Letter 296: Now you have paid me back the great wages -- by appearing so fine and good at the imperial court.

To Honoratus. (361?) Now you have paid me back the great wages [for my teaching], having shown yourself so fine and good a man in the imperial court. For even those former things were no small matter, the gold and silver by which you surpassed the others; but in what you are now doing, by Heracles, how blessed in my child you have proven me to be! For you have stirred up everyone to praise of your own qualities, and I myself heard them speaking: one, that he loves you for your gentleness; another, for your shrewdness. And some one of them called you an orator, while to another it seemed a marvel that the works of tongue and of hand had come together in you. And a certain one, wishing to say something worthy of the excellence of your character, said: "Which Honoratus do you mean? The old man? Not because what happened to Erginus has befallen you, gray hair in youth, but because you live after the manner of the old men before you have passed out of boyhood; and, what is greatest, with your mother away and your father not present, you have set over yourself, as your tutor, the desire for noble things." I therefore have nothing to advise you to do as though it had been left undone, but I urge upon you this very thing that has been said by many: to keep the present rule of conduct, or rather, to add something to it, namely also to write letters, just as to your parents, so also to me, in order that this too may be well accomplished for you, of which there will be need when god grants it, whenever, out of your service within [the court], you shall seem fit to govern nations.

Ὁνωράτῳ. (361?) Νῦν μοι τοὺς μεγάλους μισθοὺς ἀποδέδωκας οὕτω κα- λὸς κἀγαθὸς ἐν βασιλείοις φανείς. μικρὰ μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ ἐκεῖνα, χρυσὸς καὶ ἄργυρος, οἷς τοὺς ἄλλους παρῄεις, ἐν οἷς δὲ νῦν ποιεῖς, Ἡράκλεις, ὡς εὔπαιδά με ἀπέφηνας. πάντας γὰρ εἰς ἔπαινον σύ γε τῶν σαυτοῦ κεκίνηκας καὶ αὐτὸς ἤκουσα λεγόντων, τοῦ μέν, ὅτι σε φιλεῖ διὰ τὴν πρᾳότητα τοῦ δέ, διὰ τὴν ἀγχίνοιαν. ὁ· δέ τις ἐκάλει ῥήτορα, τῷ δὲ ἐδόκει θαῦμα τὸ συνελθεῖν ἔργα γλώττης τε καὶ χειρός. ὁ δέ τις ἄξια τῆς τῶν τρόπων ἀρετῆς εἰπεῖν ἐθέλων ποῖον, ἔφη, λέγεις Ὁνωράτον; τὸν γέροντα; οὐχ ὅτι σοι τὸ τοῦ Ἐργίνου συμβέβηκεν, ἐν νεότητι πολιά, ἀλλ’ ὅτι ζῇς κατὰ τοὺς γέρον- τὰς πρὶν ἐκ παίδων ἐξελθεῖν, καὶ τὸ μέγιστον, μητρὸς ἀπού- σης, πατρὸς οὐ παρόντος, σαυτῷ παιδαγωγὸν ἐπέστησας τὴν τῶν καλῶν ἐπιθυμίαν. ἐγὼ τοίνυν παραινεῖν μέν τι ποιεῖν ὡς παραλελειμμένον οὐκ ἔχω, παρακαλῶ δέ σε τοῦτο δὴ τὸ πολλοῖς εἰρημένον, τηρεῖν τὸν παρόντα νόμον, μᾶλλον δὲ ἴν τι προσθεῖναι, τὸ καὶ ἐπιστέλλειν, ὥσπερ τοῖς γονεῦσι, καὶ ἐμοί, ὅπως σοι καὶ τοῦτο ἐργασθῇ καλῶς, οὗ δεήσει θεοῦ διδόντος, ὅταν ἐκ τῆς ἔνδον διακονίας ἐπιτήδειος εἶναι δοκῇς ἄρχειν ἐθνῶν.