Letter 283: I was delighted by your letter.

To Maximus. (361) I was delighted by what you wrote. For you disclosed the things I wished to know, and the beauty of the letter was beyond anything one could devise, so that, as I was shouting in the marketplace, for it was there that I received it and, having received it, I read it at once, Strategius asked, "At what are you shouting?", I mean the one who serves in the city council, and when he learned, he too read it and imitated my shouting. Come then, do good service to this man also for our sake, and hold him dear, since he is a child of mine. You will surely not begrudge me for calling my pupil by such a name, for he came to study with me along with many others, but along with few he proved superior to reproach, and that too while continually spending his time with me and sharing my table and the labors of the afternoon and all those things that a young man may fittingly be entrusted with on account of his character. This man's family comes both from the people you govern and from the Galatians, but he reckons more of the land you govern, and somehow he has long inclined toward Armenia. And even if he did not do this before, he would now in any case have shown himself doing it, since you have made your cities into what they call the flowers of Samos and have revealed them as a Samian thoroughfare.

Μαξίμῳ. (361) Ἥσθην οἷς ἔγραψας. ἅ τε γὰρ ἐβουλόμην ἐμήνυες καὶ τὸ κάλλος ἦν ἀμήχανον οἷον τῆς ἐπιστολῆς, ὥστε μου βοῶν- τος ἐπ’ ἀγορᾶς, ἐκεῖ τε γὰρ ἔλαβον καὶ λαβὼν εὐθὺς ἀνέγνων, ἐφ’ ὅτῳ βοᾷς; ἤρετο Στρατήγιος, τὸν πολιτευόμενον λέγω, καὶ γνοὺς ἀνέγνω τε καὶ ἐμιμεῖτό μου τὴν βοήν. ἴθι δὴ καὶ τοῦτον ἡμῖν εὖ ποίει καὶ φίλει παῖδα ὄντα ἐμόν. πάντως δὲ οἴ μοι νεμεσήσεις οὕτω καλοῦντι τὸν μαθητήν, ὃς μετὰ πολλῶν ἐφοίτησε παρ’ ἐμέ, μέμψεως δὲ μετ’ ὀλίγων ἐγένετο κρείττων καὶ ταῦτα συνεχῶς συνδιατρίβων τε καὶ τραπέζης κοινωνῶν καὶ τῶν μετὰ μεσημβρίαν πόνων καὶ ὅσων εἰκὸς νεανίσκον πιστευόμενον διὰ τὸν τρόπον. τούτῳ τὸ μὲν γένος ἔκ τε ὧν ἄρχεις καὶ Γαλατῶν, πλείων δὲ αὐτῷ λόγος ἧς ἄρχεις καί πως ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀρμενίαν ῥέπει πάλαι. τοῦτο δὲ εἰ καὶ μὴ πρότερον ἐποίει, πάντως ἂν νῦν ἐφάνη ποιῶν σοῦ τὰς πόλεις Σαμίων ἄνθη φασὶ καὶ λαύραν ἀποφήναντος Σαμιακήν.