Letter 471: I admit I don't write often.

To Themistius. (356) I admit that I do not write often. But the cause lies with you. Even now I am amazed that I have written at all. For what wrong have I done, that you should compel me to keep silent? Whatever letter you receive is at once made known to everyone there. And by betraying the God of Friendship, you make a man run risks in the affair of the Carian. [proverbial: "to risk on a Carian," i.e. to put another in danger in your stead.] Then you display the letters in the marketplace, and a wind rising from there and falling upon us here stirs up waves against us and produces such effects as Macedonius, who knows them, will explain if anyone should ask. That blow, then, no one could heal; but I beg you not to add a second. And when you exhort me not, in my prosperity, to be forgetful of my friends, you yourself are shown to have forgotten your friends. For that none of these things which are reckoned good by the many ever lifted me up at all, you knew long ago, but now you are unwilling to know it; and yet you often used to rebuke me because I did not think it right to court the powers of the rulers, a thing which is now guarded against all the more, in proportion as my native city adds to my confidence. And indeed, even if I were so strongly of such a mind as to count this good fortune, the power now belongs to others, who have also deprived us of the power. Seek out, then, someone who will work out the reconciliation for you; since for my part I am afraid that, in laying hold of the matter, I may become an Acesias. [Acesias, a proverbially bad physician whose treatments made things worse.]

Θεμιστίῳ. (356) Ὁμολογῶ μὴ πυκνὰ γράφειν. ἡ δὲ αἰτία παρ’ ὑμῖν. Με καὶ νῦν ὅτι γέγραφα θαυμάζω. τί οὖν ἀδικοῦντες ἠναγκάσατέ με σιγᾶν; ἣν ἂν ἐπιστολὴν λάβητε, τοῖς ἐνταῦθα εὐθὺς ἔγνω- σται. καὶ προδιδόντες τὸν Φίλιον ἐν τῷ Καρὶ κινδυνεύειν οἴεσθε. εἶθ’ ὑμεῖς μὲν ἐπ’ ἀγορᾶς δείκνυτε τὰ γράμματα, πνεῦμα δὲ ἐκεῖθεν ἀρθὲν καὶ δεῦρο ἐμπεσὸν κύματα ἡμῖν ἐγεί- ρει καὶ ποιεῖ ταῦτα ἃ Μακεδόνιος εἰδώς, εἴ τις ἔροιτο, διδά- ξει. τὴν μὲν οὖν πληγὴν ἐκείνην οὐκ ἂν ἰάσαιτό τις, δέο- μαι δὲ ὑμῶν μὴ προσθεῖναι δευτέραν. ὅταν δέ μοι παραινῇς μὴ τῷ πράττειν εὖ τῶν φίλων ἀμνημονεῖν, αὐτὸς ἐπιλελῆσθαι φαίνῃ τῶν φίλων. ἐμὲ γὰρ ὅτι τούτων δὴ τῶν τοῖς πολ- λοῖς δοκούντων ἀγαθῶν οὐδὲν οὐδεπώποτε ἐπῆρε, πάλαι μὲν ᾔδεις, νῦν δὲ οὐ βούλει καίτοι μοι πολλάκις ἐπιτιμῶν ὅτι τὰς τῶν ἀρχόντων δυνάμεις οὐκ ἠξίουν θεραπεύειν, ὃ τοσούτῳ νῦν πλέον φυλάττεται, ὅσῳ προστίθησιν εἰς τὸ θαρρεῖν ἡ πα- τρίς. καὶ μὴν εἰ καὶ σφόδρα οὕτως εἶχον ὡς τοῦτο εὐτυ- χίαν ἄγειν, ἑτέρων γε νῦν τὸ δύνασθαι τῶν καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀφῃρη- μένων τὸ δύνασθαι. ζήτει οὖν, ὅστις σοι πράξει τὰς διαλλα- γάς· ὡς ἔγωγε δέδοικα μὴ τοῦ πράγματος ἁπτόμενος Ἀκεσίας γένωμαι.