Letter 241: These were certainly not the promises you made when you left us to take up your governorship -- silence, and making...

To Eutherius. (360?) These were not, however, the promises you made to us as you set out for your office: silence, and the making of our affairs worse for us. No, the words spoken at that time were far removed from these - noble words, and befitting friendship, as Demosthenes says, but the deeds that should have come of them were nowhere to be found; and again the same man says this somewhere. For my own part [I feared] now that my letters might avail me nothing, and that you had come to suffer [...] the very thing that Andronicus the noble suffered. For ruling persuaded that man too to ignore his friends; as a ruler indeed he was worthy of praise - for one must speak the truth - but his conduct toward us might well lay him open to a charge. But surely now you must grant this favor, that you may lighten somewhat of what went before, and that we may not bring every charge against you - or rather, that we may bring no charge at all. For a charge is dissolved by a final favor that comes at the right moment; and this you know, if indeed you know Thucydides, unless you have forgotten that friend too. What, then, do we ask? And consider that it is not outside the laws. The councillors of Arce are enrolling Carterius among their own number, a man to whom the performance of public service [liturgy] in no way pertains from any quarter, and who lives among us devoted to rhetoric. For his father was a priest to him; and if you seek out his grandfather, you will find him to have been a magistrate; and, what is most important, his household was released by the council itself, as these documents make plain - and give the order for them to be read aloud. And do not so far overlook what is just, nor let it be permitted to those who dwell in Arce both to release men from these same obligations and to lay hold of them again; rather, let them know that it is equally unjust both not to recover what is their own and to make their own what is not theirs. But as for those men, let them hesitate at nothing; for us, however, let what comes from the laws be made strong through you. For it belongs to men who feel no shame to wish to have more than their share, but no judge should suffer any man to be more powerful than the law. And if [...] Carterius were full of sleep, who was not destined to appear in the chorus of the fools [the Morones], my speech about the things now being heaped upon him would be brief; but to destroy a shoot so noble, and to cast out of his mind what has already been gathered together - which the tumult of affairs is wont to do - is neither holy nor pious. And you yourself hold your office from your power to speak; it is fitting, then, that you should aid those who are devoted to Hermes [god of eloquence] and show yourself honoring the resources from which you have come to where you now are. If you wish, reckon in my own part as well, and do not dishonor the letter, since it is a letter that would endure anything in silence. But whenever you look upon these writings, consider that I too am looking on - that man who is everything to you, the one in the temple of Dionysus; and granting to the young man for the present to belong to his studies, release the household servants from their administration [of public duties].

Εὐθηρίῳ. (360?) Οὐ ταῦτα μέντοι παρ’ ἡμῶν ἀπαίρων ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ὑπι- σχνοῦ, σιγὴν καὶ τὸ ποιήσειν ἡμῖν χείρω τὰ πράγματα, ἀλλ’ ἦν πολὺ τούτων ἀφεστηκότα τὰ τότε λεγόμενα, φησὶ Δημο- σθένης, καλὰ καὶ φιλίᾳ πρέποντα, τὰ ἔργα δὲ τὰ ἀπὸ τούτων οὐδαμοῦ, πάλιν <ὁ> αὐτός πού φησιν. ὡς ἔγωγε νῦν μὴ οὐδέν μοι δυνηθῇ τὰ γράμματα καὶ πεπονθὼς ἦς ὅπερ Ἀνδρόνικος ὁ καλός. καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνον ἔπεισε τὸ ἄρχειν ἀγνοῆσαι τοὺς φίλους, ἄρχοντα μὲν ἀξίως ἐπαίνου, δεῖ γὰρ τἀληθῆ λέγειν, τὰ πρὸς ἡμᾶς δὲ αὐτῷ τάχ’ ἂν αἰτίαν ἔχοι. ἀλλά τοι δεῖ νῦν ταύτην δοῦναι τὴν χάριν, ὅπως τι κουφί- σαις τῶν πρότερον καὶ μὴ πάντα ἐγκαλῶμεν, μᾶλλον δὲ ὅπως μηδὲν ἐγκαλῶμεν. λύεται γὰρ ἔγκλημα χάριτι τελευταίᾳ και- ρὸν ἐχούσῃ, καὶ τοῦτο οἶσθα, εἴπερ οἶσθα Θουκυδίδην, εἰ μὴ καὶ τούτου γε ἐπελάθου τοῦ φίλου. τί οὖν αἰτοῦμεν καὶ σκόπει γε ὡς οὐκ ἔξω τῶν νόμων. οἱ τῆς Ἄρκης βουλευταὶ Καρτέριον εἰς αὑτοὺς ἐγγράφουσιν, ᾧ τὸ μὲν λειτουργεῖν οὐ δαμόθεν προσήκει, παρ’ ἡμῖν δὲ ἐπὶ λόγοις διατρίβει. ὅ τε γὰρ πατὴρ ἱερεὺς αὐτῷ τόν τε πάππον εἰ ζητεῖς, ἄρχοντα εὑρήσεις καὶ τὸ μέγιστον, ὑπ’ αὐτῆς τῆς βουλῆς τὴν οἰκίαν ἀφειμένην, ὡς δηλοῖ ταυτὶ τὰ γράμματα, κέλευε δὲ ἀναγινώσκειν. καὶ μὴ τοσοῦτον παρίδῃς <τὸ> δίκαιον μηδὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς Ἄρκαν οἰκοῦσιν ἔστω τῶν αὐτῶν ἀφίστασθαί τε καὶ πάλιν λαμβάνεσθαι, ἀλλ’ ἴστωσαν ὡς ὁμοίως ἄδικον τά τε αὑτῶν οὐ κομίζεσθαι τά τε οὐχ αὑτῶν αὑτῶν ποιεῖν. ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνοι μὲν μηδὲν ὀκνούν- των, ἡμῖν δέ γε διὰ σοῦ γιγνέσθω τὰ παρὰ τῶν νόμων ἰσχυρά. τῶν μὲν γὰρ οὐκ αἰσχυνομένων ἐστὶν ἐθέλειν πλεονεκτεῖν, δι καστοῦ δὲ μηδένα <ἐᾶν> εἶναι δυνατώτερον νόμου. καὶ μὲν ἔγεμεν ὕπνου Καρτέριος ἡ μὴ ἔμελλεν ἐν Μόρων φα- νεῖσθαι χορῷ, βραχὺς ἄν μοι λόγος ἦν τῶν νῦν ἐπ’ αὐτὸν παττομένων· βλάστην δὲ οὕτω γενναίαν διαφθεῖραι καὶ τὸ ἤδη συνειλεγμένον ἐκβαλεῖν τῆς διανοίας, ὃ πέφυκε ποιεῖν ὁ τῶν πραγμάτων θόρυβος, οὔθ᾿ ὅσιον οὔτ᾿ εὐσεβές. καὶ σύ τοι τὸ ἄρχειν ἔχεις ἀπὸ τοῦ δύνασθαι λέγειν εἰκὸς δή σε βοη- θεῖν τοῖς περὶ τὸν Ἑρμῆν καὶ φαίνεσθαι τιμῶντα τὰς ἀφορ- μὰς ἀφ’ ὧν ἐνταῦθα ἥκεις. εἰ Τε βούλει, καὶ τοὐμὸν προσ- λογίζου καὶ μὴ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἀτιμάσῃς, ὅτι ἐστὶν ἐπιστολὴ πᾶν ἂν παθοῦσα σιγῇ. ἀλλ’ ὅταν εἰς τὰ γράμματα βλέπῃς, ἡγοῦ καὶ ἐμὲ βλέπειν ἐκεῖνον τὸν πάντα σοι, τὸν ἐν Διονύσου, καὶ τὸν νέον δοὺς τὸ νῦν εἶναι τοῖς λόγοις ἀπάλλαξον τοὺς οἰκέ- τας τῆς διαχειρίσεως.