Letter 689

To Celsus. (362) Right from the starting line you showed yourself worthy of our hopes. You found the council of Alexandria reduced to one man — and that man, I hear, was lame — and within two days you extended the number to fifteen, using no force at all, only brilliant expectations. By showing the councilors they would no longer be plunder for the Mysians [i.e., easy prey for extortioners], you brought some down from the mountains and persuaded others who had been hiding under their beds to leap forth to public service as though it were a profit. All this was reported by friends who were present when it happened, and the listeners were delighted. No one doubted it — such fine and great achievements seemed perfectly natural to your character. Now, I who urged you so strongly toward strict impartiality and toward extending a hand to the cities while abolishing all favoritism — I seem to have suffered the fate of Pericles, caught in my own law. What was his experience? Having written a law for the Athenians that anyone not Athenian on both sides should be excluded from citizens' rights, when his sons Xanthippus and Paralus died, he begged the citizens to enroll the son of Aspasia — overturning his own legislation. And they granted it. So I too, transgressing my own law, would like a certain Seleucus to receive a favor outside the bounds of both your principles and mine. When you hear the name Seleucus, you cannot help but think of Alexandra, and once you think of her, you cannot resist. For just as we place the gods before her, so we must place her before all other mortals. What I myself would have done as governor, you must now be seen doing — keeping in mind the woman's bearing, the measure of her judgment, her other virtues, and how we always felt, descending from her house, as though we were leaving a temple. The Athenians granted Pericles that favor in return for Euboea and Samos. I cannot claim to have conquered islands, but the greatest thing under the sun — Alexandra — you have seen, with Seleucus entrusting her and me introducing her.

Κέλσῳ. (362) Εὖθύς ἀπὸ γραμμῆς ἡμῖν ἄξιος τῶν ἐλπίδων ἐφάνης ἴνα μὲν ἄνδρα τὴν βουλὴν εὑρὼν Ἀλεξανδρείας καὶ τοῦτον, ὡς ἀκούω, χωλόν, εἰς πεντεκαίδεκα δὲ τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἐκτείνας ἐν ἡμέραις δύο βίᾳ μὲν οὐδεμιᾷ, προσδοκίαις δὲ λαμπραῖς. δείξας γὰρ ὡς οὐκ ἔσονται Μυσῶν λεία τοῖς ἁρπάζουσιν οἱ βουλευταί, τοὺς μὲν ἐκ τῶν ὀρῶν κατήγαγες, τοὺς δὲ ὑπὸ κλίνας κρυπτομένους ἔπεισας ὡς ἐπὶ κέρδος τὸ λειτουργεῖν ἐκπηδᾶν. καὶ ταῦτα ἠγγέλλετο μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν ἑταίρων, οἱ παρῆσαν, ὅτε ἐπράττετο, τοὺς ἀκροωμένους δὲ ἡδομένους εἶχον, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἠπίστει· τὰ γὰρ δὴ καλά τε καὶ μεγάλα συμ- βαίνειν ἐδόκει τῇ σῇ φύσει. ἐγὼ δέ σε πολλὰ παρακεκληκὼς ἐπὶ τὴν ἀκρίβειαν καὶ τὸ δεῖν πάσας ἀνελόντα χάριτας χεῖρα ὀρέγειν ταῖς πόλεσιν ἔοικα τὸ τοῦ Περικλέους πεπονθέναι τῷ τε ἐμαυτοῦ περιπεπτωκέναι νόμῳ. τί δ’ ἦν ὃ ἐκεῖνος ἔπαθε; γράψας Ἀθηναίοις νόμον τὸν οὐκ ὄντα ἀμφοτέρωθεν Ἀθη- ναῖον τῶν τοῖς ἀστοῖς ὑπαρχόντων εἴργεσθαι τεθνεώτων αὐτῷ Ξανθίππου καὶ Παράλου τὸν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσπασίας υἱὸν ἐδεῖτο τῶν πολιτῶν πολίτην ἐγγράφειν τὰ αὑτοῦ κινῶν, οἱ δὲ ἐχα- ρίσαντο. κἀγὼ τοίνυν τὸν ἐμαυτοῦ παραβαίνων νόμον βου- λοίμην ἂν τὸν Σελεύκου τινὸς τυγχάνειν ἔξω τῶν ἐμῶν τε καὶ σῶν δογμάτων. Σέλευκον δὲ ἀκούσας οὐκ ἂν Ἀλεξάνδρας ἀμνημονεῖν δύναιο, ταύτης δὲ μνησθεὶς οὐκ ἂν ἀντιτείνειν δύναιο. δεῖ γάρ, ὥσπερ τοὺς θεοὺς πρὸ ταύτης ἄγομεν, οὕτω ταύτην πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων. οἷς οὖν αὐτὸς ἄρχων ἐχρώμην ἄν, τούτοις σὲ δεῖ φανῆναι χρώμενον ἐννοοῦντα σχῆμά τε τὸ τῆς γυναικὸς καὶ γνώμης μέτρον καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἀρετὴν καὶ ὡς ἐδοκοῦμεν ἐξ ἱεροῦ τινος ἀπιέναι παρ’ αὐτῆς καταβαίνοντες. τῷ μὲν οὖν Περικλεῖ τὴν χάριν ἐκείνην ἀντὶ Εὐβοίας ἔδοσαν Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ Σάμου, ἐγὼ δὲ νήσους μὲν ᾑρημένας εἰπεῖν οὐκ ἔχω, τὸ δὲ μέγιστον τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον Ἀλεξάνδραν εἶδες Σελεύκου μὲν ἐπιτρέποντος, ἐμοῦ δὲ εἰσάγοντος.