Letter 487: In my other letters I praised everyone for their eagerness on my behalf.

To Anatolius. (356 AD) In my other letters I praised everyone for their eagerness on my behalf. But as for you — that you rallied them too, enlisting the excellent Olympius — I was already convinced of this before anyone reported it, and indeed Antiochus has now confirmed it clearly. You will not, however, share in my praise. For what you did to please yourself, no one else need thank you for. You are a Phoenician, dividing your time between there and here, pining when you don't see me and overjoyed when you do — you were simply arranging to be where you could see me often. Just as a man turning every stone in search of gold would not be praised for benefiting the gold — since his aim was to profit himself — so everything you engineered to keep me here was the work of a lover serving his own desires. Now, I say all this in jest, so that you may shout and laugh as you always do. But know that my kidney disease has brought my body to such weakness that even if nothing had been accomplished on my behalf from that quarter, the affliction itself would certainly have settled the matter for me. For a year and three months now this labyrinth of illness has held me, and I fear — I truly fear — that my eloquence will wither along with my body, and I shall appear to you diminished in both. I would summon you here and reproach you for your absence, if I did not know that in Italy you are enjoying what cannot be found elsewhere: the incomparable Datianus, his voice, and his judgment — a man whose company cannot fail to sharpen one's mind, since even the memory of him makes us better and brings us to our senses.

Ἀνατολίῳ. (356) Τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους ἐπιστέλλων ἐπῄνουν τῆς εἰς ἐμὲ προ- θυμίας, σὺ δ’ ὅτι μὲν κἀκείνους ἐπήγειρας προσλαβὼν τὸν καλὸν Ὀλύμπιον, ἐπεπείσμην τε πρίν τινα ἀγγεῖλαι καὶ δὴ σαφῶς ἤγγειλεν Ἀντίοχος. οὐ μέντοι τῶν γε ἐπαίνων κοι- νωνήσεις. ἃ γάρ, ὅπως σαυτὸν εὐφράναις, ἐποίεις, τούτων ἕτερον οὐ δεῖ σοι χάριν εἰδέναι. σὺ γὰρ δὴ Φοῖνιξ ὢν καὶ διατρίβων τὰ μὲν ἐκεῖ, τὰ δὲ παρ’ ἡμῖν, ὃν οὐχ ὁρῶν μὲν ἀλγεῖς, ὁρῶν δὲ ὑπερχαίρεις, ἔπραττες εἶναι οὗ θεάσῃ πολλά- κις. ὥσπερ οὖν, εἰ χρυσὸν ζητῶν ἅπαντα ἐκίνεις λίθον, οὐκ ἂν ὡς τὸν χρυσὸν εὖ ποιῶν ἐπῃνοῦ, τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν ἐθέλειν αὐτὸν κερδαίνειν, οὕτω δι’ ὅσων μοι τὸ τῇδε μένειν ἐμηχανῶ, πάντα ἦν ἐρῶντος καὶ τὰ αὑτοῦ θεραπεύοντος. ταυτὶ μὶν οὖν μοι παίζειν ἔπεισιν, ὅπως εἴη σοι βοᾶν καὶ γελᾶν, οἶάπερ εἴωθας, ἴσθι δέ μοι τὸ σῶμα τῇ περὶ τοὺς νεφροὺς νόσῳ πρὸς τοῦτο ἀσθενείας ἥκειν ὥστ’, εἰ καὶ μηδὲν ἡμῖν ἐκεῖθεν ἤνυ- στο, πάντως ἆν ἐκ τῆς συμφορᾶς γενέσθαι τὴν ἀπαλλαγήν. ἐνιαυτὸν γὰρ ἤδη καὶ μῆνας τρεῖς ὁ λαβύρινθος οὗτος ἡμᾶς ἔχει τοῦ κακοῦ, καὶ δέδοικα δή, δέδοικα μὴ μετὰ τοῦ σώματος μαρανθῶσιν οἱ λόγοι καί σοι φανῶ δι’ ἀμφοτέρων ἄμορφος. ἐκάλουν δ’ ἄν σε παρ’ ἡμᾶς καὶ τὴν ἀπουσίαν ἐμεμφόμην, εἰ μή σε ᾔδειν ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ καρπούμενον, ὃ μὴ παρ’ ἄλλοις ἔνι, τὸν κράτιστον Δατιανὸν καὶ τὴν ἐκείνου φωνὴν καὶ γνώμην, ᾧ συνόντα πᾶσα ἀνάγκη πρὸς τὸ φρονεῖν ἐπι- διδόναι, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡμᾶς ἡ περὶ αὐτοῦ μνήμη βελτίους τε ποιεῖ καὶ πρὸς νοῦν ἄγει.