Letter 282: Save those long and elaborate defenses for those who want to bring charges.

To Palladius. (361?) Keep these long and numerous defenses for those who wish to accuse you. As for me, I am a witness to your every excellence, both that which lies in your character and all that pertains to your eloquence. So then, both to that very man who was trying to deceive I rehearsed more of what you yourself write—though not, indeed, finer things—and to the good man, who is my friend and yours, and this too your pupil, I straightway swore that none of these things was yours, but all the babble of the one who reported them; for so it is better to suppose than to suppose villainy. And thus Hilarius, although exceedingly grieved at the things that came from that man, took more pleasure in the fact that my judgment was not overcome by the slanders than he was downcast that the slanders had come to be. And seeing that he was bringing these matters too around to praise, my excellent friend, he said: "Not even Socrates, whom I hold to be a divine man and most far removed from the charges Meletus brought against him, would I think worthy to be praised. For neither, if I were not won over when someone attempted to persuade me that the sun is the cause of darkness, would I reasonably seem wiser than the Seven. So then this too is no great thing, that I was not persuaded that those things belonged to your soul which by no argument could be yours." Cease, then, from such letters, or I shall say that you are committing an outrage, supposing me to belong wholly to the one who utters slander.

Παλλαδίῳ. (361?) Τὰς μακρὰς ταύτας καὶ πολλὰς ἀπολογίας τήρει τοῖς βουλομένοις κατηγορεῖν. ἐγὼ δέ σοι μάρτυς ἁπάσης ἀρετῆς τῆς τε ἐν τοῖς ἤθεσι καὶ ὅση κατὰ τοὺς λόγους. πρός τε οὖν αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον τὸν πειρώμενον ἐξαπατᾶν ὧν αὐτὸς γρά- φεις πλείω διῆλθον, οὐ γὰρ δὴ καλλίω γε, καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἀγα- θὸν ἄνδρα, τὸν ἐμόν τε φίλον καὶ σόν, αὐτό τε τοῦτο καὶ μαθητήν, εὐθὺς ὤμνυον μηδὲν τούτων εἶναι σόν, ἀλλὰ πάντα τῆς τοῦ λέγοντος φλυαρίας· οὕτω γὰρ ἡγεῖσθαι βέλτιον ἢ πονηρίας. ὥσθ’ ὅ γε Ἱλάριος καίτοι λίαν ἀλγῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς παρ’ ἐκείνου μᾶλλον ἥδετο τῷ μὴ κρατηθῆναί μου τὴν γνώ- μην ὑπὸ τῶν διαβολῶν ἢ τῷ γενέσθαι τὰς διαβολὰς ἠθύμει. ὁρῶν δὲ αὐτὸν καὶ ταῦτα εἰς ἔπαινον ἄγοντα, ὦ βέλτιστε, ἴφη οὐδὲ Σωκράτην ἄνδρα θεῖον ἡγούμενος καὶ πλεῖστον ἀπέχειν ὧν ἐνεκάλει Μέλητος ἀξιώσαιμ ἂν ἐπαινεῖσθαι. οὐδὲ γάρ, εἴ μέ του πείθειν ἐπιχει- ροῦντος σκότους αἴτιον εἶναι ἥλιον μὴ ὑπηγό- μην, εἰκότως ἂν ἐδδόκουν τῶν ἑπτὰ σοφώτερος. 4 οὐ τοίνυν οὐδὲ τοῦτο πάμμεγα τὸ μὴ τῆς σῆς εἶναι πεισθῆναι ψυχῆς, ἃ μηδενὶ λόγῳ τῆς σῆς εἶναι ἠδύνατο. παῦσαι δὴ τῶν τοιούτων ἐπιστολῶν ἢ φήσω σε ὑβρίζειν οἰόμενόν με παντὸς εἶναι τοῦ βλασφημοῦντος.