To Aristainetos. (357 AD)
A fine pair you make, you and the good Dometios. A skilled charioteer yokes you together, casting a single vote for both. For the one who summons you to share in the labors also summons him on equal terms.
But you, without even practicing how to sit still, stay where you are, while he goes to lighten the governor's burden — blessed by the one who called him, and sure to make that man fortunate too by what he brings. And what he brings is expertise in law, power of speech, and justice of character.
So congratulate the one on what he will receive and the other on whom he goes to serve, and make the man your friend — so that you too may share in the joy of such an acquisition.
A fine pair you make, you and the good Dometios. A skilled charioteer yokes you together, casting a single vote for both. For the one who summons you to share in the labors also summons him on equal terms.
But you, without even practicing how to sit still, stay where you are, while he goes to lighten the governor's burden — blessed by the one who called him, and sure to make that man fortunate too by what he brings. And what he brings is expertise in law, power of speech, and justice of character.
So congratulate the one on what he will receive and the other on whom he goes to serve, and make the man your friend — so that you too may share in the joy of such an acquisition.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.