Letter 777: Second attempts are better, they say — or, if you prefer, luckier.

To Demetrius. (362) The second choice, they say, turned out the better, or, if you prefer, the more fortunate one; for the ship put in there, where it was being sent, and not at Paphos instead of to the maiden. We pass our days partly rejoicing, and partly not so, on account of the poverty of the marketplace. As for the speech meant for the public festival, it still hesitates, wishing indeed to remain hidden, but being dragged into the open by the emperor, and perhaps it will appear, for he must have his way. But the things I uttered over the fire and over what it did, together with tears, I have sent off to you. And you, being full of art and of the works composed by the men of old, will surely not condemn one who laments over such matters.

Δημητρίῳ. (362) Δευτέρων φασὶν ἀμεινόνων ἤ, εἰ βούλει γε, εὐτυχε- στέρων· ταύτῃ γὰρ κατῆρεν, οἷπερ ἐπέμπετο, καὶ οὐκ Πάφος ἀντὶ παρθένου. διάγομεν δὲ τὰ μὲν χαίροντες, τὰ δὲ οὐχ οὕτω διὰ τὴν τῆς ἀγορᾶς πενίαν. λόγος δὲ ὁ μὶν εἰς τὴν πανήγυριν ἔτι μέλλει κρύπτεσθαι μὲν ἐθέλων, ἑλκόμενος δὲ εἰς μέσον παρὰ τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ ἴσως φανεῖται, δεῖ γὰρ ἐκεῖνον κρατεῖν· ἃ δ’ ἐπὶ τῷ πυρὶ καὶ οἷς ἴδρασεν ἅμα δάλρυ- σιν ἐφθεγξάμην, ἀπέσταλκά σοι τέχνης δὲ γέμων καὶ τῶν τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις πεποιημένων οὐ δήπου καταγνώσῃ τοῦ τὰ τοιαῦτα θρηνοῦντος.