Letter 578: What am I to do? You say you want complaints, but everything you do deserves praise.

To Anatolius. (357) What am I to do? For you say that you desire reproaches, yet you do things worthy of praise. And toward the one who praises you, you are harsh, but you do not grant him leave to blame you. With how much acclaim, then, do you suppose Dometius has been summoned, on the grounds that he has lent a hand in your concerns, a man useless to a wicked magistrate? And I have many things to say, if I were willing to speak, about this man's fine qualities; but I am afraid that to say to you the things you have called him, knowing them well, may become for you an occasion for mockery, for you did not summon him in ignorance. But that one thing, at least, you do not know; so learn it. Some men's speeches he helped, but ours he admired, doing the one out of respect for friendship, the other out of his knowledge of letters, so that he showed himself good to us in both respects, in not having stirred up the one, and in having honored the other.

Ἀνατολίῳ. (357) Τέ χρή με ποιῆσαι; φῂς μὲν γὰρ αἰτιῶν ἐπιθυμεῖν, πράτ- τεις δὲ ἐπαίνων ἄξια. καὶ πρὸς μὲν τὸν ἐπαινοῦντα χαλεπὸς εἶ, ψέγειν δὲ οὐ δίδως. τοῦτο τοίνυν πόσης εὐφημίας οἴει κέκληται Δομέτιος ἐπὶ τῷ συνεφάψασθαι τῶν φροντί- δων ἀνὴρ ἄχρηστος ἄρχοντι πονηρῷ. καὶ πολλὰ μὲν ἔστι μοι λέγειν, εἰ λέγειν ἐθέλοιμι περὶ τῶν τοῦδε καλῶν· φοβοῦμαι δὲ μή σοι γένηται σκώμματος ἀφορμὴ τὸ πρὸς σὲ λέγειν, ἃ καλῶς εἰδὼς κέκληκας οὐ γὰρ ἀγνοῶν ἐκάλεις. ὅ. ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνό γε οὐκ οἶσθα· μάνθανε δή· λόγοις τοῖς μὲν ἄλλων ἐβοήθησε, τοὺς δὲ ἡμετέρους ἐθαύμασε, τὸ μὲν αἰδοῖ φιλίας ποιῶν, τὸ δὲ ἐπιστήμῃ λόγων, ὥσθ’ ἡμῖν αὐτὸν ἀμφοτέροις ἀγαθὸν φανῆναι τὴν μὲν οὐ κινήσαντα, τοὺς δὲ τιμήσαντα.