Letter 761: Quite a few young men have come from you to us, yet not a single letter from you.

To Aetius. (362) Quite a few young men have come from you to us, yet not a single letter from you. Shall we say you are sparing your paper, or your ink? Surely you are not short of words for a letter — you who flow in the courts beyond all fountains. Perhaps it is that, having revealed the wealth you used to hide by giving your daughter in marriage, you have grown too grand for us. But I would have expected you to be modest now: before, you were rich yourself; now, you are merely a rich man's father-in-law. And that means someone else holds what was yours. So now you have all the more reason to remember your friends and do what a man who remembers them does — so that you may have allies against your son-in-law, should he behave as most sons-in-law do: holding the property, eyeing still more, and picking fights.

Ἀετίῳ. (362) Νέοι μὲν οὐκ ὀλίγοι παρ’ ὑμῶν ὡς ἡμᾶς, γράμμα δὲ οὐδὲν παρὰ σοῦ. πότερον δή σε χάρτου φείδεσθαι φῶμεν ἢ μέλανος; οὐ γὰρ δὴ λόγων γε τῶν πρὸς ἐπιστολὴν ἀπορεῖς, ὅς γε ῥεῖς ἐν δικαστηρίοις ὑπὲρ τὰς κρήνας. ἴσως ὅτι τὸν πλοῦτον, ὃν ἔκρυπτες, ἐκδιδοὺς τὸ θυγάτριον ἔδειξας σεμνὸς ἡμῖν γέγονας. ἐγὼ δέ σε ἠξίουν νῦν μέτριον εἶναι, τότε μὶν γὰρ αὐτὸς πλούσιος ἦσθα, νῦν γε κηδεστὴς πλουσίου. τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἕτερον ἔχειν τὰ σά. μᾶλλον οὖν σε νῦν εἰκὸς καὶ μεμνῆσθαι τῶν φίλων καὶ τὰ τοῦ μεμνημένου ποιεῖν, ὅπως καὶ συμμάχους ἰπὶ τὸν κηδεστὴν ἔχῃς, ἢν ποιῇ τὰ τῶν πολλῶν κηδεστῶν, οἱ τὰ μὶν ἔχοντες, εἰς δὲ τὰ βλέποντες μάχονται.