Letter 482: It is time for you to call the Nile a small river, since you also call yourself small in eloquence.

To Theodorus. (356 AD) It is time for you to call the Nile a small river, since you also call yourself small in eloquence. We will believe you in everything else, but in this alone we will not. For you, perhaps it is fine not to praise yourself — but how is it fine for us not to recognize all that is in you? Are you not that Theodorus, the one who purchased many speeches with many labors at Athens, who was brilliant before outsiders thanks to what you brought back from there, and who made the oration you recited a goad to us? I am amazed you did not see that by claiming you know nothing great, while writing letters like these, you would be caught lying — your very words refuting your words. Thus, even if you very much wanted to, you could not say anything that was not fine. As for the young men on whose behalf you appeal to us — we are fond of them, because they themselves appeal to us through their ambitions.

Θεοδώρῳ. (356) Ὥρα σοι τὸν Νεῖλον μικρὸν καλεῖν ποταμόν, ὅπου γε καὶ σαυτὸν μικρὸν εἶναι φὴς ἐν λόγοις. ἡμεῖς δὲ τὰ μὲν ἄλλα σοι πιστεύσομεν, τουτὶ δὲ μόνον ἀπιστήσομεν. σοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἴσως καλὸν μὴ σαυτὸν ἐγκωμιάζειν, ἡμῖν δὲ μὴ πᾶν ὅσον ἐν σοὶ δοκεῖν εἰδέναι πῶς καλόν; ἢ γὰρ οὐ σὺ Θεόδωρος ἐΜ νος ὁ πολλῶν μὲν πόνων πολλοὺς λόγους ἐωνημένος Ἀθήνησι, πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἔξω λαμπρὸς ἀφ’ ὧν ἐκεῖθεν ἐκόμιζες, ἡμὶν δὲ ἀντὶ κέντρου ποιήσας ὃν ἀνέγνως ἀγῶνα; θαυμάζω δὲ ὅπως οὐκ εἶδες ὅτι λέγων μὲν μὴ μεγάλα εἰδέναι, τοιαῦτα δὲ ἐπιστέλλων ψευδόμενος ἁλώσῃ τοῖς γεγραμμένοις αὐτοῖς ἐλέγ- χων τὰ γεγραμμένα. οὑτωσὶ μὲν οὐδ’ εἰ πάνυ βούλοιο, δύναιο ἂν εἰπείν τι μὴ καλόν, τοὺς δὲ νέους ὑπὲρ ὧν ἡμᾶς παρακαλεῖς φιλοῦμεν, ὅτι καὶ αὐτοὶ παρακαλοῦσιν ἡμᾶς οἶς ἐπιθυμοῦσιν.