Letter 620: While others asked those arriving from there all manner of questions — "What of the Arcadians?

To Priscianus. (361 AD) While others asked those arriving from there all manner of questions — "What of the Arcadians? What of the Amphictyonians? Where has Philip gone?" — I, who always have your affairs at heart, had only one thing I wanted to know: whether the magnitude of the moment put your virtue to the test. While many were playing tragedians, and those who sought things from you were like the Bacchants from whose rocks everything flows, and while they invoked Ajax and the labors he endured — no one was saying "Ajax stood firm no longer." They were saying only that Priscianus carried everything forward at a run: urging, obeying, supplying, persuading, arguing back, satisfying the desires of those in command while not driving those under command to extremes. And they say two things came to you from all this: poverty and glory — so that our hopes for good things bloom fair, that the emperor will repay the debt when, having done well and conquered the Persian, he returns. May god bring that to pass. This Seleucus here is a kinsman of Calliopius — who was raised on the teachings of Zenobius and lightens for me the burden of managing the young men. He comes at Elpidius's urging to contribute something to the work. Knowing that if you are not kindly disposed toward him it would be better for him to leave than to stay, he arranges through this letter to ensure a warm reception from you. I myself would like to place both Calliopius and his father in my debt — a debt I expect to recoup in the exertions I'm making on behalf of my illegitimate son; for both of them are shaping Arrabius.

Πρισκιανῷ. (361) Ἄλλων ἄλλα ἐρωτώντων τοὺς ἐκεῖθεν ἀφικνουμένους· τί τὰ τῶν Ἀρκάδων; τί τὰ τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων; ποῖ πάρεισι Φίλιππος; ἐγώ, τῶν γὰρ σῶν ἀεὶ φροντίζω, τοῦθ ‘ὲν ἠξίουν μανθάνειν, εἰ μή σοι τὴν ἀρετὴν ἤλεγξε τὸ μέγε- θος τοῦ καιροῦ πολλῶν δὲ πολλὰ τραγῳδούντων καὶ ὡς ἦσαν οἱ παρὰ σοῦ ζητοῦντες τὰ τῶν Βακχῶν, αἷς ἐκ πετρῶν πάντα ῥεῖ, καὶ μεμνημένων τοῦ Αἴαντος καὶ τῶν πόνων, ἐν οἷς ἦν, οὐδεὶς ἦν ὁ λέγων· Αἴας δ’ οὐκέτ’ ἔμιμνεν, ἀλλ ὅτι πάντα πρισκιανὸς ἤνεγκε θέων, παρακελευόμενος ὑπα- κούων, ἐκπορίζων, πείθων, ἀντιλέγων, τοῖς μὲν ἄρχουσι πλη- ρῶν ἐπιθυμίας, τοὺς δ’ ἀρχομένους εἰς ἀνάγκας οὐκ ἄγων. καί σοί φασιν ἐκ τούτων δύο γενέσθαι, πενίαν καὶ δόξαν, ὥσθ’ ἡμῖν ἐλπίδας ἀνθεῖν ἀγαθὰς ὡς τοῦ βασιλέως ἀπο- δώσοντος χάριν, ἐπειδὰν εὖ ποιῶν τὸν. Πέρσην ἑλὼν ἀνα- στρέφῃ. τουτὶ μὲν οὖν τελοίη θεός, Σέλευκος δὲ οὑτοσὶ κηδεστὴς μέν ἐστι Καλλιοπίου τοῦ τραφέντος μὲν ἐν τοῖς Ζηνοβίου λόγοις, κουφίζοντος δὲ ἐμοὶ τὸ περὶ τοὺς νέους ἄχθος. ἥκει δὲ πέμποντος Ἐλπιδίου συνεισοίσων τι τοῖς ἔργοις. εἰδὼς δὲ ὡς, ἂν μὴ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡμέρως ἔχῃς, ἀπελ- θεῖν αὐτῷ κρεῖττον ἢ μένειν, ὅπως ἥμερος ἴσῃ, πράττει διὰ τῶν γραμμάτων. ἐγὼ δὲ βουλοίμην ἂν καὶ Καλλιοπίῳ κα τῷ τούτου πατρὶ καταθέσθαι χάριν, ἣν ἐν ταῖς περὶ τὸν νόθον τὸν ἐμὸν ἀπολήψομαι σπουδαῖς· πλάττουσι γὰρ τὸν Ἀρρά- βιον ἄμφω.