Letter 329: Spectatus — who loves you above all others (whether he is right to do so I cannot say, but that he loves you...

To Anatolius. (358) Splendid has he come back to us from the embassy, the man who loves you most of all, Spectatus [a kinsman of Libanius and envoy to Persia] - and whether he loves you with good reason, that I do not know, but that he loves you intensely, this I know exactly - and thanks to this man's tongue we Greeks were not overcome by the barbarians. Shall I then describe the oratory by which he wrestled down the Persian in that king's own palace? But I am afraid I may grieve you. For you think it right that, while you are living, no one else should be praised. And now, because you did not -- in addition to administering the affairs you administer -- go there on an embassy and by your shouting turn the man to stone, you are choking with vexation. But on this very point too it must be told, so that, lying sleepless, you may toss and turn the whole night through. For when he summoned those of us who were present, after marveling much at justice and at those who do what is just, he said: I, then, am the one being wronged, and you are the ones doing wrong. And he [the Persian] was undoing a certain measure of land, which had been theirs before we now hold it, from which those who desire peace must withdraw. Good, then, were the arguments of the others too, and you yourself will vote them to be good once you learn what they were; but those of the soldier - as you would say - or rather of the orator - as my account has it - proved him to be seeking satisfaction from those against whom he brings no charge. For others, he said, are the ones who have been deprived of the land, but another is the one being warred upon. And it is a terrible thing if the one shall lay claim to ancestral possessions which never came to him from that man, while he persuades the other to withdraw from those things which are part of his ancestral inheritance. By the gods, would you not have wished these things to have been said by you, rather than to rule over twice as many subjects as you rule? Answer my letter, then, and write something similar, you who dismiss only a very few private persons indeed; for the downpour of letter-tablets brings many to the imperial manger.

Ἀνατολίῳ. (358) Λαμπρὸς ἡμῖν ἀπὸ τῆς πρεσβείας ὁ σὲ δὴ μάλιστα Σπε- κτάος φιλῶν — καὶ ει μ ν εἰκότως φιλεῖ, τοῦτό γε οὐκ οἶδα, τὸ δ’ ὅτι φιλεῖ σφοδρῶς, ἀκρὶ ῶς ἐπίσταμαι — καὶ παρὰ τὴν τοῦδε γλῶτταν οὐΚ ἐκρατήθημεν ἐν Ἕλληνες ὑπὸ βαρ- βάρων. εἴπω δὴ τὴν ρητορείαν, ᾐ κατεπάλαισε τὸν Πέρσην ἐν τοῖς ἐκείνου βασιλείοις; ἀλλὰ δέδοικα μή σε λυπήσω. σὺ γὰρ ἀξιοῖς σοῦ ζῶντος μηδένα ἄλλον ἐπαινεῖσθαι. καὶ νῦν, ὅτι μὴ πρὸς τῷ διοικεῖν ἃ διοικεῖς ἦλθες ἐκεῖ πρεσβεύων καὶ τῇ βοῇ τὸν ἄνθρωπον λίθον ἐποίησας, ἀποπνίγῃ. ἀλλὰ καὶ κατ’ αὐτὸ μέντοι τοῦτο λεκτέον, ὅπως ἀγρυπνῶν στρέφοιο τὴν νύχθ’ ὅλην. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἰσεκάλεσε τοὺς παρ’ ἡμῶν, πολλὰ δικαιοσύνην θαυμάσας καὶ τοὺς τὰ δίκαια ποιοῦντας ἐγὼ μὲν τοίνυν ἀδικοῦμαί φηριν, ὐμεῖς δὲ ἀδικεῖτε. καὶ γῆς δέ τι μέτρον ἔλυεν, ἣν ἐκείνων οὖσαν πρὸ τοῦ νῦν ἡμᾶς ἔχειν, ἧς ἀποστατέον τοὺς τῆς εἰρήνης ἐπιθυμοῦντας. κάλα μὲν οὖν καὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων, ψηφιῇ δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς εἶναι καλὰ πυθόμενος ἅττα ἦν· τὰ δὲ δὴ τοῦ στρατιώτου μέν, ὡς ἂν σὺ φαίης, ῥήτορος δέ, ὡς οὑμὸς λόγος, ἐπεδείκνυεν αὐτὸν οὐχ οἷς ἐγκαλεῖ, παρὰ τούτων ζητοῦντα δίκην. ἄλλους μὲν γὰρ εἶναι τοὺς ἀφῃρημένους τὴν γῆν, ἄλλον δὲ τὸν πολεμούμε- νον. καὶ εἶναι δεινόν, εἰ ὁ μὲν προσερεῖ πατρῷα ἃ μὴ γέγονεν αὐτῷ παρ’ ἐκείνου, τὸν δ’ ἀποστῆναι πείσει τούτων ἃ τοῦ πατρῴου κλήρου μέρος ἐστί. πρὸς τῶν θεῶν, οὐκ ἐβούλου σοὶ ταῦτα εἰρῆσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ δὶς τοσούτων ἄρχειν ὁπόσων ἄρχεις; ἀμείβου δή μου τὰ γράμματα καὶ γράφε τι παραπλή- σιον, ὦ πάνυ δή τινας ὀλίγους ἰδιώτας ἀφείς· ὡς ἡ τῶν δέλ- των ἐπομβρία πολλοὺς ἐπὶ τὴν βασιλικὴν εἰσάγει φάτνην.