Letter 771

To Maximus. (362) Everything about you is fine, beginning with your very appearance — or rather, beginning from your very soul. For just now, as we were hearing reports of beauty, the beauty of your letter arrived, far more radiant than what has so often come from Armenia. The bearer was your predecessor, a noble man who handed over the provinces to a noble successor. He delivered it in the palace, where a certain poet was assembling an audience to applaud. But I, having read it and marveled, got ahead of the poet and made use of the gathering for your letter — and there was no one who could bear to listen in silence. As, then, your later letters have surpassed the earlier, and those from afar the ones from nearby, so let one office surpass the other. Make the Galatians more fortunate than the Armenians, and of the Galatians themselves, make the household of Maximus the most fortunate of all — honoring the wife's virtue, the husband's fairness, and their son, who is dearest to me above them all. I would have gone through the reasons, had I not already taught you them in person. With Acacius it was necessary to send written instruction at length, since he did not know. But you left having heard it all, and it is tedious to tell a man what he already knows. With him, a friendship that did not previously exist arose through his zeal for this young man, and now there is nothing Acacius could ask of me without finding me doing even more, for I consider myself deeply in his debt. But you, my dear fellow, act worthy of our friendship, and show Hyperechius to be great, brilliant, and admired — knowing that if you elevate him, you raise me.

Μαξίμῳ. (362) Πάντα σου καλὰ ἀπὸ τῆς μορφῆς αὐτῆς, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀπ αὐτῆς ἀρξάμενα τῆς ψυχῆς. νῦν γοῦν ἀκούοντας ἡμᾶς περὶ κάλλους κάλλος γραμμάτων καταλαμβάνει πολὺ λαμπρότερον τοῦ πολλάκις ἐλθόντος ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀρμενίας. ὁ μὲν οὖν κο- μίζων ἦν, ὃν διεδέξω, γενναῖος γενναίῳ παραδοὺς τὰς πό- λεις. ἔδωκε δὲ ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις ποιητοῦ τινος συνάγοντος τοὺς βοησομένους. ἐγὼ δὲ ἀναγνοὺς καὶ θαυμάσας φθάσας τὸν ποιητὴν ἐχρησάμην εἰς τὰ γράμματα τῷ συλλόγῳ καὶ ἦν οὐδεὶς ὃς ἤνη ἀκοῦσαι σιγῇ. ὥσπερ οὖν ἐπιστολαῖς δευτέραις προτέρας νενίκηκας, ταῖς πόρρωθεν τὰς ἐγγύθεν, οὕτως ἀρχὴν ἀρχὴ νικησάτω, καὶ ποίησον Ἀρμενίων Γαλάτας εὐδαιμονεστέρους, αὐτῶν δέ μοι Γαλατῶν εὐδαιμονεστάτην ποίει τὴν· οἰκίαν Μαξίμου γυναικός τε τιμῶν ἀρετὴν καὶ δρὸς ἐπιείκειαν παῖδά τε τὸν αὐτῶν πρὸ αὐτῶν πάντων ὄντα ἐμοὶ φίλτατον. καὶ διῆλθον ἂν τὰς αἰτίας, εἰ μὴ παρόντα διδάξας ἦν· νῦν δ’ Ἀκακίῳ μὲν ἴδει πέμπειν ἐν γράμμασι διδαχὴν καὶ μηκύνειν, ἠγνόει γάρ· σὺ δ’ ἀκηκοὼς ἐξῆλθες, καὶ λέγειν ὀχληρὸν εἰδότι. πρὸς μὲν οὖν ἐκεῖνον οὐκ οὖσά μοι πρότερον ἐγένετο φιλία διὰ τὴν εἰς τοῦτον προθυμίαν, καὶ νῦν οὐκ ἔστιν ὅ τι προστάξας Ἀκάκιος οὐ πλείω με ποι- οῦντα εὑρήσει, μεγάλα γὰρ ὀφείλειν ἡγοῦμαι· σὺ δ’, ὦ δαιμό- νιε, τῆς οὔσης ἡμὶν ἄξια πρᾶττε φιλίας καὶ μέγαν καὶ λομ- πρὸν καὶ ἀπόβλεπτον τὸν Ὑπερέχιον δείκνυ νομίζων ἐμὲ πρὸς ὕψος αἴρειν, ἢν ἐκεῖνον αὐξήσῃς.