Letter 773: I know what you call my reputation: not a thousand or ten thousand or twice that many people, but Acacius the orator...

To Athanasius. (362) I know what you call the reputation concerning me: not a thousand men, or ten thousand, or twice that many, but Acacius the rhetor, and the mouth of Acacius, far finer to me than twenty thousand mouths, yet not free of suspicion on account of his excessive friendship. Nevertheless, Gaius shall enjoy what we have, and with as much eagerness as is owed to the son of that man who made the reputation. For you are worthy of honor, and he too enjoins these things, calling your son his own, and recounting the rest as well: how he was beloved by you, and how his mother could scarcely be parted from him, accompanying him as far as the boundaries. These things, then, we shall ever remember, and you will say that no more could come to him from his father, even were he still alive, than from me through my art.

Ἀθανασίῳ. (362) Οἶδα ὃ καλεῖς τὴν περὶ ἐμοῦ φήμην· οὐκ ἀνθρώπους χιλίους ἢ μυρίους ἢ δὶς τοσούτους, ἀλλ’ Ἀκάκιον τὸν ῥήτορα καὶ τὸ Ἀκακίου στόμα πολλῷ μὲν ἐμοὶ κάλλιον δισμυρίων στομάτων, οὐκ ἔξω δὲ ὑποψίας διὰ τὴν ἄγαν φιλίαν. οὐ μὴν ἀλλ’ ὧν ἔχομεν ὁ Γάϊος ἀπολαύσεται καὶ τοσαύτης γε προθυμίας ὅσης ὁ παῖς ἐκείνου τοῦ τὴν φήμην πεποιηκότος. ὑμεῖς τε γὰρ ἄξιοι τιμῆς ἐκεῖνός τε ταῦτα κελεύει παῖδα μὲν αὑτοῦ τὸν ὑμέτερον καλῶν, διηγούμενος δὲ καὶ τἄλλα, ὡς εἴη τε ὑμῖν ἀγαπητὸς καὶ μόλις ἡ μήτηρ ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ διαλυθείη μέχρι τῶν ὅρων εἰλημμένη. ταῦτ᾿ οὖν ἀεί τε μεμνησό- μεθα καὶ φήσεις οὐκ ἂν αὐτῷ γίγνεσθαι παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς πλέον, εἴπερ ἐτύγχανε ζῶν ᾖπερ ἐγὼ τέχνῃ.