τῆς προτέρας αὐτὸν εὐθύνας εἰσπράξασθαι κακίας. Εἰς ἐκείνην δὲ λι- κμῆσαι τὴν ἐνεγκοῦσαν αὐτὸν ἐσχατιὰν, ὡς ἂν μάθοιεν οἱ τοῦ ἀνδραπόδου ὁμόφυλοι ἐν αὐτοῖς τὴν πονηρίαν ἐντήκειν, καὶ μὴ πέραν τῆς [ἑαυτῶν] ἐξεμοῦντες, τὰς ὑγιαινούσας αἰσθήσεις καὶ χώρας τοῖς λοιμικοῖς τρόποις αὐτῶν διαφθείρειν. ΥΠΕ΄. – ΙΣΙΔΩΡΟ, Περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν. Καρχηδονίους νόμος κωλύει διέπειν ἀρχὴν, ἦτ- τονας κακούς. Καππαδόκας δὲ τοὺς μεγάλους πονη- ροὺς, οὐκ εἴργει νόμος ἀρχῆς. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν καὶ βούλει πάντας εὐεργετεῖν, καὶ σύνδρομον ἔχεις τῇ βουλήσει τὴν δύναμιν, ἢ τὸν νόμον ἀντάλλαξον, μᾶλ- λον Καππαδόκας Καρχηδονίων κωλύων, ἢ σύναψον [καὶ] τούτους ἐκείνοις. Εἰ δὲ, ὡς εἰκὸς, χρήμασι τὰς ἀρχὰς ἐξωνοῦνται, ἂς καὶ βάρβαρός τις ὠνού- μενος, οὐ κωλύεται μόνον, εἰ τὰ χρήματα διδῷ, ἀλλὰ