Letter 244: The sons of Caesarius did not make a bad decision in the first place when they entrusted themselves to a...

To Iphicrates. (358/359) The sons of Caesarius did not make a bad decision in the first place when they entrusted themselves to a rhetorician, and now -- O Muses! -- may they find something at my school that will remind them of a certain proverb. What proverb that is, you probably see, but it would not be modest for me to say. I laughed at your defensive speech, which you delivered though no one was accusing you, and laughed again when I found you worried that the young men might not get the full benefit of my teaching because they arrived through someone else's introduction. If I considered them enemies, I would have shut the door. But having received them as friends, I would be doing myself a disservice if I did not do them every good I could. Diomedes, too, would have been absurd if, having captured the horses of Aeneas, he had mistreated them instead of caring for them -- neglecting their fodder and blaming them for having previously belonged to Aeneas. Zeus, who cared about those horses -- for he himself had given the bloodline -- would have said: "Son of Tydeus, you are ruining your own property if you neglect these horses, who belong to you now and carry you and crown you with victory, not the son of Anchises." [An allusion to Iliad 5, where Diomedes captures Aeneas's divine horses]

Ἰφικράτει. (358/59) Ἀλλ’ οὔτε τὰ πρῶτα κακῶς ἐβουλεύθη τοῖς Καισαρίου παισὶ ῥήτορι δεδωκόσιν αὑτοὺς νῦν τε εὕροιεν, ὦ Μοῦσαι, παρ’ ἐμοί τι τοιοῦτον, ὑφ’ οὗ μνησθήσονται παροιμίας τινός. ἥτις δὲ αὕτη, σὺ μὲν ἴσως ὁρᾷς, ἐμοὶ δὲ οὐ καλὸν λέγειν. γε- λῶν δέ σου πρὸς τὴν ἀπολογίαν, ἣν ἐποιοῦ κατηγοροῦντος οὐ- δενός, πάλιν ἐγέλων, ὅτι σε εὕρισκον φοβούμενον μὴ οὐ τοῦ παντὸς ἀπολαύσωσιν οἱ νέοι τῷ δι’ ἄλλων παρ’ ἡμᾶς ἥκειν. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἐχθροὺς ἡγούμην, ἀπέκλειον ἄν δεξάμενος δὲ ὡς φίλους ἐμαυτὸν ἂν ποιοίην κακῶς, εἰ μὴ τούτους ἀγαθόν, ὅ τι ἂν δύνωμαι. γελοῖος δ’ ἂν ἦν καὶ Διομήδης, εἰ τοὺς ἵππους Αἰνείου λαβὼν ἀντὶ τοῦ θεραπεύειν ἐποίει χείρους τῇ τε ἄλλη καὶ χιλὸν οὐ διδοὺς ἐγκαλῶν αὐτοῖς, ὅτι ἦσαν Αἰ- νείου πρότερον. ἀλλ’ εἶπεν ἂν ὁ Ζεύς, ᾧ τῶν ἵππων ἔμελε, καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἐδεδώκει τὸ γένος, ὅτι ὦ παῖ Τυδέως, τὰ σαυτοῦ φθείρεις, ἢν τούτων ἀμελῇς, οἳ σοί τέ εἰσι καὶ σὲ φέρουσι καὶ στεφανοῦσι νικῶντες, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τὸν Ἀγχίσου.