Letter 314: I shared your grief at losing your wife, but I also shared your pride in bearing the misfortune nobly.

To Sebastianus. (357) We grieved together with you when you lost your wife, but we rejoiced together with you for bearing the misfortune nobly; for the one was an assault of Fortune, while the other displays virtue. You will also have in this man Rhetorius no slight consolation, a man who has come to you by way of many orators, and of no fewer poets, and who is good both at this and at that. Now my letter makes you dear to him, as does the fact that the man has been a companion of those of your household; but two very great things make me well-disposed toward him. For being my pupil, he is the son of my own teacher, and you are surely not ignorant of Didymus, unless you are also ignorant of the Great City, in which that man imparted his own learning, flowing night and day. But see to it that this man may gain control of the possessions for which he has come. For these are small things, but a consolation to a poor man, and Rhetorius is one of those who are not well off. And you have power in Egypt, through which the others have made money, but you have made a good reputation by your alliance with what is just.

Σεβαστιανῷ. (357) Συνηχθέσθην μέν σοι τὴν γυναῖκα ἀποβαλόντι, συνή- σθην δὲ τὴν συμφορὰν γενναίως ἐνεγκόντι· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἐπή- ρειαν Τύχης, τὸ δὲ δείκνυσιν ἀρετήν. ἕξεις δὲ καὶ τουτονὶ Ῥητόριον οὐ φαύλην παραψυχὴν διὰ πολλῶν μὲν ῥητόρων, οὐκ ἐλαττόνων δὲ ποιητῶν ἀφιγμένον καὶ ὄντα ἀγαθὸν καὶ τοῦτο κἀκεῖνο. σὲ μὲν οὖν αὐτῷ φίλον ποιεῖ τά τε ἐμὰ γράμματα καὶ τὸ τοῖς σοῖς οἰκείοις συμπεφοιτηκέναι τὸν ἄν- δρᾶ, τούτῳ δὲ εὔνουν ἐμὲ δύο τὰ μέγιστα ποιεῖ. μαθητὴς γὰρ ὢν ἐμὸς διδασκάλου μοι παῖς ἐστι, πάντως δὲ τὸν Δίδυμον οὐκ ἀγνοεῖς, εἰ μὴ καὶ τὴν Μεγάλην ἀγνοεῖς πόλιν, ἐν ᾗ τῆς αὑτοῦ παιδείας ἐκεῖνος μετεδίδου νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν ῥέων ἀλλ’ ὅπως οὗτος ἐγκρατὴς γένοιτο τῶν κτημάτων, ἐφ ἅπερ ἥκει. μικρὰ μὲν γὰρ ταῦτα, πένητι δὲ παραμυθία, Ῥη- τόριος δὲ τῶν οὐκ εὐπόρων. ἔστι δέ σοι δύναμις ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, δι’ ἧς οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι χρήματα εἰργάσαντο, σὺ δὲ δόξαν ἀγα- θὴν τῇ πρὸς τὸ δίκαιον συμμαχίᾳ.