Letter 351

To Menander the Domesticus [a household official]. I do not wish, you say, to abandon the paganism of my fathers, for I consider this to be a thing of reproach. Tell me then, my excellent friend, if your father happened to be some chief of brigands, or a drunkard, or a fornicator, or a usurer, or a man of insolence, or a robber of tombs, would you not be willing, [using] sound reasoning, to become better than the depravity of an unjust and unholy father?

Οὐ βούλομαι, λέγεις, ἐστῆναι τοῦ πατρώου Ἑλληνισμοῦ· ἐπονείδιστον γὰρ τοῦτό γε οἶμαι. Τί οὖν εἰπέ μοι, θαυμάσιε, εἰ ὁ πατήρ σου λῃσταρχός τις, ἢ μεθυστής, ἢ πόρνος, ἢ τοκογλύφος, ἢ θρασὺς ἢ τυμβωρύχος ἐτύγχανεν, οὐ θέλεις σώφρονι λογισμῷ; σάμενος, κρείττων γενέσθαι τῆς τοῦ ἀδίκου, καὶ ἀνοσίου πατρὸς καχοφροσύνης;