Letter 583: That you would deal gently with the cities I knew well, for such is your nature.

To Julian. (357) That you would conduct yourself gently toward the cities, I knew well, for you are by nature such a man; but I was glad to hear that you also have a sting for those who stand in need of the sting. It was Clematius who brought the report, a man who himself too has a sharp sting. So it came about that I rejoiced, both because the one who is praised is a fellow-citizen of mine and because of those who are benefited—and if I should call these too fellow-citizens, will I seem to you to be speaking rightly, if indeed you know how their affairs stand in relation to me? In any case you know, concerning the matters about which you wrote to us, how the things that have been done came about—not through us, for I will not strip Spectatus of the credit for the things he zealously labored for; the zeal, however, I praised. And let this be for you, from me, the lesson—that in helping you he does a favor to us both. Do you also yourself do us a favor, by letting bears from there appear among us, since you have also shown leopards from here to those people, so that you may gladden those whom you govern through the things of their fatherland, and your own people through the things found among those others.

Ἰουλιανῷ. (357) Ὅτι μὲν πρᾴως προσενεχθήσῃ ταῖς πόλεσιν, εὖ ᾔδειν, φύσει γὰρ δὴ σὺ τοιοῦτος ἥσθην δὲ ἀκούσας ὅτι σοι καὶ κέντρον ἐστὶν ἐπὶ τοὺς κέντρου δεομένους. ἤγγειλε δὲ Κλη- μάτιος, ᾦ καὶ αὐτῷ κέντρον ὀξύ. χαίρειν οὖν μοι συνέ- βαινε τῷ τόν τε ἐπαινούμενον εἶναι πολίτην ἐμὸν καὶ τοὺς ὠφελουμένους,— ἂν εἴπω καὶ τούτους πολίτας, ἄρα σοὶ δόξω λέγειν ὀρθῶς, εἴπερ τἀκείνων οἶσθα πρὸς ἐμέ. πάντως δὲ οἶσθα περὶ ὧν ἐπέστειλας ἡμῖν, ὡς γεγένηται, ἃ γέγονεν, οὐ δι’ ἡμῶν, οὐ γὰρ ἀφαιρήσομαι Σπεκτάτον ὧν ἐσπούδασε τὴν δόξαν, ἐπῄνεσα μέντοι τὴν σπουδὴν. καὶ τοῦτό σοι παρ’ ἐμοῦ τὸ μαθεῖν ἐκεῖνον ὅτι ὅτι σοὶ βοηθῶν ἀμφοτέροις χαρίζε- ται. χάρισαι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν τῷ φανῆναι παρ’ ἡμῖν ἄρκτους ἐκεῖθεν, ἐπειδὴ κἀκείνοις ἔδειξας ἐνθένδε παρδά- λεις, ὅπως τοὺς μὲν ἀρχομένους διὸ τῶν τῆς πατρίδος εὐ- φραίνῃς, τὴν δὲ σαυτοῦ διὰ τῶν παρ’ ἐκείνοις.