Letter 475: The city has recovered the reality behind its name, and is truly prosperous once more: the council is honored for...

To Araxius. (356) The work that befits the name has returned to the fair city, and it is once more truly fortunate, since the proceedings of its council are honored, the people are not driven about, and laws and good sense and tranquility and gentleness—all of which reside in you—are brought, all of them, to scrutiny. As for me, if I had not known well that from there you will come here to still greater things, I should have thought that I had done myself no harm by your transfer; but as it is—for I see the course of the matter and to what point you will advance—I find no fault with myself, for you will have a share in more brilliant honors. But when we were about to entreat you not to deprive me of my own people, with whose affairs I have now been struggling in my hands for a year, we receive letters from our friends and acquaintances saying that it has been resolved by the emperor to let the man who is ailing be, and that the labor should belong to another. And so we praised the one for his gentleness, and to you we shall write on behalf of others, since this matter at least has been well settled for us.

Ἀραξίῳ. (356) Ἐπανήκει τῇ καλῇ πόλει τὸ τῆς προσηγορίας ἔργον, καὶ ἔστιν ὄντως αὖθις εὐδαίμων τῆς βουλῆς μὲν τὰ γινόμενα τι- μωμένης, τοῦ δήμου δὲ οὐκ ἐλαυνομένου, νόμων δὲ καὶ φρε- νῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ ἡσυχίας καὶ ἡμερότητος, ἃ πάντα ἐν σοί, πάντα εἰς ἐξέτασιν ἀγόντων. ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ μὲν οὐκ εὖ ᾔδειν ὡς ἐκεῖθεν ἐπὶ τοῖς μείζοσι δεῦρο ἀφίξῃ, πάνυ ἂν ἡγησάμην ἐμαυτὸν ἀζημιωκέναι τῇ μεταστάσει· νῦν δ’, ὁρῶ γὰρ τὴν τοῦ πράγματος ὁδὸν καὶ ποῖ προβήσῃ, μέμφομαι οὐδὲν ἐμαυτῷ· μεθέξεις γὰρ τῶν λαμπροτέρων. μέλλοντες δέ σου δεῖσθαι μή με ἀποστερῆσαι τῶν οἰκείων, ὧν ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ἐνιαυτὸν ἤδη νοσῶ, γράμματα λαμβάνομεν παρὰ τῶν φίλων καὶ γνω- ρίμων δεδόχθαι τῷ βασιλεῖ τὸν μὲν ἀσθενοῦντα ἐᾶν, ἑτέρου δὲ τὸν πόνον εἶναι. καὶ οὕτω δὴ τοῦ μὲν ἐπῃνέσαμεν τὸ πρᾷον, σοὶ δ’ ὑπὲρ ἄλλων ἐπιστελοῦμεν ὡς τούτου γε καλῶς ἡμῖν κειμένου.