Letter 405: Since you began helping me long ago -- help through which I recovered what was mine -- a brief word will suffice.

Since you began helping me long ago -- help through which I recovered what was mine -- a brief word will suffice. If I were trying to persuade someone for the first time, I would need a long speech. But to stir someone already persuaded requires nothing lengthy. Reach out your hand, my good friend. Hold firm to your decision. See this favor through to the end. Do not stand by while I am torn away from an unfortunate uncle, impoverished brothers, and a mother bedridden with old age -- do not let me be dragged off to a foreign land while my homeland becomes bitter to them. My misfortunes actually strengthen the case you can make on my behalf. My head has been seized by an illness, for which I drink medicine more than wine. My kidneys have confined me to bed. And the things that make life most worth living -- from those I have been shut out. My witness to these sufferings is Olympius, who has wrestled with illness himself -- your companion and a follower of both Hippocrates and Plato. I have begged him to clasp your knees, weep before you, and leave no form of supplication untried. With these appeals I call on you. I would write nothing like this to anyone else, knowing that if you are willing, you alone will be enough -- and if you are not willing, no one else will suffice.

Δατιανῷ. (355) Ἐπειδὴ πάλαι τῆς βοηθείας ἤρξω, καθ’ ἣν ἐκομισάμην τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ, βραχὺς ἀρκέσει μοι λόγος· πείθοντι μὲν γὰρ μα- κρῶν ἂν ἔδει, κινοῦντι δὲ τὸν πεπεισμένον οὐδὲν ἂν δέοι πολλῶν. χεῖρα ὄρεξον, ὦ ἄριστε, τήρησον τὴν σαυτοῦ γνώ- μην, δὸς διὰ τέλους τὴν χάριν, μή με περιίδῃς ἀποσπώμενον ἀτυχοῦντος θείου καὶ πενομένων ἀδελφῶν καὶ μητρὸς ὑπὸ γήρως κειμένης μηδὲ ἐμὲ μὲν ἑλκόμενον εἰς γῆν ξένην, ἐκεί- ὄις δὲ πικρὰν τὴν πατρίδα γινομένην. ποιεῖ δέ σοι τοὺς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν λόγους εὐσχήμονας τὰ ἐμὰ κακά. ἥ τε γὰρ κεφαλὴ μοι κατείληπται νοσήματι, δι’ ὃ πλέον οἴνου πίνω φάρμακον, οἵ τε νεφροὶ τῇ κλίνῃ δεδώκασιν ἡμᾶς, ἃ δὲ ἥδιστον ποιεί τὸ ζῆν, τούτων ἀποκεκλείσμεθα. μάρτυς δὲ ἡμῖν τῶν πα. θῶν ὁ παλαίσας τοῖς πάθεσιν Ὀλύμπιος, ὁ σός τε ἑταῖρος καὶ Ἱπποκράτους καὶ Πλάτωνος. οὗ δεδεήμεθα λαβέσθαι σου τῶν γονάτων καὶ ἐπιδακρύσαι καὶ μηδὲν ἱκετείας εἶδος ἀφεῖναι. τούτοις σε παρακαλῶ, πρὸς δὲ ἄλλον οὐδὲν ἂν γράψαιμι τοιοῦτον λογιζόμενος, ὡς ἐθελήσας μὲν ἀρκέσεις καὶ μόνος, οὐ βουληθέντος δὲ σοῦ καὶ τἄλλα μάταια.