Letter 694: If justice were done, you would have held that office long ago, and by now you would hold one even greater.

To Julian. (362) If any of the things that are just were coming to pass, you would long ago have held that office, and now you would hold an authority even greater than that one. But Fortune, I suppose, delights in giving less to the better men, swelling up greater things for the worse, and she keeps on doing this [...] being as it were afraid that we might forget her power. You are not unaware that I both speak with equal pleasure and obtain a hearing from you -- for indeed you know how to leap up while I am speaking. But the multitude of affairs has not allowed a multitude of letters to come into being. For there are many whom one must help, and those who, leaping over the powers of many, take refuge in my weakness, afflicted by an absurd passion, seeking aid of figwood in place of aid of Hermes [i.e. seeking worthless help instead of effective help]. And I am compelled to furnish myself; for what else could anyone do? Then I help those who ask for small things, but the time is used up, and the letters that come to you are not as many as you wish.

Ἰουλιανῷ. (362) Εἰ τι τῶν δικαίων ἐγίγνετο, πάλαι μὲν ἐπ’ ἐκείνης ἂν ἦσθα τῆς ἀρχῆς, νῦν δὲ ἐπὶ μείζονος ἢ κατ’ ἐκείνην ἐξουσίας. ἀλλ’, οἶμαι, τέρπεται ἡ Τύχη τοῖς μὲν ἀμείνοσιν ἐλάττω όι- οἰδοῦσα, τοῖς δὲ φαυλοτέροις μείζω καὶ διατελεῖ δὴ τοῦτο ποι- 9γΠβ,qη.Var,πέ.kο(Rπέ.SΙέ(ξέ).Βιέ- οὖσα καθάπερ φοβουμένη μὴ τῆς ἰσχύος αὑτῆς ἐπιλαθώμεθα. ἐγὼ δὲ ὅτι μὲν ὁμοίως ἡδέως καὶ λέγω καὶ τῆς σῆς ἀκοῆς τυγχάνω — καὶ γὰρ οἶσθα πηδᾶν λέγοντος — οὐκ ἀγνοεῖς· πλῆθος δὲ ἐπιστολῶν τὸ τῶν πραγμάτων πλῆθος οὐκ ἀφῆκε γενέσθαι. πολλοὶ μὲν γὰρ οἷς δεῖ βοηθεῖν, οἱ δ’ ὑπερπηδῶντες πολλῶν δυνάμεις ἐπὶ τὴν ἐμὴν καταφεύγουσιν ἀσθένειαν ἀτόπῳ κεχρημένοι πάθει, συκίνην ἀνθ’ Ἑρμιόνος ζητοῦντες ἐπικουρίαν. ἐμοὶ δὲ ἀνάγκη παρέχειν ἐμαυτόν, τί γὰρ ἄν τις καὶ ποιοῖ; ἔπειτα μικρὰ δεομένων μὲν ὠφελῶ, χρόνος δὲ ἀναλίσκεται, γράμματα δὲ ὑμῖν οὐχ ὅσα βούλεσθε γίγνεται.