To Acacius, friend. (362)
But what did you expect me to do, by Athena herself, when Titianus was being sent elsewhere and your vote -- the vote that had spurred our progress -- seemed to be shifting, or at least appeared to be?
Was I supposed to cheer, put on a garland, and light thank-offerings to the gods, as I did when the young man first came to me?
You would have been right to despair then, and to file a charge of insolence on the grounds that your support counted for little in my eyes. But now you may rightly rejoice at my relief. I was grieving, and while I let slip no bitter word, the thought that others would reap the glory of what the Phocians had labored for [a proverb: Philip of Macedon took credit for the Phocians' work] kept me from being at ease.
Then Celsus's letter was the first to break the gloom, reporting that the decree had been reversed, and I breathed easier. After that someone else brought the same news, then a third, then a flood of them -- for great good news always has many messengers.
And the admirable Rufinus put the crown on it: he said the young man had honored the governor with a speech. That was the same as honoring me -- the one through his deeds, the other through his words. For both are my pupils.
But what did you expect me to do, by Athena herself, when Titianus was being sent elsewhere and your vote -- the vote that had spurred our progress -- seemed to be shifting, or at least appeared to be?
Was I supposed to cheer, put on a garland, and light thank-offerings to the gods, as I did when the young man first came to me?
You would have been right to despair then, and to file a charge of insolence on the grounds that your support counted for little in my eyes. But now you may rightly rejoice at my relief. I was grieving, and while I let slip no bitter word, the thought that others would reap the glory of what the Phocians had labored for [a proverb: Philip of Macedon took credit for the Phocians' work] kept me from being at ease.
Then Celsus's letter was the first to break the gloom, reporting that the decree had been reversed, and I breathed easier. After that someone else brought the same news, then a third, then a flood of them -- for great good news always has many messengers.
And the admirable Rufinus put the crown on it: he said the young man had honored the governor with a speech. That was the same as honoring me -- the one through his deeds, the other through his words. For both are my pupils.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.