Letter 332: Word has reached us that you have attained the highest level in eloquence, and that your character is no worse than...

A report has reached us about you, that you have attained the highest degree of eloquence, and moreover that your character is no worse than your eloquence. Having learned this, I would most gladly have seen the man who possesses these qualities; but since it is not yet possible to obtain the greater course, I have looked to the second-best voyage and am writing to you. And doing this before meeting you, rather than thinking it absurd, I consider a mark of affection. And I so trust that you will not slight my friendship, that I do not even hesitate now to ask a favor of you. Domnus is a fellow-citizen of yours, but an acquaintance of mine; and being poor, through inexperience in affairs and lack of advocates, he is being made a councillor. Having come here in order to renew his contest, although he is in the right to obtain release, he found a postponement; and now, being about to return, he asks me to write to you to help him, placing his hopes in you on other grounds as well, and being persuaded that he will also gain some additional benefit from the letter. I therefore, reckoning his request a gain for myself, and indeed a double gain, if I shall both gratify the one as a friend and acquire the other in addition, very readily complied. Then he departed by night, those with whom he had to travel together being in haste; yet not even so did I withdraw from what I had promised, but I urge you both now and hereafter to be a harbor to Domnus, and to persuade the good people of Tyre that to lay hold of the property of the destitute is to drive out citizens from the city, not to provide it with public benefactors.

Γαϊανῷ (357/58) Λόγος ἥκει περὶ σοῦ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἥκειν σε λόγων, καὶ δὴ καὶ τοὺς τρόπους εἶναί σοι μὴ χείρους τῶν λόγων. ὃ μαθὼν ἐγὼ τὸν ταῦτα κεκτημένον ἥδιστ’ ἂν ἰδών, ἐπεὶ μήπω τοῦ μείζονος ἔστι τυχεῖν, εἰς τὸν δεύτερον εἶδον πλοῦν καὶ ἐπιστέλλω. τὸ δὲ πρὶν ἐντυχεῖν τοῦτο ποιεῖν ἀντὶ τοῦ νομίζειν ἄτοπον ἐρωτικὸν ἡγοῦμαι. οὕτω δέ σε πιστεύω μὴ τὴν ἐμὴν ἀτιμάσειν φιλίαν, ὥστ’ ἤδη καὶ χάριν αἰτεῖν οὐκ ὀκνῶ. Δόμνος σὸς μέν ἐστι πολίτης, γνώριμος δὲ ἐμοί, πένης δὲ ὢν ἀπειρίᾳ τε πραγμάτων καὶ συνηγόρων ἐρημίᾳ γίγνεται βουλευτής, δεῦρο δὲ ἐλθών, ὡς ὡς ἀναμαχέσαιτο, δίκαιος ὢν ἀπαλλαγῆς τυχεῖν ἀναβολὴν εὕρατο καὶ μέλλων ἐπανιέναι δεῖταί μου γράψαι πρὸς σὲ βοηθεῖν αὑτῷ τὰς μὲν ἐλπίδας ἔχων ἐν σοὶ καὶ ἄλλως, πεπεισμένος δέ τι προσωφελή- σεσθαι καὶ παρὰ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς. ἐγὼ τοίνυν τὴν ἐκείνου δέησιν κέρδος ἐμαυτοῦ θέμενος καὶ διπλοῦν γε κέρδος, εἰ φίλῳ τῷ μὲν χαριοῦμαι, τὸν δὲ προσλήψομαι, καὶ σφόδρα ὑπήκουσα. εἶθ’ ὁ μὲν ᾤχετο τῆς νυκτὸς ἐπειχθέντων οἱς ἐχρῆν συνοδοιπορεῖν, ἐγὼ δ’ οὐδ’ οὕτως ἀπέστην ὧν ὑπεσχό- μην, ἀλλὰ σὲ παρακαλῶ καὶ νῦν καὶ εἰσαῦθις εἶναι Δόμνῳ λιμένα καὶ πείθειν τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς Τυρίους, ὅτι τὸ τῶν ἀπόρων ἔχεσθαι τῆς πόλεως ἐστι πολίτας ἐξελαύνειν, οὐ χορηγοὺς παρ- ἔχειν τῇ πόλει.