Letter 505: I spent only a little time in your company, owing to my preoccupation with my teaching, and I count it as a real...

To Florentius. (356/57) Having been in your company only briefly, on account of my preoccupation with rhetoric, I declare that I have suffered a loss in not having become one of your very intimate friends long ago; and now I pursue your friendship by means of letters, not so that I might reap the benefit of your power, for that is the desire of a merchant and not of one who longs for friendship, but rather so that a fine and noble man may not slip away from me, and so that I may not sink down amid the praises spoken about you, having no way to say that this man of such quality is a friend of mine. For know this well: to the many you seem fortunate on account of the other things, by which I mean birth and wealth and the rank on which you stand; yet I, for my part, do not dishonor these things either, but I count you blessed in this, that even amid them you know how to be temperate and obtain much good repute. For it is hard, holding the position in which you are stationed, to gain all men as praisers. For it is inevitable that the man in power also gives pain to some. But I, up to this present day, have been a hearer of praises of you, and of the others I have neither been one nor may I ever become one. And in praying that you remain a good man, I join in prayer with the noble Spectatus. For we stand toward one another as Heracles and Theseus stood toward one another, so that whatever is good for either of us, this belongs to both. Let it then be a mark of your nobility to give letters in return for letters. But if this is too laborious, still at least the willingness to be a friend involves no labor, so that if, while being a friend, you do not write, it will suffice.

Φλωρεντίῳ. (356/57) ἐγώ σοι μικρὰ συγγενόμενος διὰ τὴν ἐν λόγοις ἀσχο- λίαν, ὅτι γε μὴ πάλαι σοι τῶν πάνυ συνήθων γέγονα, βε- βλάφθαι φημὶ καὶ νῦν ἀπὸ γραμμάτων τὴν φιλίαν θηρεύω, οὐχ ὅπως σου καρπωσαίμην τὴν δύναμιν, ἐμπόρου γὰρ τοῦτό γε καὶ οὐ φιλίας ἐπιθυμοῦντος, ἀλλ’ ἵνα μή με καλὸς κἀγαθὸς ἀνὴρ διαφύγῃ κἀν τοῖς ἐπαίνοις τοῖς περὶ σοῦ καταδύωμαι μὴ ἔχων λέγαν ὅτι οὗτος ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐμοὶ φίλος. εὖ γὰρ ἴσθι, τοῖς μὲν πολλοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων εὐδαίμων εἶναι δοκεῖς, γένους δὴ λέγω καὶ πλούτου καὶ τάξεως, ἐφ’ ἦς σὺ βέβηκας· ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδὲ ταῦτα μὲν ἀτιμάζω, μακαρίζω δὲ τὸ καὶ ἐν τού- τοις εἰδέναι σωφρονεῖν καὶ πολλῆς εὐφημίας τυγχάνειν. χα- λεπὸν γὰρ οὗπερ σὺ τεταγμένον πάντας ἐπαινέτας λαβεῖν. ἀνάγκη γὰρ τὸν ἐν δυνάμει καὶ λυπεῖν τινας. ἀλλ’ ἐγὼ μέχρι τῆσδε τῆς ἡμέρας ἐπαίνων μὲν σῶν ἀκροατὴς γέγονα, τῶν δὲ ἑτέρων οὔτε ἐγενόμην μήτε γενοίμην. εὐχόμενος δέ σε μένειν ἀγαθὸν καὶ τῷ καλῷ Σπεκτάτῳ συνεύχομαι. πρὸς γὰρ ἀλλήλους ἡμεῖς ὅπερ Ἡρακλῆς καὶ Θησεὺς πρὸς ἀλλή- λους, ὥσθ’ ὅτι ἂν θατέρῳ καλὸν ᾖ, τοῦτ’ ἀμφοῖν ἐστι. γε- νέσθω δή σου τῆς καλοκἀγαθίας τὸ καὶ τῶν γραμμάτων ἀντι- δοῦναι γράμματα. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο ἐπίπονον, ἀλλὰ τό γε φιλεῖν ἐθέλειν πόνον οὐκ ἔχει, ὥστ’ ἂν φιλῶν μὴ γράφῃς, ἀρκέσει.