Letter 427: I thought you had dropped your charge -- the one where you accuse me of writing too briefly.

To Andronicus. (355) I thought you had ceased from the accusation by which you were charging me with writing you only brief letters; but you keep up the indictment, and, just like the most extreme false accusers, you do not merely blame the thing itself, the brevity, but you have made it give birth to yet another charge as well, saying that this is a sign that even my friendship toward you has wavered. Come now, by Zeus, if it should occur to one of those most hostile to you to send you a long letter, will you set down this length as a release from his hostility, even though in everything else you fare badly at his hands? Or will you judge his character by his deeds, and consider the writing mere mockery? For just as, my good man, the length of a letter is not the work of friendship, so neither is brevity a sign of enmity. But you also charge us, again playing the false accuser here, with not yet having reconciled you with that man. For neither have I ceased speaking, nor has he ceased from his anger. And the cause is you: not that you wronged him in the things you were earlier supposed to have done, but that you neglected to do away with the suspicion. He, who then overlooked it but now is making his defense, seems then to have condemned himself, but now to be flattering the authorities. Agamemnon, it seems, was in other respects a good man, and especially in that, when Odysseus came back from Achilles without having persuaded him, and admitting this, Agamemnon nowhere among the verses blames him, on the ground that he had not been willing to bring back as his ally a man so aggrieved. But you people, whatever this man does not concede, you blame the ambassador. Cleomenes, being courted by you, does not allow him to be persuasive. And you think that, with the ring of Gyges, you escape notice in all you do; but these things happen in the midst of the inhabited world, in the middle of a city, and that a great one, and from a place where rumor is ready to be raised. And if you no longer do these things, still you used to do them. And you seem yourself still to desire them, but to have been cast out by the insolence of Cleomenes, and to think that he must pay you the penalty, not that you should stand in good repute with him. But we were bearing the disagreeable situation, whether as having erred or as being unfortunate; and now we cherish your letters precisely, looking to my own interest, not to your own. And indeed we shall act in this way also. Let whoever wishes hold office among you, but for us it is enough here even to make a beginning of pleasant things, even if all withdraw from us the office. The emperor honors us with riddles, but will by no means raise us up; for it is a danger for us even to set foot in the marketplace. So the one salvation for the body is to keep quiet. Klematios, who was at my side while I was ailing, would be able to report both this very matter and many other things besides, varied as they are.

Ἀνδρονίκῳ. (355) Ὤιμην σε πεπαυκέναι τῆς κατηγορίας, ἥν ὅτι σοι βρα- χέα γράφω κατηγόρεις, σὺ δὲ ἔχῃ τῆς γραφῆς καὶ κατὰ τοὺς ἄγαν συκοφάντας οὐκ αὐτὸ μόνον ἐγκαλεῖς, τὴν βραχυλογίαν, ἀλλ’ ἐποίησας αὐτὴν καὶ ἕτερον ἔγκλημα τεκεῖν σημεῖον εἶναι ταύτην λέγων τοῦ καὶ τὴν φιλίαν μοι τὴν πρὸς σὲ κεκινῆ- σθαι. φέρε δή, πρὸς Δῖός, εἴ τῳ τῶν πάνυ σοι δυσμενῶν ἐπέλθοι πέμψαι σοι μακρὰν ἐπιστολήν, τὸ μῆκος τοῦτο λύσιν τῆς δυσμενείας θήσῃ, κἂν τἄλλα πάσχῃς κακῶς, ἢ τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ κρινεῖς τὸν τρόπον, τὰ γράμματα δὲ χλευασίαν οἰήσῃ; ὥσπερ γάρ, ὦ ’γαθέ, μῆκος ἐπιστολῆς οὐ φιλίας ἔργον, οὕτως οὐδὲ βραχύτης σημεῖον ἔχθρας. σὺ δὲ καὶ τοῦ μήπω σοι τὸν ἄνδρα ἐκεῖνον διηλλάχθαι προθύμως ἡμᾶς αἰτιᾷ κἀνταῦθα συκοφαντῶν. οὔτε γὰρ ἐγὼ λέγων οὔτ’ ἐκεῖνος πέπαυται τῆς ὀργῆς. αἴτιος δὲ σὺ οὐκ ἀδικήσας μὲν αὐτὸν ἅπερ ἐνομίσθης πρότερον, ὀλιγωρήσας δὲ τοῦ τὴν ὑποψίαν ἀνελεῖν. ὁ δὲ τότε μὲν ὑπεριδών, νῦν δὲ ἀπολογούμενος τότε μὲν αὑτοῦ κατε- γνωκέναι δοκεῖ, νῦν δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν κολακεύειν. ὁ δὲ Αγα- μέμνων τά τε ἄλλα ἦν, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἀγαθὸς καὶ ὅτι τὸν Ὀδυσσέα παρ’ Ἀχιλλέως ἥκοντα οὐ πεπεικότα καὶ τοῦτο ὁμολογοῦντα οὐδαμοῦ μέμφεται τῶν ἐπῶν, ὡς οὐ βουληθείη σύμμαχον αὑτῷ τὸν ἀχθόμενον ἀγαγεῖν. ὑμεῖς δέ, ὅ τι ἂν μὴ οὗτος ἐνδῷ, μέμφεσθε τὸν πρεσβευτήν. ὃν οὐκ ἐᾷ πιθανὸν εἶναι Κλεομένης ὑπὸ σοῦ θεραπευόμενος. σὺ δ’ οἴει μετὰ τοῦ δα- κτυλίου τοῦ Γύγου πάντα δρῶν λανθάνειν, τὰ δὲ ἐν μέσῳ τε τῆς οἰκουμένης καὶ μέσῃ τῇ πόλει καὶ ταύτῃ μεγάλῃ γίνεται καὶ ὅθεν ἕτοιμον ἀρθῆναι φήμην. εἰ δὲ οὐκέτι ταῦτα ποι- εῖς, ἀλλ’ ἐποίεις γε. καὶ δοκεῖς αὐτὸς μὲν ἔτι τούτων ἐπιθυ- μεῖν, ὕβρει δὲ Κλεομένους ἐκβεβλῆσθαι καὶ δεῖν ἐκεῖνον σοὶ δοῦναι δίκην, οὐ σὲ παρ’ αὐτῷ εὐδοκιμεῖν. ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν δυσκολίαν ἐφέρομεν εἴτε ὡς ἁμαρτόντες εἴτε ὡς ἀτυχοῦντες, τὰ νῦν δέ σου γράμματα ἀκριβῶς φιλοῦντες καὶ τοὐμόν, οὐ τὸ σαυτοῦ σκοποῦντες. καὶ δὴ καὶ οὕτω ποιήσομεν. ἀρ- χέτω μὲν ὁ βουλόμενος παρ’ ὑμῖν, ἡμῖν δὲ τῇδε καὶ ἄρχεσθαι τῶν ἡδέων, εἰ καὶ πάντες ἡμῖν ἀφίστανται τῆς ἀρχῆς. ὁ βα- σιλεὺς δὲ γρίφων τιμᾷ μέν, ἀναστήσει δὲ ἥκιστα κίνδυνος γὰρ ἡμῖν καὶ εἰς ἀγορὰν ἐμβαλεῖν. οὕτω μία σωτηρία τῷ σώ- ματι τὸ ἡσυχάζειν. Κλημάτιος δέ, ὅσπερ κάμνοντι παρῆν, καὶ ἀπαγγεῖλαι δύναιτ’ ἂν αὐτό τε τοῦτο καὶ τἄλλα πολλά τε καὶ ποικίλα.