Letter 527: By writing you honor me, but by neither granting what I asked nor explaining why you did not, you cause me pain.

To Firminus (356) You honor me by writing, but the things we asked to obtain, these you neither do nor explain, and so, because you fail to do what you ought, you grieve me. But I in turn go to Pytho [Delphi, i.e. I return to my oracle/theme]; for once again I shall discourse with you about Boethus. This Boethus is from the city of Elusa, and a cousin of Zenobius, whom, now that he is dead, we revere more than when he was alive. Having found this man a guardian of the peace, you removed him from office, and entrusted the matter to another. And I do not blame you; rather I proclaim it a favor that Boethus be restored to the position he held before his appearance. But if this is a matter of earnestness to me, while to you it is no trouble, and there is no shame attached to the favor, why do you not grant it?

Φιρμίνῳ (356) Τῷ μὲν ἐπιστέλλειν τιμᾷς, ὧν δὲ ἐδεήθημεν τυχεῖν, ταῦτα οὔτε ποιῶν οὔτε δηλῶν, δι’ ὅ τι μὴ ποιεῖν ἴδει, λυπεῖς. ἐγὼ δὲ αὖ Πυθῶδε· πάλιν γάρ σοι περὶ Βοηθοῦ δια- λέξομαι. ὁ δὲ Βοηθὸς οὗτος πόλεως μὲν Ἐλούσης, Ζηνοβίου δὲ ἀνεψιός, ὂν τεθνεῶτα πλέον ἢ ζῶντα αἰδούμεθα. τοῦτον εὑρὼν τῆς εἰρήνης φύλακα τὸν μὲν ἔπαυσας, ἑτέρῳ δὲ τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐπέτρεψας. καὶ οὐ μέμφομαι, χάριν δὲ ἐπαγγέλλω τὸ τὸν Βοηθὸν πάλιν ἐν οἷς ἦν πρὸ τοῦ φανῆναι. εἰ δὲ ἐμοὶ μὲν τοῦτο ἐν σπουδῇ, σοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἔργον, αἰσχύνη δὲ ἄπεστι τῆς χάριτος, τί οὐ δίδως;