Letter 232: I have never prayed to hold power myself.

To Andronicus. (360?) For my own part, I have never yet prayed to come within the reach of your authority; but I joined in praying that you might hold magistracies and that the better counsel might prevail in them, while for myself I prayed to go on living, as I do now, in a private man's station. Now, however, it does not seem to me that I would find it unpleasant to take the governorship of the Phoenicians, for the sake of making Parthenius great in the eyes of all those to whom greatness comes; or rather, there is no need to look for a magistracy of yours that is no less mine than the man's who holds it. See to it, then, that for our sake you look upon him as kindly as possible, and that when he is absent you summon him, and when he appears you keep him with you, and make him more honored among the Phoenicians than before. For I would be ashamed if Parthenius should be thought to have done me good rather than to have received good. What good, then, has he done me? You long to hear. He has continued throughout to show me deference, when absent no less than when present, and though it was in his power to gratify the powerful at the cost of things grievous to me, he let go the hopes he might have had from those men, keeping faith with what was just toward me; and this although he saw a certain one of his own household traveling that road and winning good repute by it. But he rebuked that man, and by every means in his power he weakened the ambush, and indeed, coming here, he set upon what went before an end like to it, having purged the whole affair of all suspicion. At first, then, I was disheartened, being at a loss for a recompense; but afterward, considering that the man has in Phoenicia a wife and children and possessions, while the province is administered by Andronicus' judgment, I was glad, seeing that there was a way in which I might repay the man.

Ἀνδρονίκῳ. (360?) Ἐγὼ γενέσθαι ἐπὶ τῆς ὑμετέρας δυνάμεως οὐδεπώ- ποτε ηὐξάμην, ἀλλ’ ὑμῖν μὲν καὶ ἀρχὰς εἶναι καὶ τὸν κρείττω λόγον ἐν αὐταῖς συνηυξάμην, ἐμαυτῷ δὲ ᾗπερ νῦν βιοῦν ἐν ἰδιώτου χώρᾳ· νῦν δ’ οὐκ ἂν ἀηδῶς μοι δοκῶ τὴν Φοινίκων ἀρχὴν λαβεῖν τοῦ μέγαν ποιῆσαι Παρθένιον πᾶσιν ὅσοις μέ- γεθος γίγνεται, μᾶλλον δέ, οὐδὲν δεῖ ζητεῖν ἀρχὴν τῆς σῆς οὐχ ἧττον ἐμῆς ἢ τοῦ λαβόντος οὔσης. ὅπως οὖν ἡμῖν αὐτὸν ἴδῃς τε ὡς ἥδιστα καὶ ἀπόντα καλῇς καὶ φανέντα κατέχῃς καὶ ποιῇς ἐν Φοίνιξιν ἐντιμότερον ἢ πρίν. αἰσχυνοίμην γὰρ ἄν, εἰ δόξει μᾶλλον εὖ πεποιηκέναι με Παρθένιος ἢ πεπονθέναι. τί οὖν με εὖ πεποίηκεν, ἀκοῦσαι ποθεῖς. αἰδούμενος δια- τετέλεκεν ἀπὼν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ παρὼν καὶ παρὸν αὐτῷ χαρίσασθαι τοῖς δυνατοῖς ἐκ τῶν εἰς ἐμὲ λυπηρῶν τὰς παρ’ ἐκείνων ἐλπί- δας προήκατο τὰ πρὸς ἐμὲ δίκαια τηρῶν καὶ ταῦτα ὁρῶν τινα τῶν οἰκείων αὑτοῦ τὴν ὁδὸν ἐκείνην ἰόντα καὶ εὐδοκιμοῦντα. ὁ δὲ ἐκείνῳ τε ἐπετίμα καὶ δι’ ὅσων ἐξῆν ἀσθενεστέραν ἐποίει τὴν ἐνέδραν καὶ δὴ δεῦρ’ ἥκων ἐπέθηκε τὸ τέλος τοῖς ἔμπρο- σθεν ὅμοιον ἁπάσης καθήρας τὰ πράγματα ὑποψίας. εὐθὺς μὲν οὖν ἠθύμουν ἀπορῶν ἀμοιβῆς, ἔπειτα ἐνθυμηθεὶς ὡς τῷ μὲν ἐν Φοινίκῃ γυνὴ καὶ παῖδες καὶ κτήματα, τῇ δὲ Ἀν- δρονίκου γνώμῃ τὸ ἔθνος διοικεῖται, ἥσθην ἰδὼν ὡς ἔστιν ᾗ ἂν τὸν ἄνδρα ἀμειβοίμην.