Letter 562: I expected you to spend more time with us now that you have become your own master.

To Melinianus. (357) I thought that you would now be more likely to be with us, since you have become master of your own affairs; but you seem rather to remain there, since you have become master of many things. And yet you have a multitude of household servants, and among the many there are some by whom, even when you wished to see your friends, it was possible to take heart concerning your affairs. But, I think, you used to say that you were skilled in friendship, though you were not so very skilled at all -- you who, in the case of the man who, though one of yours, lived together with a slave-woman of ours, did not tear him away while he was present, but now that he has come to you, you hold him fast; or rather, if you hold him against his will, you do wrong, and if he sits there willingly and you do not drive him out, you do wrong. But may that man not become for us the beginning of some unpleasantness. And as for the boys who have come, so that they might bring wood from there, make them learn how much better you are than your father, having used his power but your own character.

Μελινιανῷ. (357) Ὤιμην σε νῦν μᾶλλον ἔσεσθαι σὺν ἡμῖν, ἐπειδὴ σαυτοῦ κατέστης κύριος· σὺ δ’ ἔοικας μᾶλλον αὐτόθι μένειν, ἐπειδὴ πολλῶν ἐγένου κύριος. καίτοι σοι καὶ πλῆθος οἰκετῶν κἀν τοῖς πολλοῖς εἰσί τινες, οἷς καὶ βουλομένῳ τοὺς φίλους ἰδεῖν ἦν περὶ τῶν ὄντων θαρρεῖν ἀλλ’, οἶμαι, τοῦ φιλεῖν μὲν εἶναι ἐπιστήμων ἔλεγες, ἦσθα δὲ οὐ πάνυ, ὃς καὶ τὸν ἄνθρω- πον, ὃς ὑμέτερος ὢν ἡμετέρᾳ συνῴκησε δούλῃ, παρὼν μὲν οὐκ ἀπέσπασας, ἐλθόντα δὲ κατέχεις, μᾶλλον δέ, εἴτ’ ἄκοντα κατέχεις, ἀδικεῖς, εἴθ’ ἑκόντα καθήμενον οὐκ ἐξελαύνεις, ἀδι- κεῖς. ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνος ἡμῖν μὴ γένοιτο δυσχεροῦς τινος ἀρχή. τοὺς δὲ παῖδας ἥκοντας, ὅπως ἐκεῖθεν ἄγοιεν ξύλα, ποίησον μαθεῖν, ὅσον σὺ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀμείνων τῇ δυνάμει μὲν ἐκεί- νου, τῷ σαυτοῦ δὲ χρησάμενος τρόπῳ.