Letter 370: So you were destined after all to taste the labors of office, since you did not flee governance by every possible means.

To Aristaenetus. (358) You were bound someday to taste also the toils that come with holding office, since you did not escape ruling by every contrivance; and now there is the belt and military service and a crowd about your doors and sleepless nights and cares, while that great ease and leisure of yours has departed. But I am not at all afraid that, having laid hands first on the greatest matters, you will grow dizzy on us, for your nature knows how to set things right even without practice, so that I am confident you will quickly appear admirable in your present circumstances, and quickly, by your excellence in these affairs, you will advance to something more brilliant. But the thing at which I myself was especially pleased, and at which you too might rejoice, free from [envy], is this: as many as grasp the reason of the matter, so many also feel pleasure together with the reason. And of those who before claimed to love you, not one was shown to be making the claim yet loving you least. But this is that old saying: Aristaenetus is worthy. By common voice it went through the whole city. And indeed the emperor too was admired for having put together, more wisely than a bee, the honeycomb of your office. If, then, it had been possible for me too to run to you, I would have flown there; but as it is, by him who had it in his power to walk there has come Dianius, your kinsman but my companion, often summoned by you before, but now indeed summoned by the occasion. For your governing Bithynia brings the man back, after he had for a very long time fled his homeland through fear of the council and of poverty. For if they had laid hold of him while he was resident, since he was unable to perform public service, the rest would have been imprisonment. It seemed to him, therefore, more moderate to live in a foreign land with freedom than in his fatherland with dishonor. And he grieved at being parted from his mother, yet he shrank from seeing his mother amid such expectations. Yet by the life he led among us he has brought honor upon his mother and upon you and upon all of you, conducting himself with temperance and gentleness and with rendering himself worthy of respect. And the greatest thing is, having corrupted none of what was just toward us, he did not draw upon himself hatred from the other party. Therefore I used to say with confidence that he shares your lineage, and he did not seem to be inferior to that blood. Receive, then, your kinsman, who has acquired many friends here through his character, and take counsel about this: what road this man ought to take, whether to remain at home, or to return to us, or to live in the Great City [Constantinople] making his living from the courts.

Ἀρισταινέτῳ. (358) ἔμελλές ποτε καὶ τῶν ἐν ἀρχῇ γεύεσθαι πόνων ὡς οὐ πάσῃ μηχανῇ τὸ ἄρχειν φυγών, καὶ νῦν ζώνη καὶ στρατεία καὶ ὄχλος περὶ θύρας καὶ ἀγρυπνίαι καὶ φροντίδες, ἡ πολλὴ δὲ ἐκείνη ῥᾳστώνη καὶ τὸ ἀργεῖν ἐκκεχώρηκε. φοβοῦμαι δὲ οὐδὲν μὴ τῶν μεγίστων πρῶτον ἁψάμενος ἰλιγγιάσῃς ἡμῖν, ἡ γὰρ δὴ σὴ φύσις καὶ μελέτης χωρὶς ἐπίσταται κατορθοῦν, ὥστε πιστεύω ταχέως μέν σε θαυμαστὸν ἐν τοῖς παροῦσι φα- νεῖσθαι, ταχέως δὲ τῇ περὶ ταῦτα ἀρετῇ πρός τι λαμπρότερον ἥξειν. ἐφ’ ᾧ δὲ αὐτός τε μάλιστα ἥσθην σύ τ’ ἂν <φθό- νου> α ἐκτὸς εὐφραίνοιο, τοῦτο ἔστιν. ὅσοι τὸν λόγον τοῦ πράγματος, τοσοῦτοι καὶ ἡδονὴν μετὰ τοῦ λόγου. καὶ τῶν πρὸ τοῦ σε φασκόντων φιλεῖν οὐδεὶς ἠλέγχθη φάσκων μέν, ἥκιστα δὲ φιλῶν. ἀλλὰ τὸ πάλαι τοῦτο· ἄξιος Ἀρισταί- νετος κοινῇ φωνῇ διὰ πάσης ἐχώρει τῆς πόλεως. καὶ δὴ καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐθαυμάζετο μελίττης σοφώτερον συνθεὶς τὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς κηρίον. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐξῆν μοι καὶ αὐτῷ παρὰ σὲ τρέ- χειν, ἐπετόμην ἄν· νῦν δὲ ᾧ βαδίζειι ὑπῆρχεν, ἥκει Διάνιος, ὁ σὸς μὲν συγγενής, ἐμὸς δὲ ἑταῖρος πολλάκις μὲν ὑπὸ σοῦ κεκλημένος πρότερον, νῦν δέ γε ὑπὸ τοῦ καιροῦ. τὸ γὰρ σὲ Βιθυνίας κρατεῖν κατάγει τὸν ἄνδρα πολὺν δὴ χρόνον φυ- γόντα τὴν οἰκείαν διὰ τὸ φοβεῖσθαι βουλὴν καὶ πενίαν. εἰ γὰρ ἐλάβοντο ἐπιδημοῦντος τοῦδε οὐ δυναμένου λειτουργεῖν, λοιπὸν ἦν δεδέσθαι. ἐδόκει οὖν αὐτῷ μετριώτερον εἶναι γῆ ξένη μετ’ ἐλευθερίας ἢ πατρὶς μετ’ ἀτιμίας. καὶ τῷ μὲν ἀφεστάναι τῆς μητρὸς ἤλγει, τὴν μητέρα δὲ ἰδεῖν ἐπὶ τοιαύ- ταις ἐλπίσιν ὤκνει. τῷ μέντοι παρ’ ἡμῖν βίῳ καὶ τὴν μη- τέρα καὶ σὲ καὶ πάντας ὑμᾶς κεκόσμηκε μετὰ σωφροσύνης τε καὶ πρᾳότητος καὶ τοῦ παρέχειν αὑτὸν αἰδέσιμον διάγων. καὶ τὸ μέγιστον, τῶν πρὸς ἡμᾶς δικαίων οὐδὲν διαφθείρας οὐκ ἐπεσπάσατο μῖσος παρὰ τῆς ἑτέρας μερίδος. τοιγαροῦν θαρρῶν ἔλεγον ὡς κοινωνεῖ σοι τοῦ γένους, καὶ οὐκ ἐδόκει χείρων εἶναι τοῦ αἵματος. δέχου δὴ τὸν οἰκεῖον πολλοὺς τῇδε διὰ τῶν τρόπων κτησάμενον φίλους καὶ βούλευσαι περὶ τοῦ· τίνα χρὴ τοῦτον ὁδὸν ἐλθεῖν; εἴτ’ οἴκοι μένειν εἴθ’ ὡς ἡμᾶς ἀναστρέφειν εἴτε ζῆν ἐν τῇ Μεγάλῃ πόλει ποιούμενον τὸν βίον ἀπὸ τῶν δικῶν;