Letter 316: I send you a young man who was once my student and who now practices law.

To Maximus (357) I am beginning with a letter, which is the very thing you most desired, and to the deeds by which you came to perceive me as a friend I add the writing of letters—perhaps in your eyes no less honorable than those deeds. And first I would wish you to keep to the very principles you have come to know; and you knew, of course, that to make Arabia prosperous, when it is in a very wretched state on account of those who drag off its goods to their own homes. But you will be poorer in office, reckoning praise above gold. This very thing also offers the better hopes to Bassus, who must now recover his own property through you. For this Bassus has, on the one hand, certain wicked men there as his uncles, and, on the other, here an uncle who is both an orator and a good man, Magnus by name, on whose account I also care about Bassus; for the one I have never yet set eyes upon, but the other is worth many to me. And it is not possible for me to neglect his affairs. Consider, then, who the brothers of the father are, and who this man is on the mother's side: the former have plundered the property of Bassus, while the latter does everything so that the ancestral estate may become Bassus's own. And, having long sought this, he now believes that the moment has come—and he believes rightly. For Maximus the noble man, for the sake both of justice and of us, having shaken some of them down, and pitying the other, will transfer the estate from those who reap what belongs to others to the lawful owner under the laws.

Μαξίμῳ (357) Ἄρχω γραμμάτων, οὗ μάλιστα ἐπεθύμεις, καὶ τοῖς ἔργοις, δι’ ὧν ᾔσθου με φίλον, προστίθημι τὸ ἐπιστέλλειν ἴσως οὐκ ἀτιμότερον παρὰ σοὶ τῶν ἔργων ἐκείνων. καὶ πρῶτον μέν σε βουλοίμην ἂν ἅπερ ἔγνωκας τηρεῖν, ἐγίγνωσκες δὲ ἄρα τὴν Ἀραβίαν εὐδαίμονα ποιεῖν πάνυ φαύλως ἔχουσαν ὑπὸ τῶν οἴκαδε τἀκείνης ἑλκόντων ἀγαθά. ἀλλὰ σὺ πενέστερος ἐπὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἔσῃ πρὸ τοῦ χρυσίου τὸ ἐπαινεῖσθαι ποιούμε- νος. τοῦτο καὶ Βάσσῳ παρέχει τὰς ἀμείνους ἐλπίδας, ὃν δεῖ νῦν τὰ αὑτοῦ κομίσασθαι διὰ σοῦ. Βάσσῳ γὰρ τούτῳ θεῖοι μέν εἰσιν ἐκεῖ πονηροί τινες ἄνθρωποι, θεῖος δὲ ἐν- ταῦθα ῥήτωρ τε καὶ ἀνὴρ ἀγαθός, Μάγνος ὄνομα αὐτῷ, δι’ ὃν δὴ καὶ Βάσσου μοι μέλει· τὸν μὲν γὰρ οὐδεπώποτε εἶδον, ὁ δὲ ἀντὶ πολλῶν ἐστί μοι. καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀμελῆσαί μοι τῶν τοῦδε. σκόπει τοίνυν, τίνες μὲν οἱ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀδελφοί, τίς σὲ ὁ τῆς μητρὸς οὗτος· οἱ μὲν τὰ Βάσσου διηρπάκασι ὁ δ’ ὅπως Βάσσου γένοιτο τὰ πατρῷα, πάντα ποιεῖ. καὶ πάλαι τοῦτο ζητῶν νῦν ἥκειν ἡγεῖται καιρόν, καὶ καλῶς ἡγεῖται. Μάξιμος γὰρ ὁ γενναῖος καὶ τοῦ δικαίου καὶ ἡμῶν χάριν τοὺς μὲν σείσας. τὸν δὲ ἐλεῶν ἀπὸ τῶν τὰ ἀλλότρια καρπου- μένων ἐπὶ τὸν ἐκ τῶν νόμων κύριον μεταστήσει τὴν οὐσίαν