Letter 691: I have not suffered anything like what happened to your shoulder, but my soul is no less disturbed than yours when I...

I have not suffered anything like what happened to your shoulder, but my soul is no less disturbed than yours when I think about it -- how you left the place where you were staying, switched from carriage to horseback thinking it would be safer, and were injured by that very choice. But in everything it becomes clear how much better it is to have received an education than not. Another man would have wailed like a foolish woman, gaining nothing from his laments to ease the pain. You, however, turned to the scholar's remedy -- words -- and you are bearing what happened with the greatest composure. As for friends, so long as you remain the kind of man you are, you will never lack them wherever you go. You are a formidable hunter of friendship, using your character in place of nets. So once your arm can do what it did before the injury -- and it will, if the gods are willing and the doctors are eager -- hurry home and do not be stubborn about it. You have honored the city by choosing to go there; but fortune has rebuffed you at the finish.

Ὀβοδιανῲ. (362) Ἐμοὶ περὶ μὲν τὸν ὦμον οὐδὲν οἷον σοὶ συνέβη, τὴν ψυχὴν δὲ οὐχ ἦττον ἡ σὺ τετάραγμαι λογιζόμενος, ἐφ’ οἷς ἐξελθὼν οὗ μένεις ἐπὶ μὲν τὸν ἵππον ἀπὸ τοῦ ζεύγους ὁρμή- σὰς ὡς ἀσφαλέστερον, αὐτῷ δὲ τούτῳ βλαβείς. ἀλλὰ γὰρ πανταχοῦ δηλοῦται, πόσῳ κάλλιον μετειληφέναι παιδείας ἢ μή. ἄλλος μὲν γὰρ ὠδύρετ’ ἄν, ὥσπερ αἱ φαῦλαι γυναῖκες, καὶ ταῦτα οὐκ ἀφαιρῶν τοῦ κακοῦ τοῖς θρήνοις· σὺ δ’ ἐπὶ τὸ τοῦ φιλολόγου φάρμακον ἀφῖξαι, τοὺς λόγους, καὶ διαφέ- ρεις ὡς μετριώτατα τὸ συμβάν. φίλων δὲ ἔρημος, οὗ γένος ἀνθρώπων, οὐκ ἔστι ὅπως ἂν εἴης, ἴως ἂν ᾖς, οἷος εἶ· δεινὸς γὰρ εἶ θηρευτὴς τοῦ πράγματος ἀντὶ δικτύων ἔχων τὸν τρόπον. ὅταν οὖν ἡ χείρ σοι δυνηθῇ τὰ πρὸ τοῦ πάθους, δυνήσεται δὲ τῶν τε θεῶν ἐθελόντων τῶν τε ἰατρῶν προθυ- μουμένων, οἴκαδε θεῖν καὶ μὴ φιλονεικεῖν. τὴν μὲν γὰρ πό- λιν τῷ προελέσθαι τετίμηκας, τῇ τύχῃ δὲ τοῦ τέλους ἀπε- κρούσθης.