Letter 457

To Philoxenus the Census-Keeper [kensophylax, the official charged with the tax registers]. Neither in times of good cheer must one rave like a Corybant [a frenzied attendant of Cybele] and be vainly puffed up, nor in gloomier circumstances collapse without reason and be drowned beneath grief. For this is the mark of an unmanly and soft soul. This corruptible life differs in no way from a stage-play. Accordingly, neither faring well in it, nor indeed the opposite, will prove to be secure.

Οὔτε ἐν ταῖς εὐθυμίαις κορυβαντιᾶν δεῖ καὶ φυσᾶσθαι ματαίως, οὔτ’ ἐν ταῖς σκυθρωποτέραις καταστάσεσι καταπίπτειν ἀλόγως καὶ καταποντίζεσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς λύπης. Ἀνάνδρου γὰρ ψυχῆς καὶ μαλακῆς τοῦτό γε. Οὐδὲν δὲ σκηνῆς ὁ φθειρόμενος οὗτος διενήνοχε βίος. Οὔτε γοῦν τὸ εὐπρακτεῖν κατ’ αὐτόν, οὔτε μὴν τοὐναντίον φανήσεται βέβαιον.