Letter 436: Perhaps you will be willing to help me even in the present crisis, keeping faith with me to the end and with all...

To Datianus. (355) Perhaps you will be willing to help me in my present circumstances as well, saving me to the end and continuing your former kindnesses; but if I must suffer even this misfortune too, that your judgment has become different, we will nonetheless never cast out of our soul the help you gave before, but rather we will reckon those benefactions to your own nature, while the change, on the other hand, we will reckon to a churlish spirit. And yet, by the labors which you have toiled on behalf of the Greeks and of friends, suppose that my body is sound, and that I, judging this present life better than that other, am fleeing that other one; and suppose the "better" to mean: that you hear about my association with the young men. Then ask the emperor, and you are able to do so, possessing your power through both temperance and unbroken goodwill: "O Emperor, that man, whom you command to go to Thrace, will there be like a farmer who is sailing and living continually on a ship. For it is no more possible for that man to plow the sea than for this man to sow among the young, when the citizens are turned toward other things, and the foreigners look askance at the place and consider it to be a training-school of luxury. But Syria, a workshop of the Muses, has for a long time now been fashioning orators, of whom this Calliopius is one, in whom you take pleasure; and great youth from many quarters both sharpens the teacher and itself receives the very thing for which it has come. Which then do you wish: that your herdsman should be in want of cattle, or that he should ply his craft about a numerous herd?" Hearing these things, he will answer, as you smile and with your glance urge him toward the second course: "Let there be cattle for the herdsman." But if you think that I am reciting poetry, and, considering these things to be mere tales, you neglect them, then I, for my part, as I am being dragged away, will cry out that Datianus persuaded me to hold fast to Antioch, and so did the beauty with which Datianus made the city resplendent: the baths, some already completed, others rising; the colonnade, both stretched out to length and blooming with beauty, having as great a place in the city as the shoulder of Pelops in the body of Pelops. See, then, whether it is altogether free of fear for me to be dragged off. This sport of mine, then, I know that you will receive graciously; and know that you have made a festival shared by us all, the hopes which you have set before Pompeianus. For the man is of such a kind as to gladden his fellow citizens when he prospers. For even from his youth he was moderate and practiced being inoffensive, and he has trained his character by looking toward you and trying to show himself worthy of your mind. Therefore now too he is sent off accompanied by the common prayers of all, who desire that the road may prove fruitful for him. And if it should come about that he obtains his ancestral estate, and I my remaining here, we will sing a paean to those who are the cause of it.

Δατιανῷ. (355) Ἴσως μὲν ἐμοὶ καὶ πρὸς τὰ παρόντα βοηθεῖν ἐθελήσεις ἐμέ τε σώζων διὰ τέλους καὶ τὰς ἔμπροσθεν εὐεργεσίας· εἰ δέ υε δεῖ καὶ τοῦτο ἀτυχῆσαι τὸ τὴν σὴν γνώμην ἑτέραν γεγο- ἕναι, τάς γε πρὸ τοῦ βοηθείας οὔποτε ἐκβαλοῦμεν τῆς ψυχῆς, ἀλλ’ ἐκείνας μὲν τῇ σῇ φύσει λογιούμεθα, τὴν δ’ αὖ μεταβο- Λὴν δαίμονι δυσκόλῳ. καίτοι πρὸς τῶν πόνων, οὓς ἐπό- νησας ὑπὲρ Ἑλλῄνων τε καὶ φίλων, θὲς μὲν ἐρρῶσθαί μοι τὸ σῶμα, βελτίω δὲ τήνδε ἐκείνης ἡγούμενόν με φεύγειν ἐκείνην, τὸ βελτίω δὲ ὅπως ἀκούσῃ πρὸς τὰς τῶν νέων συνουσίας. ἔπειτα ἐροῦ τὸν βασιλέα, δύνασαι δὲ σωφροσύνῃ τε καὶ εὐνοίᾳ διηνεκεῖ τὴν δύναμιν κεκτημένος· ὦ βασιλεῦ, ἀνὴρ ἐκεῖνος, ὃν κελεύεις εἰς Θρᾴκην ἐλθὼν ἐκεῖσε προσόμοιος ἔσται γεωργῷ πλέοντι καὶ ἐν νηὶ ζῶντι συνεχῶς. οὔτε γὰρ ἐκείνῳ τὴν θάλατταν ἔστιν ἀροῦν οὔτε τούτῳ σπείρειν εἰς νέους τῶν πο- λιτῶν μὲν πρὸς ἕτερα τετραμμένων, τῶν ξένων δὲ ὑφορωμένων τὸ χωρίον καὶ νομιζόντων διδασκαλεῖον εἶναι τρυφῆς. ἡ Συρία δὲ Μουσῶν ἐργαστήριον πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον δημιουργοῦσα ῥήτορας, ὧν εἷς οὖτος Καλλιόπιος,ᾦ χαίρεις, καὶ πολλὴ πολλαχόθεν νεότης θήγουσά τε παιδευτὴν καὶ αὐτὴ λαμβάνουσα εφ᾿ ὄπερ ἤκει. πότερον οὖν βούλει σοι τὸν βουκόλον ἀπορεῖν βοῶν ἢ περὶ συχνὴν ἀγέλην χρῆσθαι τῇ τέχνῃ; ταῦτ’ ἀκούων ἀποκρινεῖται σοῦ μειδιῶντος καὶ ἐν τῷ βλέμματι πρὸς τὸ δεύτερον ἐνάγοντος· βόες ἔστωσαν τῷ βουκόλῳ. εἰ δέ με οἰήσῃ ῥαψῳδεῖν καὶ μύθους ταῦτα ἡγησάμενος ἀμελήσεις, ἀλλ’ ἔγωγε ἀποσπώμενος βοήσομαι ὅτι με τῆς Ἀντιοχείας ἀνέπεισεν ἔχεσθαι Δατιανὸς καἰ τὸ κάλλος, ᾠ Δατιανὸς τὴν πόλιν ἐλάμπρυνε, λουτρὰ τὰ μὲν τετελεσμένα, τὰ δὲ ἀνιόντα, στοὰ τεταμένη τε εἰς μῆκος καὶ εἰς ὤραν ἀνθοῦσα τοσοῦτον ἔχουσα ἐν τῇ πόλει, ὄσον ὁ τοῦ Πέλοπος ωμος ἐν τῷ σώματι τοῦ Πέλοπος. ὅρα οὖν εἴ σοι λίαν ἀδεὲς ἕλκεσθαί με. ταύ- την μὲν οἶν τὴν παιδιὰν ἵλεως οἶδ’ ὅτι δέξῃ, κοινὴν δὲ ἡμῖν ἴσθι πεποιηκὼς ἑορτήν, ἃς Πομπηιανῷ παρέστησας ἐλπίδας. ὁ γὰρ ἀνὴρ οἷος εὖ πράττων πολίτας εὐφραίνειν. ἦν μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἐκ νέου μέτριος καὶ τὸ ἄλυπος εἶναι μελετῶν, ἐπή- σκησε δὲ τὸν τρόπον εἰς σέ τε βλέπων καἰ πειρώμενος αὑτὸν ἄξιον τῆς σῆς διανοίας δεικνύναι. διὸ δὴ καὶ νῦν ὑπὸ κοι- νῶν εὐχῶν στέλλεται πάντων ἐπιθυμούντων ἔγκαρπον αὐτῷ καταστῆναι τὴν ὁδόν. εἰ δὲ γένοιτο τῷ μὲν τὰ πατρῷα, ἡ μονὴ δὲ ἐμοί, παιᾶνα εἰς τοὺς αἰτίους ᾀσόμεθα.