Letter 723: Having congratulated both you and your father -- him for his generosity toward you, you for pleasing your father...

To Hyperechius. (362) Rejoicing with both you and your father—with him for his magnanimity toward you, and with you for so pleasing your father that, while he yet lives, you have been established as master of everything—in the second place I find that I praise you in like manner, but him no longer. For you, mindful of our words and examining the matter rightly, are the sort of man to perform public services for your homeland, from which glory and power would arise, and before these things the doing of what is just toward your own household; but he sends you off to throw away your possessions into the sea. For if neither there will you have anything great beyond the expense, nor at home will you have the strength, being drained of resources elsewhere, how will your money not perish for you by the vote of the very man who gave it? Persuade him, then, not to imitate the cow in the proverb, nor, after the milk has been drawn, to kick it over and spill it. For in addition to the harm concerning the money, he will also do injury to the city. If, however, you should engage in public life in the daily contests before the magistrates, you will be a better man and will make that stream which is now praised flow more abundantly; but if you do what seems good to him, you will take away no small part of your substance, and you will live the rest of your time in idleness and sleep, watching your neighbor's affairs grow, while for you nothing has come into being except an empty name. Bring to bear, then, every attempt and every entreaty upon your father, and do not permit him to win a Cadmean victory. And let your mother join with you—I hear that she has good sense—and let it be said that his plan does not please even me. For perhaps, being admonished, he will undo a wicked resolve, which seems to me to have ratified now in favor of his own freedom from affairs. For inasmuch as he passes most of his time in the mountains and in hunting, he hates the sweats that come from the contests of the marketplace. But let him flee these things, and let him entrust to you the wrestling. For now I do not think it is Maximus, the friend of the fields, who ought to take part in public life, but Hyperechius the son of Maximus, the one who knows the tumults of the assembly. I, then, advise these things and declare that they will profit you both; and if I should seem to be talking nonsense now, yet later at least you will praise the counsel—the counsel which will bring honor to the adviser, but which will bring no benefit to the one who does not approve it.

Ὑπερεχίῳ. (362) Συνησθεὶς σοί τε καὶ τῷ σῷ πατρί, τῷ μὶν τῆς εἰς σὲ μεγαλοψυχίας, σοὶ δὲ τοῦ τὸν πατέρα ἀρέσκειν, ὥστ’ ἐκείνου ζῶντος πάντων καταστῆναι κύριον, ἐν τοῖς δευτέροις σὲ μὲν ὁμοίως ἐπαινεῖν ἰχῶ, τὸν δὲ οὐκέτι. σὺ μὲν γὰρ τῶν τε ἡμετέρων μεμνημένος λόγων καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐξετάζων ὀρθῶς οἷος εἶ τῇ πατρίδι λειτουργεῖν, ἐξ οὗ δόξα τε καὶ δύναμις γένοιτ’ ἂν καὶ πρὸ τούτων γε τὸ τὰ δίκαια πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ποιεῖν· ὁ δὲ σὲ πέμπει ῥίψοντα τὰ ὄντα εἰς τὴν θάλατταν. εἰ γὰρ μήτε ἐκεῖ μέγα τι παρὰ τὴν δαπάνην ἕξεις οἴκοι τι οὐκ ἰσχύσεις ἑτέρωθι δαπανώμενος, πῶς οὐκ ἀπολεῖταί σοι τὰ χρήματα τῇ ψήφῳ τοῦ δεδωκότος; πεῖθε οὖν αὐτὸν μὴ τὴν ἐν τῇ παροιμίᾳ μιμεῖσθαι βοῦν μηδ’ ὃ ἠμέλχθη γάλα λακτίσαντα ἐκχέαι. πρὸς γὰρ τῇ περὶ τὰ χρήματα βλάβῃ καὶ εἰς τὴν πόλιν ζημιώση. εἰ μέντοι πολιτεύοιο τοῖς καθ’ ἡμέραν παρὰ τοῖς ἄρχουσιν ἀγῶσιν, ἀμείνων ἔσῃ καὶ τὸ νῦν ἐπαινούμενον ῥεῦμα πλέον ἐργάσῃ· πράξας δὲ ἃ ’κείνῳ δοκεῖ, τῆς μὲν οὐσίας οὐ μικρὸν ἀφαιρήσεις, ἐν ἀργίᾳ δὲ καὶ ὕπνῳ τὸν λοιπὸν βιώσῃ χρόνον τὰ μὲν τῶι πέλας ὁρῶν αὐξόμενα, σοὶ δὲ πλὴν ὀνόματος κενοῦ γεγενημένον οὐδέν. πρόσαγε δὴ πᾶσαν μὲν πεῖραν, πάσας δὲ δεήσεις τῷ πατρὶ καὶ μὴ Καδμείαν νίκην ἐπίτρεπε νικᾶν ἐκείνῳ. γιγνέσθω δὲ μετὰ σοῦ καὶ ἡ μήτηρ, ἀκούω δὲ αὐτὴν νοῦν ἔχειν, καὶ τὸ μηδὲ ἐμοὶ τὴν βουλὴν ἀρέσκειν τὴν ἐκείνου λεγέσθω. ἴσως γὰρ νουθετούμενος λύσει δόγμα πονηρόν, ὅπερ μοι δοκεῖ πρὸς τὴν ἀπραγμοσύνην τὴν αὑτοῦ κεκυρωκέναι νῦν. ἅτε γὰρ ἐν ὄρεσι καὶ θήρᾳ τὰ πολλὰ διάγων μισεῖ τοὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπ ἀγορᾶς ἄθλων ἱδρῶτας. ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνος μὲν ταῦτα φευγέτω, σοὶ δὲ ἐπιτρεπέτω παλαίειν. νῦν γὰρ οὐ Μάξιμον οἶμαι πολι- τεύισθαι δεῖν τὸ τῶν ἀγρῶν φίλον, ἀλλ᾿ Ὑπερέχιον τὸν Μαξίμου τὸν θορύβους ἐπιστάμενον νιν. ἐγὼ μὶν ταῦτα παραινῶ καί φημι λυσιτελήσειν ὑμῖν· ληρεῖν δὲ εἰ δόξαιμι νῦν, ἀλλ’ ὕστερόν γε ἐπαινέσεσθε τὴν γνώμην, τὸν ἢν σύμβουλον κοσμήσει τὸν οὐκ ἐπαινοῦντα δὲ οὐκ ὀνήσει.