Letter 227: All good things to you, finest of young men, because what the laws have taken such care to establish regarding...

To Bassianus. (360?) Many blessings be yours, best of young men, because the things that have been carefully laid down by the laws concerning parents, that they should be cared for by their descendants, these you yourself have shown toward your teacher. For it did not escape my notice what you write to your grandmother concerning the admirable Cleobulus, asking that your property be opened to him. And having learned of it myself, I was surely not about to keep silent about things so fine; rather, the city has been filled with your magnificence, and we hold Cleobulus, who would by all means have flown off, had you not been such a man. Come then, dear heart, strike thus, that you may be praised and may live with hope of a better lot. And even now you have received no paltry wages from the Muses. For they say that all men everywhere are devoted to the love of eloquence. But this is precisely the gift of Mnemosyne [Memory, mother of the Muses].

Βασσιανῷ. (360?) Πόλλα ἀγαθά σοι γένοιτο, βέλτιστε νέων, ὅτι ἃ περὶ τῶν γονέων διεσπούδασται τοῖς νόμοις, ὅπως ὑπὸ τῶν ἐγγόνων θεραπεύοιντο, ταῦτ’ αὐτὸς ἐπεδείξω περὶ τὸν διδάσκαλον. οὐ γάρ με ἔλαθεν ἃ περὶ τοῦ θαυμαστοῦ Κλεοβούλου πρὸς τὴν τήθην ἐπιστέλλεις δεόμενος αὐτῷ τὴν σὴν οὐσίαν ἀνεῷχθαι. μαθὼν δὲ αὐτὸς οὐκ ἔμελλον δήπου τὰ οὕτω καλὰ σιγή- σεσθαι, ἀλλ’ ἥ τε πόλις ἐμπέπλησται τῆς σῆς μεγαλοπρεπείας ἔχομέν τε τὸν Κλεόβουλον πάντως ἂν ἀποπτάμενον, εἰ μὴ τοι οὗτος ἦσθα. ἄγε οὖν, ὦ φίλη κεφαλή, βάλλ’ οὕτως. ὅπως ἐπαινοῖό τε καὶ μετ’ ἐλπίδος ζῴης βελτίονος. εἴληφας δὲ οὐδὲ νῦν φαύλους παρὰ τῶν Μουσῶν τοὺς μισθούς. φασὶ γὰρ πάντας ἁπανταχόθεν προσκεῖσθαι τῷ τῶν λόγων ἔρωτι. τουτὶ δὲ τὸ δῶρον τῶν Μνημοσύνης ἀκριβῶς.