Letter 117: You lied, but the lie made your son better -- and there's room for that kind of lie even in Plato's ideal city [a...

You lied, but the lie made your son better -- and there's room for that kind of lie even in Plato's ideal city [a reference to the "noble lie" in Plato's Republic]. I had always wanted to see Titianus, but I never believed he could be in any way inferior while studying under his father and attending his lectures -- any more than a boy would be, if his teacher were Machaon [the legendary physician in Homer]. If I said the young man's soul was golden, having taken on so many beauties, I'd be honoring gold itself -- or if you prefer, the gold of Colophon [proverbially the finest gold in the ancient world]. I find myself wondering what the harvest would have been if you'd had a cool summer breeze to work with, given that in this stifling heat so much has been gathered. I didn't doubt what you reported, but I found it surpassed even more beautifully in the product of his actual compositions -- works that Titianus produces nobly, though there will be no shortage of people to call them bad: a few from ignorance, more, I suspect, from envy.

To Acacius (359/60) You deceived me, it is true — but your son has been made the better by that deception, and for such a deception we see there is a place even in Plato's city. For my part, I have always longed to see Titianus, but I was never persuaded that he was in any worse condition while with his father and his father's teaching — nor would I have been, even if Machaon himself had been at his father's side. If I were to say that this young man's soul has become golden, having received so many beauties, I would be honoring gold itself — and, if you like, the gold of Colophon at that. I find myself wondering what the harvest would have been for you in summer, when you had favorable breezes, given that in such stifling heat so much has been gathered. What you described to me I did not doubt, and I found it surpassed still more in the offspring of his speeches — speeches that Titianus brings forth nobly, though there will be no few who call them poor out of ignorance, and more still, I suspect, out of envy.

Ἀκακίῳ. (359/60) Ἐψεύσω μέν, ἀλλ’ ὁ παῖς σοι τῷ ψεύδει γεγένηται βελ- τίων, τῷ δὲ τοιούτῳ ψεύδει κἀν τῇ Πλάτωνος πόλει χώραν ὁρῶμεν οὖσαν. ἐγὼ δὲ Τιτιανὸν ἀεὶ μὲν ἰδεῖν ἐπόθουν, εἷναι δὲ ἐν φαυλοτέροις ὄντα παρὰ τῷ πατρὶ καὶ τοῖς ἐκείνου λόγοις οὐδεπώποτε ἐπείσθην, οὐδὲ γάρ, εἰ. Μαχάων ἦν παρὰ τῷ πατρί. χρυσῆν δὲ εἰ φαίην γεγονέναι τοῦ νεανίσκου τὴν ψυχὴν τοσαῦτα κάλλη δεξαμένην, τιμήσαιμ’ ἂν τὸν χρυ- σὸν αὐτὸν καί, εἰ βούλει γε, τὸν Κολοφώνιον. ἐνθυμοῦ- μαι δέ, τίς ἂν ἦν ἡ συλλογὴ τοῦ θέρους ὑμῖν αὔρας ἔχον- τος, ὁπότε ἐν τοσούτῳ πνίγει τοσαῦτα ἤθροισται, ἃ σοῦ τε κα- ταλέγοντος οὐκ ἠπίστουν εὗρόν τε κάλλιον ἐν τῷ τόκῳ τῶν λόγων, οὓς Τιτιανὸς μὲν τίκτει γενναίους, ἔσονται δὲ οἱ κα- λέσοντες κακοὺς οὐκ ὀλίγοι μὲν ἀμαθίᾳ, πλείους δέ, οἶμαι, φθόνῳ.