Letter 322: I write on behalf of a family that has fallen into legal difficulties through no real fault of their own.

To Aristaenetus. (357) Thanks indeed to you for adding to the news that you had been ill the news that you have recovered; and thanks too to those who did not report to us, while you were sick; for without the relief of the trouble I would not have wished to know the unpleasant thing itself. I am able neither to disbelieve that this was the reason for the silence nor, on the other hand, altogether to believe it. For the one is brought about by the speaker; for how is it possible to disbelieve Aristaenetus? Yet again, to believe is prevented by a letter of Aristaenetus that came to Strategius, and was given to us by him while he laughed, alongside which you added a certain jest besides, to the effect that I, then, being third, was envious of the first. And it seems to me that both you and that man, on whose account you did not become first, but remain among the second, for it has not escaped me that you have not yet emerged from the second rank, play more than is fitting. For it is plain that the very thing which I flung out against him, that man revealed this to you. Formerly, then, I used to hear that you were about to hurry off there, and this was much talked of, that you are about to do so; but now I hear that staying pleases you. You seemed to me then, then -- for it shall be said -- to have sailed away from yourself, but now to have returned to yourself. For it is not a terrible thing that you alone should remain a private citizen amid so great a snowstorm of magistrates, but that, if you shall now hold office, in which there are so many, this is not to be endured. For you to come to a friend, even if this is not moderate toward another friend, to whom you did not come, has some appearance of propriety; but for you to become plainly, for the sake of office, one who has left Nicaea, is not the same. Behold, rivers flowing upward! I, for my part, give counsel; but the things by doing which you will be better off, you learn for yourself.

Ἀρισταινέτῳ. (357) Χάρις γε σοὶ προσθέντι τὸ ὅτι ὑγίανας τῷ ὅτι ἠρρώ- στησας καὶ τοῖς γε μὴ προσαγγείλασιν ἡμῖν, ἡνίκα ἠσθένεις, χάρις· ἄνευ γὰρ τῆς τοῦ κακοῦ λύσεως αὐτὸ τὸ δυσχερὲς οὐκ ἂν ἐβουλόμην εἰδέναι. ἔχω δὲ οὔτ' ἀπιστεῖν μὴ ταύτην εἶναι τῇ σιγῇ πρόφασιν οὔτ’ αὖ πάνυ πιστεύειν. τὸ μὲν γὰρ ὁ λέγων ποιεῖ· πῶς γὰρ ἔστιν ἀπιστεῖν Ἀρισταινέτῳ; πάλιν δὲ πιστεύειν Ἀρισταινέτου κωλύει γράμματα Στρατηγίῳ μὲν ἐλθόντα, δοθέντα δὲ ἡμῖν ὑπ’ ἐκείνου γελῶντος ἅμα οἷς δή τι καὶ σκῶμμα παρέγραψας, ὡς ἄρα τρίτος ἐγὼ φθονοίην τῷ πρώτῳ. καί μοι δοκεῖτε σύ τε κἀκεῖνος, δι’ ὃν πρῶτος μὲν οὐκ ἐγένου, μένεις δὲ ἐν δευτέροις, οὐ γάρ με ἔλαθες οὔπω τῶν δευτέρων ἐκβάς, πλείω τοῦ δέοντος παίζειν. δῆλον γὰρ ὡς ὅπερ ἐγὼ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἀπέρριψα, σοὶ τοῦτο ἐκεῖνος ἐμή- νυσε. πρότερον μὲν οὖν ἤκουόν σε μέλλειν ἐκεῖσε τρέχειν καὶ πολὺ τοῦτο ἦν, ὡς μέλλεις, νῦν δ’ ἀκούω σοι τὸ μένειν ἀρέσκειν. ἐδόκεις οὖν μοι τότε μέν, εἰρήσεται γάρ, ἐκπε- πλευκέναι σαυτοῦ, νῦν δὲ ἐπανήκειν εἰς σαυτόν. οὐ γὰρ ἐν τοσαύταις ἀρχόντων νιφάσι σὲ μόνον ἰδιωτεύειν δεινόν, ἀλλ’ εἰ νῦν ἄρξεις, ἐν ᾧ τοσοῦτοι, τοῦτο οὐκ ἀνεκτόν. ἐλθεῖν μὲν οὖν σε παρὰ φίλον, εἰ καὶ μὴ μέτριον τοῦτο ἄλλῳ φίλῳ, παρ’ ὃν οὐκ ἦλθες, ἔχει τι σχήματος, γενέσθαι δέ σε δῆλον ἀρχῆς εἵνεκα Νικαίαν ἐκλιπόντα οὐκ ἴσον. ἰδού ποταμῶν ἄνω. συμβουλεύω μὲν ἐγώ, σὺ δὲ ἃ πράττων ἀμείνων ἔση, μανθάνεις.