Letter 310: I was pleased to learn that your administration continues to win praise.

To Anatolius. (357) Since more letters were needed, more come to you; but should there be need of short ones, short ones will arrive for you. For I make the need the measure, not your desire. For surely this too will not be permitted to you, who are accustomed to hear pleasantly that everything is permitted to you. [... editorial apparatus: manuscript collation sigla ...] You, then, say that the length of my letter has been completed [worked off]; but for me it is the length of your defense that has been completed. For I happened to have foretold to our uncle that I would quickly stop you from accusing and show you making defenses. I was therefore very pleased to see you fighting on behalf of both the selling-off [of property] and the flight of the orators, not because you fought nobly, but because you fought quite poorly. For you say that your selling-off did him no harm, whereas those men [the orators] are unwilling to gain profit from toil, men who would even step into fire for the sake of gaining something. I consider even your situation to be poorer than my present one. I would not, then, choose yours in exchange; for the one is to live amid turmoil, but mine is to live amid words [literature]. And even if you accomplish something noble, it has need of my voice, if anyone of those who come after is also to know of it. As for affairs in Illyricum, you yourself having done them, you yourself praising them, you have become an Astydamas [a poet notorious for self-praise]. But, O most excellent Achilles, having slain Hector, leave it to Homer to recount something about the slaying.

Ἀνατολίῳ. (357) Ἐπειδὴ πλειόνων ἔδει γραμμάτων, ἥκει σοι πλείω· μι- κρῶν δὲ εἰ δεήσειεν, ἀφίξεταί σοι μικρά. μέτρον γὰρ ποιοῦμαι 9 Vi γ΄, γ΄ Va δ΄, γ΄. Vo δ΄, 7΄. Α[ι΄] 16 VI γ΄, δ΄. Va δ΄,δ΄, Vo δ΄, δ΄ S β΄, νζ΄ Vi ρκγ΄ R ι. Βenzel. ep. VIII τὴν χρε΄αν, ἀλλ’ οὐ τὴν σὴν ἐπιθυμίαν. οὐ γὰρ δὴ καὶ τοῦθ’ ὑμῖν ἐξέσται τοῖς ὅτι πάνθ’ ὑμῖν ἔξεστιν ἡδέως ἀκούουσι. σὺ μὲν οὖν ἠνύσθαι φης τὸ μῆκος τῆς ἐμῆς ἐπιστολῆς, ἐμοὶ δὲ ἤνυσται τὸ μῆκος τῆς σῆς ἀπολογίας. καὶ γὰρ ἔτυχον πρὸς τὸν θεῖον προειπὼν ὅτι σε ταχέως τοῦ κατηγορεῖν παύ- σας ἐν ἀπολογίαις δείξω. πάνυ οὖν ἥσθην ὁρῶν σε μαχό- μενον ὑπέρ τε τῆς πράσεως καὶ τῆς τῶν ῥητόρων φυγῆς, οὐχ ὅτι γενναίως, ἀλλ’ ὅτι πάνυ φαύλως ἐμάχου. φὴς γὰρ τῷ μὲν οὐδὲν γενέσθαι βλάβος τὴν σὴν πρᾶσιν, τοὺς δ’ οὐκ ἐθέ- λειν ἀπὸ τοῦ πονεῖν κερδαίνειν, οἱ κἂν εἰς πῦρ ἐμβαῖεν ἐπὶ τῷ τι κερδᾶναι. τοῦ παρόντος δέ μοι σχήματος καὶ τὸ σὸν ἡγοῦμαι φαυλότερον. οὔκουν ἀνθελοίμην ἄν· τὸ μὲν γάρ ἐστιν ἐν ταραχῇ ζῆν, τὸ δὲ ἐμὸν ἐν λόγοις. κἄν τι καλὸν ἐργάσῃ, τῆς ἐμῆς δεῖται φωνῆς, εἰ μέλλει τις αὐτὸ καὶ τῶν ὕστερον εἴσεσθαι. τὰ δ’ ἐν Ἰλλυριοῖς αὐτὸς μὲν πεποιηκώς, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐγκωμιάζων Ἀστυδάμας γέγονας. ἀλλ’, ὦ βέλτιστε Ἀχιλλεῦ, τὸν Ἕκτορα ἀποκτείνας ἄφες Ὁμήρῳ περὶ τοῦ φόνου τι διελ- θεῖν.