Letter 795: You were good to write, but I was unlucky not to receive the letters — and the scoundrels who mishandled the gift...

To Constantius. (363) You were good to write, but I was unlucky not to receive the letters — and the scoundrels who mishandled the gift betrayed us both. Still, it is no small comfort to know how many letters were written, even if they never reached my hands. You do nothing surprising in writing to the one whose company you enjoyed in person. Remember how your evenings grew more pleasant when I arrived, and you would extend our conversations into the middle of the night — conversations in which I admired your eloquence no less than your intelligence, faulting only one thing: that you had thrust a nature suited to Hermes into a soldier's life. Fine as those moments were, finer still was your concern when the question arose of how Hyperechius might escape the net. Greater still was this: finding me being carried unknowingly toward a most dangerous pit, you all but placed your hand on my chest to hold me back. The pit was this: the man who considered the gods to be nonsense also considered those in philosophers' cloaks to be charlatans. You saw that if he caught sight of me he would instantly turn hostile, and you feared some act of anger might follow. That you foresaw this, knowing the man as you did, is not surprising. But that you ordered me to leave and entrusted me with something confidential — this I remember always, and I count you as my savior, telling everyone how I was benefited, and not letting even the emperor go without hearing of this favor.

Κωνσταντίῳ. (363) Σὺ μὲν ἀγαθὸς ἐπιστείλας, ἐγὼ δὲ ἀτυχὴς οὐ λαβών, προδόται δὲ ἀμφοῖν οἱ κακοὶ περὶ τὸ δῶρον. ἀλλ’ ἔμοιγε οὐ μικρὸν εἰς εὐθυμίαν τὸ πλῆθος τῶν γενομένων γραμμάτων, εἰ καὶ μὴ μέχρι τῶν ἐμῶν προῆλθε χειρῶν πράττεις δὲ οὐδὲν καινόν, εἰ ᾧ παρὼν ἔχαιρες, τούτῳ γράφεις ἀπών. ἀναμιμνήσκου γάρ, ὅπως ἑσπέρας ἡδίων ἐγίγνου προσιόντος ἐμοῦ καὶ προῆγες τοὺς λόγους εἰς μέσας νύκτας, ἐν οἷς ἐθαύ- μαζον οὐχ ἧττον τῶν φρενῶν τὴν εὐγλωττίαν ἓν αἰτιώμενος μόνου, ὅτι δὴ φύσιν Ἑρμῇ προσήκουσαν ἐνεβίβασας εἰς στρα- τιώτου βίον. καλῶν δὲ ὄντων κοὶ τούτων καὶ ὧν ἐφρόν- τίσας, ἐν οἷ; προὔκειτο βουλή, πῶς ἂν 'Υπερέχιος τὸ δίκτυον, ἔτι μεῖζον ἦν τὸ φερόμενον ἀγνοίᾳ ἀγνοίᾳ πρὸς ὄρυγμα χαλεπώτατον μονονοὺ τὴν χεῖρα ἐρείσαντα πρὸς τὸ στῆθος ἀνασχεῖν. ἦν δὲ τὸ ὄρυγμα γόητας ἡγεῖτο τοὺς ἐν τοῖς τρίβωσιν ἐκεῖνος ὃς καὶ τοὺς θεοὺς ἡγεῖτο εἶναι φλήνα- φον. εἶδες οὖν ὡς, εἰ με ἴδοι, χαλεπὸς εὐθὺ; ἔσται, καἰ ἔδεισας μὴ γένηταί τι τῶν ἀπ’ ὀργῆς. καὶ τοῦτο μὶν οὐ θαυμαστόν, εἰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον εἰδὼς ταῦτα οὐκ ἠγνόησας· ἐκεῖνο δὲ τὸ κελεῦσαί με ἀπελθεῖν καὶ πιστεῦσαί τι τῶν ἀπορ- ῥήτων. ὃ διατελῶ μεμνημένος καὶ δι’ σωτῆρά σε γράφομαι τούς τε ἄλλους Λάσκων οἷα εὐεργέτημαι καὶ οὐδὲ τὸν βασι- λέα τῆς χάριτος ταύτης ἀφιεὶς ἀνήκοον.