Letter 815: I was delighted by the letter, by what was in it, and by the fact that, seized by necessity, you resorted to the...

To Proclus. (363) I took pleasure both in your little letter and in what was written in it, and in how, seized by necessity, you came to the second-best voyage, the one by way of a letter. Aristophanes has done you no wrong, if to do wrong is a matter of intention; rather, he was saying what he had promised, while I was forcing him, knowing that for you, in his place, there will be Dorion or some other man -- which indeed has come to pass -- but for the young man, whom I wished to come to Ancyra, the one hope is Aristophanes and the standing of Aristophanes. If, then, you are accusing me, I am ready to suffer whatever you may command; but in blaming that man, take care lest you seem to be unforgiving, and that too when you are a Greek and the very crown of the Greeks.

Πρόκλῳ. (363) Ἥσθην καὶ τῷ γραμματείῳ καὶ τοῖς ἐγγεγραμμένοις καὶ ὡς ὑπ’ ἀνάγκης ἁρπασθεὶς ἐπὶ τὸν δεύτερον ἦλθες πλοῦν τὸν δι’ ἐπιστολῆς. Ἀριστοφάνης δέ σε ἠδίκηκεν οὐδέν, εἰ γνώμης ἐστὶ τὸ ἀδικεὶν· ἀλλ’ ὁ μὲν ἔλεγεν ἃ ἦν ὑπεσχημένος, ἐγὼ δὲ αὐτὸν ἐβιαζόμην εἰδὼς ὅτι σοὶ μὲν ἀντ’ ἐκείνου Δω- ρίων ἔσται ἤ τις ἕτερος — ὃ δὴ γέγονε —, τῷ νέῳ δέ, ὃν εἰς Ἄγκυραν ἐβουλόμην ἐλθεῖν, μία ἐστ’ ἐλπὶς Ἀριστοφάνης καὶ τὸ Ἀριστοφάνους σχῆμα. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐμοῦ κατηγορεῖς, ἕτοι- μος ὅ τι ἂν κελεύῃς παθεῖν· ἐκεῖνον δὲ αἰτιώμενος ὅρα μὴ δόξῃς ἀσυγγνώμων εἶναι καὶ ταῦτα Ἕλλην τε ὢν καὶ Ἑλλή- νων ὅτιπερ κεφάλαιον.