Letter 492: We grieved as never before and rejoiced as never before — grieved because your wife was ill, a woman who surpasses...

To Strategius. (356 AD) We grieved as never before and rejoiced as never before — grieved because your wife was ill, a woman who surpasses even those celebrated in song for virtue, and rejoiced because the illness yielded to the doctors. But rest assured: even without doctors she would have been saved, since the gods owe you a debt of gratitude for your justice in all things. Our city is given over to dancing just now. The pretext is weddings, but the truth is that people have been moved to celebration because the fear has passed. And if — as we most desire — you would come yourself and appear leading your children along with their mother, you will make it a double festival. I know I should be there in person, to have shared in the anxious hopes and now enjoy the outcome, and to say all this face to face rather than write it. But, my dear friend, though I hear the proverb urging one to go to friends far away, the affliction pressing upon my body prevents me from obeying it. My one salvation is to spend most of my time in bed; even going to the agora is now a risk, and many times I have been struck by an attack and had to be carried away. But you can see with what eagerness many people rush to you, among them Clematius — to whom you are and always will be everything. He has been with us just long enough to ask and learn how your affairs stand. And having learned that things go well, he himself no longer considers his own troubles so bad. Though he is a man beset by storms, your good fortune lightens his own burdens — so true it is that everyone finds a single refuge in the household of the good Strategius being safe.

Στρατηγίῳ. (356) Ἠλγήσαμέν τε ὡς οὔπω πρότερον καὶ ἥσθημεν ὡς οὐκ ἄλλοτε τὸ μέν, ὅτι σοι ἔκαμνεν ἡ γυνὴ, γυνὴ τὰς ὑμνουμέ- 20 νᾶς ἀρετῇ νικῶσα, τὴν δὲ εὐθυμίαν ἐποίει τὸ τὴν νόσον εἴξαι τοῖς ἰατροῖς. εὖ δὲ ἴσθι, καὶ μὴ παρόντων ἰατρῶν ἐσώζετ’ ἂν ὀφειλόντων σοι τῶν θεῶν χάριν ἀντὶ τῆς περὶ πάντα δικαιο- σύνης. ἡ πόλις δὲ ἡμῖν ἐν χορείαις τὸ νῦν καὶ πρόφασις μὲν οἱ γάμοι, τὸ δὲ ἀληθές, ὑπὸ τοῦ πεπαῦσθαι τὸν φόβον εἰς τοῦτο κεκίνηνται. εἰ δέ, ὃ μάλιστα ποθοῦμεν, προσθείης καὶ φανείης ἄγων μετὰ τῆς μητρὸς τὰ παιδία, διπλῆν ἑορτὴν ἐργάσῃ. καὶ οὐκ ἀγνοῶ μὲν ὅτι με παρόντα χρῆν τῶν τε ἐλπίδων κεκοινωνηκέναι καὶ τῶν νῦν ἀπολαύειν καὶ ταῦτα ἀντὶ τοῦ γράφειν ἀπὸ στόματος λέγειν· ἀλλ᾿, ὦ ἄριστε τῆς μὲν παροιμίας ἀκούω στείχειν ἀξιούσης παρὰ τοὺς φίλους τοὺς τηλοῦ φίλους· τὸ κακὸν δὲ ᾧ μοι τὸ σῶμα πιέζεται, πείθεσθαι τῇ παροιμίᾳ κωλύει. μία γάρ μοι σωτηρία τὰ πολλὰ διάγειν ἐπὶ τῆς εὐνῆς, κίνδυνος δὲ ἤδη καὶ τὸ ἀγοράζειν, καὶ πολλάκις δεξάμενος προσβολὴν ἐλαυνόμενος ἀπῆλθον. ἀλλ’ οἷς Μιν ὁρᾷς ὡς θέουσιν ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ καὶ Κλη- μάτιος, ᾧ πάντα γέγονάς τε καὶ ἔσῃ, ὃς τοσοῦτόν ἐστι παρ’ ἡμῖν, ὅσον ἐρέσθαι καὶ μαθεῖν , ὅπως ἔχοι σοι τὰ πράγματα. γνοὺς δὲ ὡς ἄμεινον οὐδ’ αὐτὸς ἡγεῖται τοῖς αὑτοῦ πράττειν ἔτι κακῶς. καίτοι τῶν χειμῶνι κεχρημένων ἁνήρ, ἀλλ’ ὅμως ἐκ τῶν σῶν εἰς τὰ αὑτοῦ κουφίζεται· οὕτως ἅπασι κα- ταφυγὴ μία Στρατηγίῳ τῷ χρηστῷ σῶν εἶναι τὸν οἶκον.