Letter 365: You have won a double victory — one in arms, the other in letters — and you have raised a trophy from the barbarians...

To Julian. (358 AD) You have won a double victory — one in arms, the other in letters — and you have raised a trophy from the barbarians and another from me, your friend. This second trophy is a sweet one for the vanquished. Every father prays to be surpassed by his children, and you, having received from me the paths to writing, have with what you received outstripped the giver. As for the length of my letters, I suppose the rhetorician must defend himself to the general — or rather, to one who has learned to speak no less than to fight. When the emperor called you to share in his rule [as Caesar], I thought I should restrain my frankness and not behave toward so great a man as I had before. It would be absurd if in our practice declamations we knew how to address a Pericles, a Cimon, a Miltiades, yet in real life we ignored the rule. For your own argument — that generals write brief letters because they are busy — persuaded me too to keep my correspondence short, knowing that a man who has no time for long letters would also be troubled by long ones from others. Now, then, since you invite me to write at length, I shall comply. First, I congratulate you because, with weapons in hand, you have not abandoned your devotion to letters but fight as though you do nothing else, and live among books as though you stand apart from battle. Second, because you have given the one who shared his rule with you no cause to regret the sharing. Regarding him as at once your cousin, your co-ruler, your master, and your teacher, you credit him with your achievements and say to the fallen enemy: "What would you have suffered had the emperor himself appeared?" I praise all this, and I praise too that you did not change your character along with your robes, nor let power drive out the memory of your friends. May every blessing be yours, because you have not proved me a liar when I praised your nature — or rather, you have proved me a liar in that nothing I said was as great as what you have shown. One thing, at any rate, is truly yours alone, sprung from no precedent. While others, the moment they attain imperial power, take on a love of money — some beginning to crave what they never desired before, others intensifying a passion already dwelling in them — you alone, upon entering into power, gave away your patrimony to your companions: a house to one, slaves to another, land to a third, gold to a fourth, and showed yourself more a private citizen than a wealthy emperor. Do not think I am expelling myself from your friends because I am not among those who received gifts. I can explain why I alone have nothing. You wish cities to have everything that makes them flourish, and you know that the power of letters matters — that if someone extinguishes them, we become no different from barbarians. So you feared that if I gained wealth I would abandon my craft, and you thought it necessary to keep me in poverty so that I would keep to my post. This is how I prefer to read the oracle. For you would never say that barley goes to Capaneus and Amphiaraus, while so-and-so counts for nothing. No — the withholding was the act of one who cares for the whole. And so, in poverty of money, we are rich in words — that is your doing — and the rule we exercise we do not, perhaps, disgrace, just as you do not disgrace the greater one.

Ἰουλιανῷ. (358) Διπλῆν ἀνῄρησαι νίκην, τὴν μὲν ἐν ὅπλοις, τὴν δὲ ἔ λόγοις, καί σοι τρόπαιον ἕστηκε, τὸ μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν βαρβάρων, τὸ δ’ ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ τοῦ φίλου. τουτὶ δὲ τὸ τρόπαιον ἡδὺ τῷ κεκρατημένῳ. πᾶσι γὰρ δὴ πατράσιν εὐχῆς μέρος παίδων ἡτ- τᾶσθαι, καὶ σὺ παρ’ ἐμοῦ λαβὼν τὰς εἰς τὸ γράφειν ὁδοὺς οἷς ἔλαβες τὸν δόντα παρήνεγκας. περὶ δὲ τοῦ μέτρου τῆς ἐπιστολῆς δεῖ δήπου με ἀπολογήσασθαι τῷ στρατηγῷ τὸν ῥή- τορα, μᾶλλον δέ, τῷ λέγειν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ μάχεσθαι μαθόντι. ἐπειδή σε βασιλεὺς ἐκάλεσεν εἰς κοινωνίαν τῆς ἀρχῆς, ᾠή- θην δεῖν ἀφελεῖν τῆς παρρησίας καὶ μὴ ποιεῖν ἃ πρὸ τοῦ πρὸς ἄνδρα τοσοῦτον γεγενημένον. δεινὸν γάρ, εἰ σκιαμαχοῦν- τες μὲν ἐν ταῖς τῶν ἀγώνων μελέταις εἰσόμεθα, πῶς Περικλεῖ καὶ Κίμωνι καὶ Μιλτιάδῃ διαλεκτέον, ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς ἀληθείας παροψόμεθα τὸν νόμον. αὐτὸ γὰρ τοῦθ’ ὃ σὺ φῄς, ὡς αἱ τῶν στρατηγῶν ἐπιστολαὶ βραχεῖαι διὰ τὸ πράττειν, ἔπειθέ με καὶ αὐτὸν συστέλλειν τὰ γράμματα εἰδότα ὡς ὅστις ὐπ ἀσχολίας οὐκ ἔχει μακρὰ ἐπιστέλλειν, κἂν ὑπ’ ἄλλου μακρὰ γράφοντος ἐνοχληθείη. νῦν οὖν ἐπειδή με παρακαλεῖς εἰς μῆκος, ὑπακούσομαι. καί σοι συγχαίρω πρῶτον μέν, ὅτι τὰ ὅπλα ἔχων ἐν χεροῖν οὐκ ἐξέλυσας τὴν περὶ λόγους σπουδήν, ἀλλὰ μάχῃ μὲν ὡς οὐδὲν ἄλλο δρῶν, ζῇς δὲ ἐν βιβλίοις ὡς ἀφεστηκὼς μάχης· ἔπειθ’ ὅτι τῷ μεταδόντι τῆς ἀρχῆς οὐ παρέσχες μετάμελον, ὅτι μετέδωκεν, ἀλλ’ ἡγούμενος τὸν αὐτὸν ἀνεψιόν τε εἶναί σοι καὶ συνάρχοντα καὶ δεσπότην καὶ διδά- σκαλον οἷς τε πράττεις ἐκεῖνον ἐπιφημίζεις καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐν- αντίους πίπτοντας λέγεις· τί δ’ ἂν ἐπάσχετε βασιλέως φανέντος; ταῦτα ἐπαινῶ καὶ τὸ μὴ μετὰ τῆς ἐσθῆτος ἀμεῖψαι τὴν γνώμην μηδ’ ὑπὸ τῆς ἐξουσίας ἐκβαλεῖν τὴν μνήμην τῶν φίλων. καί σοι πολλὰ ἀγαθὰ γένοιτο, ὅτι με τὸν ἐπαινοῦντα τὴν σὴν φύσιν οὐ ψεύστην ἀπέφηνας, μᾶλ- λον δέ, ὅτι ψεύστην ἀπέφηνας οὐδὲν εἰπόντα τοσοῦτον ὀπό- σον ἔδειξας. ἐκεῖνό γε μὴν σὸν ἀτεχνῶς καὶ ἐξ οὐδενὸς παραδείγματος ὁρμηθέν. τῶν γὰρ ἄλλων ὁμοῦ τῇ βασιλείᾳ δε- παραδείγματος καὶ χρημάτων ἔρωτα καὶ τῶν μέν, εἰ καὶ μὴ πρότε- ρον ἐπεθύμουν, ἀρχομένων ἐρᾶν, τῶν δ’ ἐπιτεινόντων προ- ενοικοῦν τὸ πάθος σὺ μόνος ἐν δυναστείᾳ καταστὰς τῶν πα- τρῴων ἀπέστης τοῖς γνωρίμοις τῷ μὲν οἰκίαν διδούς, τῷ δὲ ἀνδράποδα, γῆν ἑτέρῳ, χρυσίον ἄλλῳ, καὶ διεδείχθης ἰδιώτης μᾶλλον ἢ βασιλεὺς εὔπορος. καὶ μή με οἴου τῶν φίλων ἐξελαύνειν ἐμαυτόν, ὅτι μὴ τῶν εἰληφότων εἷς καὶ αὐτός. ἔχω γὰρ εἰπεῖν, ἀνθ’ ὅτου μόνος οὐκ ἔχω. σὺ ταῖς πόλεσι τά τε ἄλλα βούλοι’ ἂν εἶναι, δι’ ὦν εὐδαιμονοῦσι πόλεις, καὶ δὴ καὶ λόγων ἰσχὺν εἰδὼς ὅτι, τούτους ἂν σβέσῃ τις, εἰς ἴσον ἐρχόμεθα τοῖς βαρβάροις. ἔδεισας οὖν μὴ λαβόμενος εὐπο- ρίας φύγω τὴν τέχνην, καὶ δεῖν ᾠήθης ἐν πενίᾳ με φυλάτ- τειν, ὅπως καὶ αὐτὸς φυλάττοιμι τὴν τάξιν. οὕτω μοι μαν- τεύεσθαι βέλτιον. οὐ γὰρ ἐκεῖνό γ’ ἂν εἴποις, ὡς ἄλφιτα μὲν Kαπανεύς τε καὶ Ἀμφιάραος, ὁ δεῖνα δὲ οὔτ᾿ ἐν λόγῳ οὔτ’ ἐν ἀριθμῷ. ἀλλ’ ἔστι τὸ μὴ δοῦναι κηδομένου τῶν ὅλων. τοιγαροῦν ἐν ἀπορίᾳ χρημάτων πλουτοῦμεν ῥημά- των, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ σόν, καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἣν ἄρχομεν ἴσως οὐ καταισχύνομεν, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ σὺ τὴν μεγάλην.