Letter 407: Do you realize you are at war with yourself?

To Jovian. (355) Do you perceive that you are at war with yourself, and that you are at one and the same time treating the same man well and badly, and hating in no small measure the very person whom you declare you love? For that you know many of our discourses, and keep them in your memory, and recite them from memory, and bring them into every gathering, and display them to those who wish to hear and pester those who do not wish to-this perhaps belongs to one who loves; and the "perhaps" has been said by me because poems that are not fine are a gain to their poets, if they are kept hidden-but nevertheless let it be granted that this belongs to one who loves. But when you cast me out of my native city, which I have recovered through many labors, and you run about so that I may suffer, and you accuse those who have released me as men deceived, and you dissolve the favor, and you tend to your own pleasure and destroy my advantage-these things the appellation of one who loves does not admit. And indeed I fear that this may slander your character to me, although Clematius, in the praise he uttered concerning you, reported this zeal of yours, not knowing that he was being an accuser. And when I pointed out that he was admiring wrongdoings, he said, "Call these things whatever you wish; for to us at least it is pleasing, and it shall be done." "To me then," I said, "let it be permitted not to consider us friends, nor to come together into the same place." Having heard these things, he said he would desist. So do you too cease from your contentiousness, and think something Hellenic. And it would be fitting, now that Olympius has arrived, who carries for you upon his soul all the noble things of the Hellenes.

Ἰοβιανῷ. (355) Αρ᾿ αἰσθάνῃ σαυτῷ μαχόμενος καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν εὖ ποιῶν τε ὁμοῦ καὶ κακῶς καὶ μισῶν οὐ μικρῶς ὃν πάνυ φάσκεις φι- λεῖν; τὸ μὲν γὰρ πολλούς τε εἰδέναι τῶν ἡμετέρων λόγων καὶ μνήμη τηρεῖν καὶ λέγειν ἀπὸ στόματος καὶ ἐπεισάγειν παντὶ συλλόγῳ καὶ βουλομένοις δεικνύειν καὶ μὴ βουλομένοις ἐνο- χλεῖν, ταυτὶ μὲν ἴσως φιλοῦντος, τὸ δὲ ἴσως εἴρηταί μοι διὰ τὸ τὰ μὴ καλὰ ποιήματα κέρδος εἶναι τοῖς ποιηταῖς, εἰ κρύ- πτοιτο, ἀλλ’ ὅμως ἴστω τοῦτο φιλοῦντος· ὅταν δέ με ἐκ- βάλλης τῆς πατρίδος, ἣν πολλοῖς ἀπείληφα πόνοις, καὶ περι- τρέχῃς, ὅπως ἐγὼ πάθοιμι, καὶ τοῖς ἀφεικόσιν ἐγκαλῇς ὡς ἐξηπατημένοις καὶ λύῃς τὴν χάριν καὶ τὸ σαυτοῦ θεραπεύῃς ἡδὺ καὶ τοὐμὸν διαφθείρῃς συμφέρον, ταῦτα δὲ οὐ δέχεται τὸ τοῦ φιλοῦντος πρόσρημα. καὶ δέδοικα δὴ μή σοι δια- βάλλῃ τὸν τρόπον, καίτοι Κλημάτιος ἐν ἐπαίνῳ τῷ περὶ σοῦ ταύτην ἀπήγγειλε τὴν σπουδήν, κατήγορος δὲ ὢν οὐκ ἡπί- στατο. δεικνύντος δέ μου ὅτι τὰ ἀδικήματα θαυμάζοι, κάλει φησίν, ὅ τι ταῦτα ἐθέλεις· ὡς ἡμῖν γε ἀρέσκει καὶ πεπράξεται. καὶ έμοὶ τοίνυν ἔφην ἐξέστω μὴ νο- μίξειν ἡμᾶς φίλους μηδὲ εἰς ταὐτὸω ἰέναι. ταῦτα ἀκού- σὰς ἔφη λήξειν. παῦσαι δὴ καὶ σὺ τῆς φιλονεικίας καὶ φρόνησον Ἑλληνικόν τι. πρέποι δ’ ἂν ἥκοντος Ὀλυμπίου τοῦ φέροντος ὑμῖν ἐπὶ τῆς ψυχῆς πάντα τὰ Ἑλλήνων καλά.