Letter 285: In other things I would yield to you, but in this contest I won long ago by doing what a friend should -- back when...

To Acacius. (361?) In all other things I would yield to you, but in this contest I have long since defeated you by acting as a friend, when you let loose all your eloquence so that you might not be robbed of those very things of which I myself, having been deprived, kept silent. But you do not seem to me to be ignorant of the second point either, namely that I praised you, while everyone praised me, because it was I who praised you and your struggles. As for letters, you sent first, but I wrote. And if some were dispatched in haste and others were delayed, it is not by this that one's intention is judged. How I came to see the excellent Eutropius, learn that from him; and learn too what I resolved to do, namely how I was defeated by Eubulus; for Eubulus, I suppose, must conquer in all things.

Ἀκακίῳ. (361?) Τῶν μὲν ἄλλων εἴξαιμ᾿ ἄν σοι, ταύτην δέ σε νενίκηκα τὴν νίκην πίλαι τὰ φίλου πεποιηκώς, ὅτε πάσας ἀφῆκας φωνάς, ὅπως μὴ ταῦτα ἀφαι·ρεθείης ὧν αὐτὸς στερηθεὶς ἐσί- γων. ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ τὰ δεύτερά μοι δοκεῖς ἀγνοεῖν, οἷς σὲ μὲν ἐγώ, πάντες δὲ ἐπῄνουν ἐμέ, διότι σὲ καὶ τοὺς σοὺς ἀγῶνας ἐγώ. γράμματα δὲ σὺ μὲν ἔπεμψας πρότερος, ἔγραψα δὲ ἐγώ. εἰ δὲ τὰ μὲν ἠπείχθη, τὰ δὲ ἐμέλλησεν, οὐ τούτῳ γε ἡ γνώμη κρίνεται. τὸν καλὸν Εὐτρόπιον ὅπως εἶδον, παρ’ ἐκείνου μάνθανε καὶ τί ποιεῖν ἐγνωκὼς ὅπως ἡττήθην Εὐβούλου· δεῖ γὰρ Εὔβουλον, οἶμαι, πάντα νικᾶν.