Letter 472: What have you done, Andronicus?

To Andronicus. (356 AD) What have you done, Andronicus? I wrote to you; you showed the letter to others; they carried it to people here — and you became the cause of a war against me. Then, having committed such a blunder, instead of begging forgiveness you reproach me, and perhaps call me wicked for writing to you by way of Harmas — when you should marvel that I dared write to you at all. If, then, you guard my letters as the Athenians guard the Eleusinian mysteries, I will write again. But if you post them in front of the Eponymous Heroes [the statues in the Athenian agora where public notices were displayed] for anyone who wants to read, you will confess that you prefer my silence.

Ἀνδρονίκῳ (356) Οἶον ἔδρασας, Ἀνδρόνικε; σοὶ μὲν ἐγὼ γέγραφα, σὺ δὲ ἑτέροις ἔδειξας, οἱ δὲ εἰς τοὺς ἐνθάδε ἐξήνεγκαν, καὶ γέγονας ἡμῖν ἀρχὴ πολέμου. εἶτα τοιαῦτα ἁμαρτὼν ἀφεὶς παραιτεῖ- σθαι ἐγκαλεῖς καὶ πονηρὸν ἴσως καλεῖς, ὅτι σοι τὴν δι’ Ἅρ- μάτος γράφω δέον θαυμάζειν ὅτι σοι γράφειν ἐτόλμησα. 2 εἰ μὲν οὖν ἀλλὰ Ἀττικοὶ τὰ Ἐλευσίνια, πάλιν ἐπιστελοῦμεν· εἰ δὲ προθήσεις πρόσθε τῶν Ἐπωνύμων τῷ βου- λομέιῳ μαθεῖν, ὁμολογήσεις τῆς σιωπῆς ἡμῶν ἐρᾶν.