Letter 385: Many are those who announce that you are coming, but we do not yet see the deed.

To Modestus. (358/59) Many are those who announce that you are coming, but we do not yet see the deed. So turn this shadow of pleasure into true joy for us. If the affairs along the Euphrates needed attention, they have been adequately tended to. If it was necessary for people to learn who you are under a blazing sun, you seem to have fallen no short of the endurance of Heracles. Why, then, do you keep a great and beautiful city in suspense — a city that loves you, to which you owe gratitude for its affection, and against which you have no complaint? Come, noble friend — prepare your defense and present yourself before men you have wronged. Even if you appear this very moment, the time that has passed demands a rhetorician's skill. But of course you have no need to hire a speaker, since your own voice has already saved many.

Μοδέστῳ. (358/59) Οἱ μὲν ὡς ἥξεις ἀγγέλλοντες πολλοί, τὸ δὲ ἔργον ὁρῶμεν οὔπω. ποίησον οὖν ἡμῖν τὴν σκιὰν τῆς ἡδονῆς εὐφροσύνην ἀληθινήν. εἴτε γὰρ ἐδεῖτο φροντίδος τὰ περὶ τὸν Εὐφράτην, ἱκανῶς τεθεράπευται· εἴτε ἔδει τοὺς ἀνθρώπους μαθεῖν ὅστις εἶ πρὸς ἥλιον φλέγοντα, τῆς Ἡρακλέους καρτερίας οὐ λελεῖ- φθαι δοκεῖς. τί οὖν πόλιν μεγάλην καὶ καλὴν κατατείνεις ἐρῶσαν, ᾗ χάριτας μὲν ὀφείλεις τοῦ φίλτρου, μέμψασθαι δὲ οὐκ ἔχεις; ἀλλ’, w γενναῖε, συνθεὶς ἀπολογίαν ἧκε παρ’ ἄνδρας ἠδικημένους. κἂν γὰρ αὐτίκα φανῇς, ὅ γε παρελθὼν χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ ῥήτορος τέχνην. πάντως δὲ οὐδέν σε δε'- μι- σθοῦσθαι τὸν ἐροῦντα πολλοὺς αὐτὸν ἤδη σεσωκότα τῇ φωνῇ.