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

To Modestus. (358/59) Those who announce that you will come are many, but the deed itself we do not yet see. Make for us, then, the shadow of pleasure into true gladness. For whether the affairs concerning the Euphrates required attention, they have been sufficiently tended to; or whether men needed to learn what sort of man you are against a blazing sun, you seem not to fall 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 thanks for its affection, yet against which you have no grounds for complaint? But, noble sir, having composed your defense, come before men who have been wronged. For even if you appear at once, the time that has passed demands the art of an orator. And in every way you have no need to hire one to plead your cause, since by your own voice you have 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.