Letter 771: Everything about you is fine, beginning with your very appearance — or rather, beginning from your very soul.

To Maximus. (362) Everything about you is fine, beginning with your very appearance, or rather beginning with your very soul. At any rate, now that we are hearing about beauty, a beauty of letters takes hold of us far more brilliant than that which has often come from Armenia. The man who delivered it was the one whom you succeeded, a noble man handing over the cities to a noble man. And he delivered it in the palace, while a certain poet was gathering together those who would acclaim him. But I, having read it and admired it, and having gotten ahead of the poet, used the assembly for the letter, and there was no one who did not consent to listen in silence. Therefore, just as you have conquered with your later letters your earlier ones, the ones from afar conquering the ones from nearby, so let one term of office conquer another term of office; and make the Galatians more fortunate than the Armenians, and of the Galatians themselves make for me most fortunate the household of Maximus, honoring the virtue of his wife and the reasonableness of the husband, and their child, who before all of them is most dear to me. And I would have gone through the reasons, had I not instructed you when you were present; but as it was, it would have been proper to send the instruction to Acacius in writing and to make it long, for he did not know; whereas you went away having heard, and it is tiresome to tell what someone already knows. Now, toward that man a friendship which did not exist for me before came about because of my eagerness on this man's behalf, and now there is nothing that Acacius could command and not find me doing more than he asks, for I consider that I owe him a great deal; but you, O remarkable man, do what is worthy of the friendship that exists between us, and show Hyperechius to be great and brilliant and conspicuous, considering that you are raising me up to a height, if you exalt him.

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.