Letter 219: The news from your quarter confirms what we have long suspected: that education alone is no longer sufficient...

To Julian. (360?) Have you then forgotten us? For Phoenicia does not allow us to suffer this, honoring your office with undying hymns. And from your own Asia too there flows a report of your deeds, confirming our expectations. For nothing among the things reported is so great—though all of them are great—as to be greater than our hope. We, for our part, rejoice both because of our kinship with the Ionians and because it is likely that you, as you proceed along your way, will govern both those very men and the people here with a grander station. These matters, then, will be the concern of god; but Andragathius here, by asking to receive a letter, has not so much requested a favor of us as granted one. For that man will not be more delighted in enjoying your influence than I myself was glad that I had occasion to address you. Three things, then, commend the young man to you: his power of speech, which he displayed among the prefects; the reasonableness of his character, which no one who has associated with him has failed to discern as soon as he met him; and his being well-disposed toward us—and in this very respect surpassing those who have been known to us from childhood.

Ἰουλιανῷ. (360?) Ἆρ’ ἡμῶν ἐπιλέλησαι; ἡμᾶς μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἐᾷ τοῦτο πα- θεῖν ἡ Φοινίκη τὴν σὴν ἀρχὴν ὕμνοις ἀθανάτοις τιμῶσα. ῥει δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ὑμετέρας Ἀσίας τῶν ἔργων λόγος βεβαιῶν τὰς προσδοκίας. οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω μέγα τῶν ἀγγελλομένων ὄντων ἁπάντων μεγάλων ὥστ’ εἶναι κρεῖττον ἐλπίδος. ἡμεῖς δὲ διά τε τὴν συγγένειαν τὴν πρὸς τοὺς Ἴωνας χαίρομεν καὶ ὅτι σὲ εἰκὸς ὁδῷ χωροῦντα αὐτῶν τε ἐκείνων καὶ τῶν τῇδε μετὰ μείζονος ἄρξειν τοῦ σχήματος. τούτων μὲν οὖν θεῷ μελή- σει, χάριν δὲ οὐκ ᾔτησέ με μᾶλλον ἢ δέδωκεν Ἀνδραγάθιος οὑτοσὶ δεηθεὶς λαβεῖν ἐπιστολήν. οὐ γὰρ μᾶλλον ἐκεῖνος ἡδί- ων ἔσται τῆς σῆς ἀπολαύων ῥοπῆς ἢ αὐτὸς ὅτι σὲ προσειπεῖν εἶχον ἡδόμην. τρία δή σοι τὸν νεανίσκον συνίστησιν, ἥ τε τοῦ λέγειν δύναμις, ἣν ἐν τοῖς ὑπάρχοις ἔδειξεν, ἥ τε ἐπιεί- κεια τῶν τρόπων, ἣν οὐκ ἔφθη τις συμμίξας καὶ οὐκ ἔγνω, τό θ’ ἡμῖν ἐπιτηδείως ἔχειν καὶ ταύτῃ γε νικᾶν τοὺς ἡμῖν ἐκ παιδὸς γνωρίμους.