Letter 844: Libanius tells Eusebius that a hostile accuser's failed attack has actually made Eusebius' victory more glorious.

I knew you would hate the man who directed all those questions at Romulus about me, and all but forced him with blows to utter some word against me, so that he might use it to injure me. He has also done other things contrary to the laws under another administration, some of which we saw and some of which we heard about. Let him be what he is. But since the affair has reached this outcome, you should regard the man who contrived to keep it from reaching such an outcome, and who wanted some credit for himself from that very fact, as your benefactor, even if he made himself look cowardly when he was not a coward. For victory without a fight and victory won through hardship are not the same. Since victory has its own ambition, the hardship too has something splendid in it. So it was with Achilles: Hector stood his ground and fought him. If Priam's son, as soon as he saw Peleus' son, had clasped his knees and died as a suppliant, Hector would not be what he is now. So too the man who wanted to drive you from place to place, but fell in the wrestling, has made you more glorious. You were owed this victory by the successes already achieved for you in the affair of Cimon. If a man who showed this character in a case not about money had failed to preserve the greater things, while saving someone from execution on a charge like this, surely he would have wronged you; for beside such a charge, death itself counted for little.

1. Ἤιδειν ὅτι μισήσεις τὸν τὰς πολλὰς ἐρωτήσεις ἐκεῖνον ἐπ’ ἐμὲ πεποιημένον καὶ μόνον οὐ πληγαῖς ἀναγκάσαντα ῥῆμα ἀφεῖναί τι κατ’ ἐμοῦ Ῥωμύλον, ἀφ’ ὅτου με ἔμελλε κακώσειν. πέπρακται δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ἄλλα τοῖς νόμοις ἐναντία καθ’ ἑτέραν ἀρχήν, ὧν τὰ μὲν ἑωρῶμεν, τὰ δὲ ἀκηκόαμεν. 2. ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνος μὲν ἔστω τοιοῦτος· δεῖ δὲ σὲ τοῦ πράγματος τοιαύτην τελευτὴν εἰληφότος τὸν ὅπως μὴ τοιαύτην λάβοι μεμηχανημένον βουλόμενον αὑτῷ κἀντεῦθεν γενέσθαι τι σαυτοῦ νομίζειν εὐεργέτην, εἰ καὶ δειλὸν αὑτὸν οὐκ ὢν δειλὸς ἐποίει. 3. οὐ γὰρ ἴσον οὐκ ἴσον, ἀμαχεί τε ἀνελέσθαι νίκην καὶ μετὰ πόνων. ἐχούσης γὰρ δὴ φιλοτιμίαν τῆς νίκης ἔχει τι λαμπρὸν καὶ ὁ πόνος, ἐπεὶ καὶ Ἀχιλλεῖ τὸ στῆναί τε τὸν Ἕκτορα καὶ μαχέσασθαι. εἰ δ’ εὐθὺς ἰδὼν τὸν τοῦ Πηλέως ὁ Πριάμου γονάτων τε τῶν ἐκείνου ἥπτετο καὶ ἱκετεύων ἀπέθνησκεν, οὐκ ἂν ἦν ὅσον γέ νῦν. 4. καὶ σὲ τοίνυν ἐνδοξότερον ἔθηκεν ὁ τόπου μὲν εἰς τόπον ἐκβαλεῖν ἐθελήσας, ἐν δὲ τῇ πάλῃ καταπεσών. σὺ δὲ ἀπητοῦ τήνδε τὴν νίκην ὑπὸ τῶν περὶ Κίμωνά σοι κατωρθωμένων. ὁ γὰρ οὐ περὶ χρημάτων ὁ λόγος τοιοῦτος φανεὶς πῶς οὐκ ἂν ἠδίκει καὶ τὰ μείζω μὴ διασῴζων ῥυόμενος σφαγῆς ἐπ’ αἰτίᾳ τοιαύτῃ, ἣ μικρόν τι πρὸς αὐτὴν ἐποίει τὸν θάνατον?