Letter 363: Have you been seized by the same feeling that has seized us?

Have you yourself too been seized by the very thing that we ourselves have suffered? As evening comes on, when we are accustomed to walk over to you, the journey is demanded of us by our feet, but, having no way to see you, we are in pain. Perhaps the same thing happens to you as well when the sun has set. I am taught this both by your general character and by the charges with which you accused me of neglecting you. You said, then, that you had been wronged because for two days I had been absent from your company, and your reproaches were sweeter to me than honey. And when I pleaded the illness that afflicts my head, and declared that I had stayed at home because of the constraint it imposed, you found a second charge: that I had not given you notice of this. These, indeed, are the feelings of private men toward one another, [yet here it is] the ruler toward the one he rules. But to know how to cherish in this way the one who is loved is no less a proof of virtue than to render judgment as you render it. That in your toil you imitate Heracles, and in your speed Perseus, you do well. But we beg of your wings not only to carry you swiftly beyond the Euphrates, but also to bring you back quickly to the Orontes, our river.

Μοδέστῳ. (358/59) Ἀρ’ ὅπερ αὐτοὶ πεπόνθαμεν, τούτῳ καὶ αὐτὸς κατεδχέ- θης; ἡμεῖς ἑσπέρας προσιούσης, ὅτε δὴ βαδίζειν εἰώθαμεν παρὰ σέ, παρὰ μὲν τῶν ποδῶν ἀπαιτούμεθα τὴν ὁδόν, ἰδεῖν δέ <σε> α οὐκ ἔχοντες ἀλγοῦμεν. ἴσως δὴ καὶ αὐτῷ σοι γίγνεται δύντος ἡλίου. διδάσκομαι δὲ τοῦτο τῷ τε ἄλλῳ σου τρόπῳ καὶ ταῖς αἰτίαις αἷς με ᾐτιῶ παραπέμποντά σε. ἔλεγες τοίνυν ἠδικῆσθαι δύ’ ἡμέρας ἐκλιπόντος μου τὴν συνουσίαν, καὶ ἦν ἡδίω μέλιτος τὰ ἐγκλήματά μοι. κατηγοροῦντος δέ μου τοῦ νοσήματος, ὃ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐνοχλεῖ, καὶ φάσκοντος οἴκοι μεῖναι διὰ τὴν ἐκεῖθεν ἀνάγκην δευτέραν ἐξεῦρες αἰτίαν τὸ μὴ τοῦτό σοι μηνύσαι. ταῦτα δὴ τὰ τῶν ἰδιωτῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὁ ἄρχων πρὸς τὸν ἀρχόμενον. τὸ δὲ φιλούμενον οὕτως εἰδέναι φιλεῖν τοῦ δικάζειν, ὥσπερ δικάζεις, οὐ μεῖον εἰς ἀπόδειξιν ἀρετῆς. ὅτι μὲν οὖν τῷ πόνῳ μὲν μιμῇ τὸν Ἡρακλέα, τῷ τάχει δὲ τὸν Περσέα, καλῶς οπιεῖς. ἀλλά σου δεόμεθα τῶν πτερῶν μὴ μόνον ὑπὲρ τὸν Εὐφράτην σε τα- χέως ἄγειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς Ὀρόντην, τὸν ἡμέτερον ποταμόν, ἐπανάγειν ὀξέως.