Letter 721: As far as oratory goes, you have sent your companion from one Eleusis to another -- for these are the same...
As far as oratory goes, you have sent your companion from one Eleusis to another -- for these are the same mysteries, I think, and he will encounter nothing new in the way of rhetoric. What brought him on this journey was a certain reputation about the Syrians, not the power of any particular sophist. People believe that association with our nation can sharpen souls and make them fit for practical affairs.
So if the young man returns sharper, credit the city rather than the man who gave him abroad what he was already getting at home.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Παγκρατίῳ. (362)
Ἕνεκα μὲν λόγων ἐξ Ἐλευσῖνος εἰς Ἐλευσῖνα πέπομφας
τὸν ἔταφον, ταὐτὰ γὰρ οἴμαι μυστήρια, καὶ λόγοις οὐ καινοῖς
ἐντεύξεται, τὴν δ’ ἀποδημίαν αὐτῷ πεποίηκε δόξα τις περὶ
Σύρων, οὐ σοφιστοῦ δύναμις. δοκεῖ γάρ πως ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἔθνος
ὁμιλία δύνασθαι ψυχὰς ἀκονᾶν καὶ ποιεῖν ἐπιτηδείους χρῆ-
σθαι πράγμασιν.
ἢν οὖν ὀξύτερος ὁ νέος ἐπανέλθῃ, τὴν
πόλιν αἰτιάσασθε μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν ὧν ἀπέλαυεν οἴκοι τούτων
ἐν ξένῃ μεταδόντα.
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