Letter 601: You sent that letter as a refutation — to show that I had given you too grand a title by calling you first among Greeks.

To Demetrius. (357) You sent your letter as a refutation, on the grounds that I had granted you more than was real when I first called you the foremost of the Greeks; but it arrived bearing brilliant testimony that I ought to have said nothing other than this very thing that I did say. For indeed, if the noble Demetrius had pondered for a very long time how he might show himself the chief of the Greeks, he could not have discovered anything better than to write in such a manner; so dense are the reflections and so fitting is the diction that a letter longs for, and there is no place where the beauty is not present; so that now more than before I declare you to be supreme, and even if you should again attempt to refute me, know well, you will once again be pleading my case. But as for "the pupil" and "the disciple" -- for these are the names by which you call yourself on account of my discourses -- these are charming words, yet they are accusations against me for not placing you as well in equal rank by sharing my discourses with you. Therefore, in order that, besides being a clever speaker, you may also be a just one, send some of your own writings, and make me too your pupil.

Δημητρίῳ. (357) Σὺ μὲν ἐπ’ ἐλέγχῳ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἔπεμψας, ὡς ἄρα μείζω σοι τῶν ὄντων ἔδωκα πρῶτον Ἑλλήνων εἰπών· ἡ δὲ λαμπρὰν ἧκε φέρουσα μαρτυρίαν, ὡς οὐκ ἄλλο τι χρῆν ἢ τοῦθ’ ὅπερ εἶπον εἰπεῖν. εἰ γὰρ δὴ πάνυ πολὺν ἐσκόπει χρόνον ὁ καλὸς Δημήτριος, πῶς ἂν αὑτὸν δείξειεν Ἑλλήνων κεφάλαιον, οὐκ ἂν ἄμεινον ἐξεῦρεν ἢ τοιαῦτα γράφων· οὕτω τά τε ἐνθυμήματα πυκνὰ καὶ λέξις ἣν ἐπιστολὴ ποθεῖ, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπου τὸ κάλλος οὐκ ἔστιν· ὥστε νῦν πλέον ἢ πρό- τερον ὡς εἴης ἄκρος λέγω, κἂν πάλιν ἐπιχειρῇς ἐλέγχειν, εὖ ἴσθι, συναγορεύσεις πάλιν. ὁ δὲ φοιτητὴς καὶ ὁ συνου- σιαστής, ταυτὶ γὰρ σαυτὸν ὀνομάζεις τῷ τοῖς ἐμοῖς λόγοις, χαρίεντα μέν, κατηγορήματα δὲ τοῦ μὴ καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐν ἴσῃ τάξει ποιοῦντος ἀπὸ τοῦ μεταδοῦναι λόγων. ἵν’ οὖν πρὸς τῷ δεινὸς εἰπεῖν εἴης καὶ δίκαιος, πέμπε τῶν σαυτοῦ καὶ ποίει καὶ ἐμὲ σὸν φοιτητὴν.