Letter 336: Noble products of your teaching!

To Aresios. (358) Noble products of your teaching! You have sent us a gift worth more than gold — the gold which you say the festival brought me in abundance, though it was a small amount and the poor are many. To take from those who are not wealthy I consider no different from robbing the dead. But suppose it were abundant, as much as the river once gave the king of the Lydians [Croesus, from the gold-bearing Pactolus], or even, if you like, finer than the gold of Kolophon — what could compare with the sons of Hierios, your own students? Their father planted in them the capacity to receive powerful eloquence, and you filled them with it. A second gift has also come to me from your circle — not a talented youth, but a good man, one who mentions you often and always in the highest terms, one who takes more pleasure in hearing you praised than in hearing himself praised. Can you identify the man from what I have said, or must I add more? I mean a man who is kind, the most delightful company, skilled in speaking, a lover of those who are skilled, and one who wins friends with extraordinary speed. At this, even the dullest person would cry out: "Leontios!" In his presence I speak with more than my usual power, made a better speaker by his eagerness to listen. He shuns the crowd, the marketplace, and public affairs, yet he came regularly to me and sat beside me, cheering me with his praise — and whether he was delighted by what he heard, he will tell you himself. This is the man I have called a gift. I would have wished him to be here with us rather than where he is, had I not honored your city as much as my own.

Ἀρεσίῳ. (358) Γενναῖά γέ σου τὰ θρέμματα, καὶ δῶρον ἡμῖν ἀπέσταλ- κἀς οὐ κατὰ χρυσόν, ὃν φῄς μοι πολὺν ἐνηνοχέναι τὴν ἑορ- τήν, καίτοι μικρὸς μὲν ἐκεῖνος, πολλοὶ δὲ οἱ πένητες· παρὰ δὲ τῶν οὐ πλουτούντων λαμβάνειν ἴσον ἡγοῦμαι τῷ τεθνεῶτα συλᾶν. ἀλλ’ ἔστω πολὺς καὶ ὅσον ὁ ποταμὸς ἐδίδου τῷ Λυδῶν βασιλεῖ, καί, εἰ βούλει γε, τοῦ Κολοφωνίου καλλίων, ἀλλὰ τί τοσοῦτον, ὅσον οἱ παῖδες Ἱερίου, σοὶ δὲ ὁμιληταί; ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐφύτευσε δεινοὺς δέξασθαι λόγους, σὒ α δὲ τῶν ἐνέθηκας. ἥκει μέντοι μοι παρ’ ὑμῶν καὶ δεύτερόν δῶ- ρον , οὐ νέος εὐφυής, ἀλλ’ ἀνὴρ ἀγαθός, σοῦ τε πολλάκις μεμνημένος, καὶ μεμνημένος γε ἐπ’ ἀμείνοσι καὶ πλέον, εἴ σέ τις ἐπαινοίη, χαίρων ἢ εἴ τις αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον. ἆρα εὑρίσκεις τὸν ἄνδρα τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἢ προσθεῖναι δεῖ; λέγω δή τινα χρηστόν, ἥδιστον συνεῖναι λέγειν ἐπιστάμενον, τῶν ἐπιστα- μένων ἐρῶντα, πολλοὺς ὅτι τάχιστα κτώμενον φίλους. ἐπὶ τούτοις κἂν ὁ νωθρότατος βοήσαι· Λεόντιος. οὗ παρόντος ἐγὼ πλέον τι τοῦ εἰωθότος φθέγγομαι ὑπὸ τῆς ἐκείνου πρὸς τὴν ἀκοὴν ἐπιθυμίας ἀμείνων εἰπεῖν γιγνόμενος. ὁ δὲ φεύ- γων τὸν ὄχλον καὶ ἀγορὰν καὶ πράγματα παρ’ ἐμὲ ἐφοίτα καὶ παρεκάθητό μοι τοῖς μὲν ἐπαίνοις εὐφραίνων, εἰ δὲ οἶς ἤκουσε τερπόμενος, αὐτὸς ἐρεῖ. τοῦτον τὸν ἄνδρα κέκληκα δῶρον. ὂν ηὐξάμην ἂν παρ’ ἡμῖν εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ οὗπέρ ἐστιν, μὴ τὴν ὑμετέραν ὅσαπερ τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ ταύτην ἐτίμων.