Letter 734: Back when we were enjoying that blessed life in Nicomedia -- rich not in wealth but in leisure for our studies --...

Back when we were enjoying that blessed life in Nicomedia -- rich not in wealth but in leisure for our studies -- Pompeianus the good, the just, the man who never found poverty shameful, was governing the Bithynians. He honored genuine eloquence and exposed the counterfeit kind. You surely remember how he demolished that fellow from Athens, the one dressed in fine clothes, by forcing him into a contest that would expose his weakness. From those days on, I have counted Pompeianus as a benefactor. There is nothing he could ask of me, however difficult, that I would not consider it wrong to refuse. And his present request is a very easy one: he asks me to write and beg you to look after two women, one named Philopatra and the other Hermogeneia. I did not ask what kind of help they need -- so that I could decide whether or not to write based on the nature of the case. I simply persuaded myself of one thing: Pompeianus would not have championed women in a legal matter unless the cause was just. So I am giving him this letter straightaway. Gladden that man with what you do -- the man who so often presided over my contests.

Κέλσῳ. (362) Ὅτ᾿ ἐν Νικομηδείᾳ τῆς εὐδαιμονίας ἐκείνης ἀπηλαύομεν οὐ πλουτοῦντες μᾶλλον ἑτέρων, ἀλλὰ σχολὴν ἄγοντες εἰς λόγους, Βιθυνῶν ἦρχε Πομπηιανὸς ὁ χρηστός, ὁ δίκαιος, ὁ πενίαν οὐδαμοῦ δυσχεράνας. ὁ λόγους τοὺς μὲν γνησίους τιμῶν, τοὺς δ’ οὐ τοιούτους ἐλέγχων· πάντως δὲ οὐκ ἀμνημονεῖς ὡς τὸν Ἀθήνηθεν, τὸν ἐσθήμασι λαμπρὸν ἐκωμῴδησεν ἄκοντα ἐμ- βαλών, οὗ δείξειν τὴν ἀσθένειαν ἔμελλεν. ἀπὸ δὴ τῶν χρόνων ἐκείνων εὐεργέτην τε τὸν ἄνδρα ἐγραψάμην καὶ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἐπιτάξει χαλεπόν, ὃ μὴ ποιῶν οὐκ ἂν ἡγοίμην ἀδικεῖν. τὸ δὲ δὴ νῦν καὶ μάλα ῥᾷστον· κελεύει γάρ με δι’ ἐπιστολῆς δεηθῆναί σου γυναικῶν τινων ἐπιμεληθῆναι δύο, Φιλοπάτρα ὄνομα θατέρᾳ, τῇ δὲ ‘Eρμογἐνεια. ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἠρόμην, ἐφ’ ὁποῖα δὴ χρῄζουσι τῆς βοηθείας, ὅπως πρὸς τὴν φύσιν τῶν πραγμάτων ἢ γράψω ἢ μή, ἀλλ’ ‘ὲν ἐκεῖνο πεπεικὼς ἐμαυτόν, ὡς οὐκ ἂν Πομπηιανὸς γυναιξὶν ἐπὶ νόμους ἤμυνε, δίδωμι τὴν ἐπιστολὴν εὐθέως. σὺ δ’ οἷς ποιεῖς εὔφραινε τὸν ἄνδρα ἐκεῖνον, ὅς μοι πολλάκις ἠγωνοθέτησεν