Letter 557: Your praises of the good Spectatus are entirely fitting, and by those praises you are honoring our whole family.

To the same man. (357) Fitting indeed is the song you sing in honor of the noble Spectatus, and know that by your praises of him you adorn our family. As for the honor with which the emperor honors you, you yourself kept silent about it, but he made it known. For he said that he took more pleasure with the giver than with the receiver. Thus, whatever zeal a man may show on your behalf, by that very thing he has first done a good turn to himself. But to hesitate, and to remain, and to be unwilling to stir, is least of all noble, and is unlike your character; and so I had no need to ask what you have resolved to do, but I said in advance what you will do. You must cast off your idleness and, by small toils, acquire great ease, especially when you are journeying to a man who is first in all things and who has some reputation for sharing in affairs of state. But about this you will reason with yourself. As for this Pelagius here, once you have come to know him, you will have come to know the gentlest of men to the Syrians. And I praise him on this account, not as though he lacked good birth too, since he has eloquence and influence in the city and the other things by which a man might be distinguished, but because by the gentleness of his manners more than through those things he came to renown, and on this account he lives both in great wealth and, more than that, in being loved. You will need not many months to cast the same vote about the man, but if, once you have met him, you both hear him speak and see him modest, for he is always so, you will marvel at the one because he is such a man, and you will consider those who have him to be fortunate.

Τῷ αὐτῷ. (357) Πρέποντά γε εἰς τὸν καλὸν Σπεκτάτον ᾄδεις, καὶ τοῖς γε εἰς ἐκεῖνον ἐπαίνοις τὸ γένος ἡμῶν ἴσθι κοσμῶν. τὴν τι- μὴν δέ, ᾐ σε τιμᾷ βασιλεύς, σὺ μὲν ἐσίγησας, ὁ δὲ ἐμήνυσεν. ἔφη γὰρ τῷ διδόντι μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ λαβόντι συνησθῆναι. οὕτως ὁ τι ἄν τις περὶ σὲ σπουδάσῃ, τούτῳ πρῶτον εὖ πεποίηκεν αὑτόν. τὸ δὲ ὀκνεῖν τε καὶ μένειν καὶ μὴ κινεῖσθαι ἐθέ- λειν ἥκιστα μὲν καλόν, τοῦ δὲ σοῦ τρόπου· ὥστ’ οὐκ ἐδεήθην ὅ τι ποιεῖν ἔγνωκας ἐρωτᾶν, ἀλλ’ εἶπον φθάσας ὃ ποιήσεις. δεῖ δέ σε τὴν ἀργίαν ἐκδύντα μικροῖς πόνοις μεγάλην κτήσασθαι ῥᾳστώνην, ἄλλως θ’ ὅτε πορεύσῃ παρ’ ἄνδρα τὰ πάντα πρῶτον καὶ ᾧ κοινωνῆσαι πραγμάτων ἔχει τι δόξης. ἀλλ’ ὑπὲρ τούτου μὲν σαυτῷ διαλέξῃ· Πελάγιον δὲ του τονὶ γνοὺς ἐγνωκὼς ἔσῃ τὸν ἡμερώτατον Σύροις. ἐπαινῶ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν αὐτόν, οὐχ ὡς οὐκ ἔχοντα καὶ γένος, ἐπεὶ καὶ λό- γους καὶ δύναμιν ἐν πόλει καὶ τἄλλα οἷς ἄν τις εἴη λαμπρός, ἀλλ’ ὅτι τῇ τῶν τρόπων ἡμερότητι πλέον ἢ δι’ ἐκείνων ἧκεν εἰς ὄνομα καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ζῇ τε ἐν πλούτῳ πολλῷ καὶ φίλτρῳ πλέον. δεήσῃ δὲ οὐ πολλῶν μηνῶν εἰς τὸ ταὐτὰ ψηφίσα- σθαι περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρός, ἀλλ’ ἢν συμμίξας ἀκούσῃς τε φθεγγο- μένου καὶ αἰδούμενον ἴδῃς, ἀεὶ γὰρ τοῦτο ποιεῖ, τὸν μὲν ὅτι τοιοῦτός ἐστι θαυμάσῃ τοὺς δὲ ἔχοντας αὐτὸν εὐδαίμονας ἡγήσῃ.