Letter 323: The reports that reach me of your administration are uniformly excellent.

To Iamblichus. (357) Do not let it seem to you a charge against us that, having received many letters from you, we did not write back as many in return. For you knew where you were sending letters, to us who sat fixed in one place, but for us it was not the same thing in the case of a man who was making use of the road, so that whoever wrote would have written to no purpose. But as for your coming to Athens and thereby lightening your grief: whether you did it having seen the case for yourself or persuaded by another, I commend it; for it is a great thing for the rest of one's life not to be ignorant of the city. And yet I am afraid that, having made trial of the eagles, you may come to look down upon the jackdaws. But all the same I do not care about my own affairs, if yours turn out for the better; for the things of friends are held in common. Now many men are called friends, but you are a clear one, obeying as you do the law of the Athenians in these matters, whose town you have now seen, but whose ways you have long since rightly known. For Thucydides says that those people acquire their friends by doing good, not by receiving it; and to you in equal measure this possession has belonged. If, then, you have an account [...] not to be disheartened [the preceding clause is garbled in the source] -- or rather, since you have it as your principle not to vex your friends, having accomplished the business for which you set out, come as quickly as possible. For we have long since worn ourselves out asking: where now is Iamblichus?

Ἰαμβλίχῳ. (357) Μή σοι φαινέσθω καθ’ ἡμῶν ἔγκλημα τὸ πολλὰ παρὰ σοῦ λαβόντας γράμματα μὴ τοσαῦτα ἀντεπιστεῖλαι. σὺ μὲν γὰρ ᾐόεις, οὗ καθημένοις ἐπέστελλες, ἡμῖν δὲ οὐκ ἦν ταὐτὸ πρὸς ἄνδρα ὁδῷ χρώμενον, ὥοθ᾿ ὁ γράφων τηνάλλως ἔγρα- φεν ἄν. τὸ δὲ ἐλθεῖν Ἀθήναζε καὶ ταύτῃ κουφίσαι τὴν λύπην. εἴτε αὐτὸς ἰδὼν εἴτε ἄλλῳ πεισθεὶς ἐποίησας, ἐπαινῶ· μέγα γὰρ εἰς τὸν λοιπὸν βίον τὸ μὴ τὴν πόλιν ἀγνοεῖν. καίτοι δέδοικα μὴ τῶν ἀετῶν πεῖραν λαβὼν ὑπερίδῃς τῶν κολοιῶν. ἀλλ’ ὅμως οὔ μοι μέλει τῶν ἐμῶν, εἰ τὰ σὰ γίγνοιτο βελ- τίω. κοινὰ γὰρ τὰ φίλων. φίλοι δὲ κέκληνται μὲν πολλοί, σα- φὴς δὲ σὺ τῷ Ἀθηναίων περὶ ταῦτα νόμῳ πειθόμενος, ὧν νῦν μὲν ἑώρακας τὸ ἄστυ, πάλαι δὲ καλῶς τοὺς τρόπους. ἐκείνους τε γὰρ ὁ Θουκυδίδης φησὶν εὖ ποιοῦντας, οὐ πάσχοντας κτᾶσθαι τοὺς φίλους σοί τε ἐκ τῶν ἴσων ὑπῆρξε τοῦτο τὸ κτῆμα. εἰ οὖν σοι λόγος <τοῦ> α μὴ τοὺς θεις ἀθυμεῖν, μᾶλλον δέ, ἐπειδή σοι λόγος τοῦ μὴ τοὺς φί- λους ἀνιᾶν, πράξας ἐφ’ οἷσπερ ἀπῆρας ἥκειν ὡς τάχιστα. πάλαι γὰρ ἀπειρήκαμεν ἐρωτῶντες· ποῦ νῦν Ἰάμβλιχος;