Letter 11

To Leontius. Herodotus said that men's ears are less trustworthy than their eyes. But in your case I hold the opposite view: my ears are more trustworthy than my eyes. Even if I had seen you ten times over, I would not trust my eyes as much as I now trust my ears. A man incapable of lying has told me that while you distinguish yourself in every respect, you surpass even yourself in your deeds "with hand and foot," as Homer says [Odyssey 8.148, originally about athletic competitions]. I am therefore entrusting you with a military command. I have sent you a complete suit of infantry armor and enrolled you in my household guard [the protectores domestici, an elite imperial unit].

To Leontius [361 From Naissa or Constantinople] The Thurian historian3 said that men's ears are less to be trusted than their eyes.4 But in your case I hold the opposite opinion from this, since here my ears are more trustworthy than my eyes. For not if I had seen you ten times would I have trusted my eyes as I now trust my ears, instructed as I have been by a man who is in no wise capable of speaking falsely,1 that, while in all respects you show yourself a man, you surpass yourself2 in your achievements "with hand and foot," as Homer says.3 I therefore entrust you with the employment of arms, and have despatched to you a complete suit of armour such as is adapted for the infantry. Moreover I have enrolled you in my household corps.4 3 Herodotus. 4 Herodotus 1. 8; cf. Julian Oration 1. 37c, and 4. 145d. 1 An echo of Demosthenes, Olynthiac 2. 17. 2 Cf. Julian, Oration 7. 235b, Letter to Themistius 264d, Caesars 309d,327c. 3 Odyssey 8. 148; the phrase is there used of the athletic sports of the Phaeacians. 4 i. e. the protectores domestici; cf. Symmachus, Letter 67. In C.I.L. III. 5670a (Dessau 774), a Leontius is mentioned as praepositus militum auxiliarium in 370 a.d.