Letter 513: Themistius drove our city mad with love for wisdom.

To Aristaenetus. (356/57) Themistius drove our city mad with a passion for wisdom, nowhere keeping silent but everywhere speaking, and speaking such things as it was fitting for that man to speak, so that, had he not departed with all speed, he would even have turned the council away from those matters in which it is now engaged toward his own way of life. And as for me, by reminding me of those old affairs he reduced me to tears, a thing which I, though longing for my native land while I am here among you, never once knew myself to have suffered. My body too is in such a state that I am pitied by the others, but it is a loss to me that I have not died. And many are the alleged causes of my ailments that are sung about, yet one must bear them and give up seeking whence they come. For we were not seeking to say anything that comes most easily. But you, by not writing, have added to my troubles. [...] And if you should say this, that Themistius comes in place of a letter, you shall hear my reply: what could be more fitting for a letter than Themistius?

Ἀρισταινέτῳ. (356/57) Ἐξέμηνε τὴν πόλιν ἡμῖν εἰς σοφίας ἔρωτα Θεμίστιος σιγῶν μὲν οὐδαμοῦ, πανταχοῦ δὲ λέγων, καὶ λέγων οἷα τοῦτον ἦν εἰκὸς λέγειν, ὥστ’ εἰ μὴ τάχιστα ἀπῆρε, κἂν μετέστησε τὴν βουλὴν ἀπὸ τούτων ἐν οἷς νῦν ἐστιν ἐπὶ τὸν αὑτοῦ βίον. ἐμὲ δὲ ἀναμνήσας τῶν παλαιῶν ἐκείνων πραγμάτων εἰς δάκρυα κατέστησεν, ὃ ἐγὼ τὴν πατρίδα ποθῶν ἴτ’ ὢν παρ’ ὑμῖν οὐδε- πώποτε οἶδα παθών. ἔχει δέ μοι καὶ τὸ σῶμα οὕτως ὥστε ἐλεοῦμαι μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν ἄλλων, ζημία δέ μοι τὸ μὴ τεθνάναι. καὶ πολλὰ μὲν ᾄδεται τῶν νοσημάτων αἴτια, δεῖ δὲ φέ- ρειν ἀφέντα ζητεῖν, ὅθεν ἐστίν. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐζητοῦμέν τι ῥᾷστον εἴρειν. σὺ δὲ οὐ γράψας προσέθηκας τοῖς κακοῖς. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο λέγοις, ὡς ἀντὶ γραμμάτων ἥκει Θεμίστιος, ἀκούσῃ· τί δ’ ἂν ἦν μᾶλλον πρέπον γράμμασι Θε μιστίου;