Letter 193: Here is another matter that needs correction.

To Modestus. (360) Here is another matter that needs correction. No one in our city is like Asterius -- nor anywhere else, I suspect. The man has devoted extraordinary care to virtue, not because old age quenched his unruly passions, but because his nature led him toward self-control from childhood. He is therefore held in reverence by his fellow citizens -- no more by those older than him than by those who were younger. When I meet the old man and we fall into conversation, I feel as though my uncle [Libanius's beloved uncle Phasganius] were still alive. So when you thrust him into the smoke and clanging of metalworkers -- tasks as far removed from his life as swans are from furnaces -- I was deeply pained and ready to write at once. But I asked him to endure a little while and to do you the favor of accepting labors he was unaccustomed to, assuring him that relief would come soon. Since the work drags on, however, and there is disorder among the laborers, and the man loves quiet -- he has turned away offices that came to his very doorstep -- and since good men should have cause to rejoice in your power, and since Asterius flees what others pursue and would gladly leave his own house if he could not live there in his own way, I beg you: praise him for wanting to mind his own business and for the service he has already given, and transfer the assignment to someone else. You govern many people. Asterius, even freed from this labor, will not sit idle. Admiring your achievements will be work enough for him.

Τῷ αὐτῷ. (360) Ἄκουε δὴ καὶ ἕτερον ἐπανορθώσεως χρῇζον. Ἀστερίῳ παρ’ ἡμῖν οὐδεὶς ὅμοιος, οἶμαι δέ, οὐδὲ ἄλλοθι· τοσαύτην ἴσχεν ἁνὴρ ἐπιμέλειαν ἀρετῆς οὐ τοῦ γήρως αὐτῷ σβέσαντος τὰς ἀτόπους ἡδονάς, τῆς φύσεως δὲ ἐκ παιδὸς ἐπὶ τὸ σῶφρον ἀγούσης, ὅθεν ἐν αἰδοῖ παρὰ τοῖς πολίταις, οὐ μᾶλλον ὧν ἐστι πρεσβύτερος ἢ ὧν ἦν τότε νεώτερος. ἐμοὶ δὲ δόξα παρίστα- ται ζῆν μοι τὸν θεῖον, ὅταν ἐντύχω τε τῷ πρεσβύτῃ καὶ κατα- στῶμεν εἰς λόγους. ὅτε οὖν αὐτὸν ἐνέβαλλες εἰς καπνόν τε καὶ κτύπους χαλκέων, πράγματα ὧν ἀφειστήκει πλέον ἢ καμί- νῶν οἱ κύκνοι, λίαν ἠχθέσθην καὶ γράφειν ἕτοιμος ἦν. ἔπει- τα ἐδεήθην αὐτοῦ μικρὸν ὑπομεῖναι χρόνον καὶ δοῦναι χάριν αὑτῷ τὸ σοὶ χαρίσασθαι πόνους, ὧν ἦν ἀήθης, φάσκων τίκα ἥξειν τὴν λύσιν. ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸ μὲν ἐκτείνεται, ταραχὴ δὲ ἐν τοῖς ἐργαζομένοις, ὁ δὲ ἡσυχίας ἐρᾷ, δι’ ἣν ἀρχὰς αὑτῷ πρὸς τὰς χεῖρας ἰούσας ἀπεώσατο, δεῖ δὲ τοὺς χρηστοὺς ἐν τῇ σῇ δυνάμει χαίρειν, Ἀστέριος δὲ φεύγει ταῦτα ἃ διώκουσιν ἄλλοι καὶ δὴ καὶ τῆς οἰκείας ἡδέως ἂν ἐκπέσοι μὴ μέλλων οἴ- κοι ζῆν κατὰ τὸν αὑτοῦ τρόπον, δέομαι σοῦ τὸν μὲν ἐπαινέσαι τοῦ τε τὰ αὑτοῦ πράττειν ἐθέλειν καὶ ὧν ὑπηρέτηκεν, ἐπ’ ἄλ- λον δὲ ἀγαγεῖν τοὐπίταγμα, πολλοὶ δὲ ὧν ἄρχεις. Ἀστέ- ριος δὲ καὶ τούτων ἀφειμένος τῶν ἔργων οὐκ ἀργὸς καθεδεῖ- ται, τὰ γὰρ σὰ θαυμάζειν ἔργον αὐτῷ.