Letter 588: You described the famine and the cold so vividly in your letter that I shivered and felt hungry just reading it.

To Iamblichus. (357) So vividly did you heighten in your account both the famine and the cold, that as I read I both shivered and grew hungry. But you must bear these things, and still harder ones, since you come from a household devoted to philosophy. And the prizes too, for the sake of which the hardships are borne, are greater than the hardships; so that, keeping your eyes on those, you should not be distressed by your present circumstances. As for the words of Hierocles, even before this it was not right to disobey them, but now it is even a necessity to obey. Go forward, then, with good fortune, and, having accepted whatever the gods may grant, return rejoicing.

Ἰαμβλίχῳ. (357) Οὕτως ἐξῆρας τῷ λόγῳ τόν τε λιμὸν καὶ τὸ ψῦχος, Μ’ ἀναγινώσκων ἐρρίγωσά τε καὶ ἐπείνησα. σὲ δὲ καὶ ταῦτα κοὶ ἔτι χαλεπώτερα δεῖ φέρειν ἀπὸ τῆς φιλοσοφούσης οἰκίας γε- γονότα. καὶ τὰ ἆθλα δέ, ὑπὲρ ὧν τὰ δυσχερῆ, μείζω τῶν δυσχερῶν· ὥστ’ εἰς ἐκεῖνα βλέπων μὴ τοῖς παροῦσιν ἀνιῶ. τοῖς δὲ Ἱεροκλέους λόγοις οὐδὲ πρότερον μὲν ἀπειθεῖν ἴδει, νῦν δὲ καὶ ἀνάγκη πείθεσθαι. τύχῃ τ’ οὖν ἀγαθῇ χώρει καὶ δεξάμενος ὅ τι ἂν διδῶσιν οἱ θεοί, χαίρων ἐπάνιθι.