Letter 255: Your love has made you a slanderer -- you think nobody is anything compared to me.

To Eutherius. (358/59) Love has made you a false accuser, and you reckon all men as nothing except me. But it is equally absurd both to praise worthless men and not to admire the good. By not counting Acacius among the followers of Hermes [god of eloquence and learning], you grieve both me and, before me, the god. We will not, then, cast out whatever Philopatris has learned from that man, but we will try to build upon it, and he will receive lessons that are brothers to the earlier ones.

Εὐθηρίῳ. (358/59) Συκοφάντην σε τὸ ἐρᾶν πεποίηκε καὶ πάντας πλὴν ἐμοῦ νομίζεις οὐδέν. ἔστι δὲ ὁμοίως ἄτοπον καὶ φαύλους ἐπαινεῖν καὶ μὴ θαυμάζειν τοὺς ἀγαθούς. Ἀκάκιον δὲ μὴ νομίζων ἴνα τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἑρμῆν ἐμέ τε λυπεῖς καὶ πρὸ ἐμοῦ τὸν θεόν οὔκουν ἐκβαλοῦμεν ἅττα ἔχει μαθὼν παρ’ ἐκείνου Φιλόπα- τρις, ἀλλ’ ἐποικοδομεῖν πειρασόμεθα καὶ δέξεται λόγους τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἀδελφούς.