Letter 206: I know you are overwhelmed with business -- the kind that admits no postponement and offers no rest.

To Euphemius (358) What ought one to make of this? Is it unreason, or misfortune, or the solution of a riddle? That well-known Antoninus, who according to those who say he is well off had given up his patrimony, or rather had given up nothing at all of his (for there was nothing), has once again been compelled to transport grain. And you brought yourself to write these things, without considering that you are fighting against your own people? For this reason the one man goes into exile, deprived of the sight of his mother, since this was the only thing he had the more by being at home, seeing that in all other respects his fatherland is no better than a foreign land; while we go about searching for an Oedipus, someone who will rid us of our distress. But in fact the present circumstances need no Oedipus, nor indeed any Teiresias. No, we have erred, we have erred in not entreating him who turns such matters about, who released the one and bound the other. For his power is the greatest. But since I was blinded [as Agamemnon says in Homer], I supplicate the man through you. And yet this is a greater thing than when Ajax of old set out for the reconciliation. But let him yield and not be contentious. In any case, even if he does not render this service to his own friends, he will gratify them in many another way from many quarters; for the means are at hand.

Εὐφημίῳ (358) Τί τοῦτο νομίσαι χρή; πότερον ἀλογίαν ἢ δυστυχίαν ἢ πέρας αἰνίγματος; Ἀντωνῖνος ἐκεῖνος ὁ τῶν πατρῴων τοῖς ὡς εὐπορεῖ λέγουσιν ἀποστάς, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦ μηδενὸς αὐτοῖς ἀπο- στάς, οὐ γὰρ ἦν οὐδέν, αὖθις ἠνάγκασται σιτηγεῖν. καὶ σὺ ταῦτα γράψαι ὑπέμεινας οὐκ ἐνθυμηθεὶς ὅτι τοῖς σαυτοῦ μάχῃ; τοιγαροῦν ὁ μὲν φεύγει τοῦ τὴν μητέρα ὁρᾶν ἐστε- ρημένος, τουτὶ γὰρ ἦν αὐτῷ πλέον οἴκοι μόνον, ὡς τά γε ἄλλα οὐδὲν ἀμείνων ἡ πατρὶς τῆς ἀλλοτρίας, Οἰδίπουν δὲ περιιόν τες ζητοῦμεν, ὅστις ἡμᾶς τῆς ἀπορίας ἀπαλλάξει. ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐδὲν Οἰδίπου δεῖ τοῖς παροῦσιν οὐδέ γε Τειρεσίου. ἀλλ’ ἡμάρ- τομεν ἡμεῖς, ἡμάρτομεν οὐ δεηθέντες τοῦ τὰ τοιαῦτα στρέφον- τος, ὃς τὸν μὲν ἔλυσε, τὸν δὲ ἐνέδησε. τοῦ γὰρ κράτος ἐστὶ μέγιστον. ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεὶ ἀασάμην, ἄνθρωπον ἱκε- τεύω διὰ σοῦ. καίτοι τοῦτο μεῖζον ἢ ὁ τότε πορευόμενος Αἴας ἐπὶ τὰς διαλλαγάς. ἀλλ’ εἰξάτω καὶ μὴ φιλονεικείτω. πάν- τως, κἂν μὴ τοῦτο τοῖς αὑτοῦ φίλοις ὑπουργήσῃ, πολλαχόθεν ἄλλοθεν χαριεῖται· πάρεστι γάρ.