Letter 830: If Midas were alive today and ruled the Phrygians and possessed all the gold the legend claims — do you think I...

To Alexander. (363) If Midas were alive now and were ruling the Phrygians, and if this Midas had as much gold as the legend claims, do you suppose I would choose him rather than the honors I receive from you, which are so numerous, and which are not so much greater as more frequent, and which bring more pleasure to the one bestowing the honor than to the one honored? For you know that I have often hesitated to declare my gratitude, reflecting on how many favors I might receive; but you, finding in my face the feeling of my soul, rebuked me, in case I should suppose that you would ever grow weary of doing me a kindness. And the report of these things has already flowed out to the farthest ends of the inhabited world, and everyone sings that neither has a son ever been so eager toward a father nor a father toward a son. As for all the fears and dangers from which you delivered my fellow citizens through me, showing that, if they should require you through anyone else, they are talking nonsense, and how you brought our council to such a point that it adorns both me and you with the same words of praise, it would be a long thing to tell, as they say of the Arabian flute-player. But knowing that nothing would make a sophist so illustrious as if he were surrounded by many students, there is nothing you do not set in motion, by means of which you think you will strip bare those who sit elsewhere, and draw here those who are scattered throughout all Syria. Well then, I will easily suggest to you how this might come about: leave the many to their crowds, and neither blame the sophists nor accuse the fathers; but these young men whom you have just enrolled among the advocates, seek out and summon and display as they speak. For it is a great thing for such men when the judge says, “And where is so-and-so?”, and these little phrases make a multitude of those who flock to the man who has been deemed worthy of these things. And the man whose pupils seem able to give aid—all run to him in their craving for power. And we hear that many magistrates, and many of those who are not renowned, win for themselves a name by setting it in renown. And now, while pointing out the good orators, they say at the same time: “This one is Rufinus’s, this one Himerius’s, that one another’s.” For if a man who knows how to speak should lack a starting-point for his words, how will it be apparent that he knows how to speak? Starting-points come to the older men from time, but to those who have just tasted the bema [speaker's platform] from you. Travel this road, O most exalted of all men, and you will see, around your own Orpheus, more men than you desire.

Ἀλεξάνδρῳ. (363) Εἰ δὲ Μίδας ἦν νῦν καὶ ἦρχε Φρύγων καὶ ἦν τῷ Μίη τούτῳ χρυσὸς ὅσον φησὶν ὁ μῦθος, ἆρ᾿ ἄν με δοκεῖς ἐκεῖνον ἑλέσθαι μᾶλλον ἡ τὰς παρὰ σοῦ τιμὰς οὕτω μὲν οὔσας πολλάς, οὕτω δὲ μείζους ἢ πλείους, ἡδονὴν δὲ τῷ τιμῶντι μᾶλλον ἡ τῷ τιμωμένῳ φερούσας; οἶσθα γὰρ ὡς ἐγὼ μὲν πολλάκις ὤκνησα ἐπαγγεῖλαι χάριν ἐνθυμούμενος, ὁπόσας λάβοιμι σὺ δὲ τῷ προσώπῳ μου τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς πάθος εὑρὼν ἐπετίμησας, εἰ σε ἡγοίμην ἀπερεῖν ποτε χαριζόμενον ἐμοί. καὶ τούτων ὁ λόγος ἤδη πρὸς τὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἔσχατα ἐρρύηκε, καὶ πάντες ᾄδουσιν ὡς οὔτ᾿ ἂν εἰς πατέρα παῖς οὔτ᾿ ἂν εἰς παῖδα πατὴρ οὕτως ἐγένετο πρόθυμος. φόβους μὲν δὴ καὶ κιν- δύνους ὁπόσους δι’ ἐμοῦ τοῖς ἐμοῖς πολίταις ἔλυσας ἐνδειξά- μενος ὡς, εἰ δι’ ἄλλου του δεήσονταί σου, ληροῦσι, καἰ ὡς εὶς τοῦτο τὴν βουλὴν ἡμῖν κατέστησας ὥστε ταῖς αὐταῖς εὐφημί- αις ἐμέ τε καὶ σὲ κοσμεῖν, μακρὸν ἂν εἴη λέγειν καὶ αὐλητοῦ φασιν Ἀραβίου. ἀλλ’ εἰδὼς ὅτι καὶ σοφιστὴν οὐδὲν ἂν οὕτω λαμπρύνειεν ὡς εὶ πολλοῖς περιρρέοιτο φοιτηταῖς, οὐδὲν ὅ τι οὐ κινεῖς, δι’ οὖ νομίζεις γυμνώσειν μὲν τοὺς ἑτέρωθι καθημένους, δεῦρο δὲ ἄξειν τοὺς ἐν Συρίᾳ πάση διεσπαρμέ- νους. ἐγὼ δή σοι πῶς ἂν τοῦτο γένοιτο, ῥᾳδίως ὑποθή- σομαι· τοὺς μὲν πολλοὺς ἴα κύκλους καὶ μήτε σοφιστὰς ψέγε μήτε πατέρων κατηγόρει, τοὺς νεανίσκους δὲ τούτους, οὓς ἄρτι τοῖς συνηγόροις ἐνέγραψας, ζήτει καὶ κάλει καὶ δείκνυε λέ- γοντας. μέγα γὰρ τοῖς τοιούτοις τὸ ποῦ δὲ ὁ δεῖνα; τὸν δικαστὴν εἰπεῖν, καὶ τὰ μικρὰ ταῦτα ῥήατα πλῆθος ποιεῖ τῶν καταφευγόντων ἐπὶ τὸν τούτων ὴξιωμένον. ὄτου δὲ οἱ μαθηταὶ δοκοῦσι δύνασθαι βοηθεῖν, πάντες παρὰ τοῦτον θέ- οὖσι τῇ τῆς δυνάμεως ἐπιθυμίᾳ ἀκούομεν δὲ πολλοὺς ἄρ- χοντας πολλοὺς τῶν οὐ· ἐνδόξωι ἐν δόξῃ καταστῇσαι σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ὄνομα κτωμένους. καὶ νῦν τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ῥήτορας δει- κνύντες ἅμα λέγουσι· τοῦτον Ῥουφῖνος, τοῦτον Ἱμέριος, ἐκεῖνον ἄλλος ἂν γὰρ ὁ λέγειν ἐπιστάμενος ἀφορμῆς ἀπορῇ λόγων. πῶς ὅτι λέγειν ἐπίσταται φανεῖται; ἀφορμαὶ ἀφορμαὶ τοῖς μὶν πρεσβυτέροις παρὰ τοῦ χρόνου, τοῖς δ’ ἄρτι γεγευμέ- νοῖς βήματος παρ’ ὑμῶν. ταύτην ἐλθὲ τὴν ὁδόν, ὦ πάν- τῶν ὑψηλότατε καὶ πλείους ὧν ἐπιθυμεῖς ὄφει περὶ τὸ σὸν Ὀρφέα.