Letter 404: A man who receives a great gift from the gods and then thinks he has received only a small one wrongs those who gave it.

To Philip. (355) The man who has received some great good from the gods, and then thinks he has received only a small one, wrongs those who gave it. But you are sprung from the Muses more truly than the man to whom they gave the laurel, and yet you rank yourself among those who have received nothing great. But every man speaks out against you, and all nations do, and even if you call yourself a poet, someone has heard of you, and no one contends with you; whereas we have more adversaries than there are flies about the sheepfold in the springtime season. And the man whom I call a sophist, you pretend not to know—the very man whom you long ago were the first to vote into the ranks of the sophists.

Φιλίππῳ. (355) Ὁ μέγα τι λαβὼν παρὰ θεῶν ἀγαθόν, εἶτα μικρὸν εἰλη- 15 φέναι νομίζων ἀδικεῖ τοὺς δεδωκότας. σὺ δὲ εἶ μὲν ἐκ Μου- σῶν μᾶλλον ἢ ᾧ δάφνην ἔδοσαν, τάττεις δὲ σαυτὸν εἰς τοὺς οὐ μέγα λαβόντας. ἀλλ’ ἀντιφθέγγεταί σοι πᾶς ἀνὴρ καὶ πάντα ἔθνη, κἂν εἴπῃς ποιητήν, σέ τις ἀκήκοε, μάχεται δὲ οὐδείς· ἡμῖν δὲ ἀνταγωνισταὶ πλείους ἢ ὅσαι μυῖαι κατὰ σταθμὸν ποιμνήιον ὥρῃ ἐν εἰαρινῇ. ὅν δέ φημι σο- φιστήν, ἀγνοεῖν προσποιῇ πάλαι πρῶτον αὐτὸν ἐψηφισμένος σοφιστῶν.