Letter 345: How pleasant your company is — your deeds, performed with justice, there for all to see, and Julianus narrating his...

To Clematius. (358?) How very delightful was our being together with you, while your own deeds, which you carry out together with justice, were being observed, and while Julian gave an account of his own affairs, which likewise were all performed together with justice. And you both seem to me, you to resemble a wrestler hastening through toils toward the crown, while he has long been wearing the crown. And indeed I am afraid that this man, abandoning Egypt, to which he is being sent to labor not for gain, may sit beside you and converse, fleeing public business but rejoicing in friends more than others rejoice in public business. But do you rouse him and exhort him. For I trust that this care concerning the ships will reveal the man to us as a pilot of nations.

Κληματίῳ. (358?) Ὡς ἡδίστη γε ὑμῶν ἡ συνουσία τῶν μὲν σῶν ἔργων, ἃ μετὰ τοῦ δικαίου πράττεις, ὁρωμένων, Ἰουλιανοῦ δὲ τῶν αὑ- τοῦ διήγησιν ἔχοντος, ἃ καὶ αὐτὰ σὺν τῷ δικαίῳ πάντα ἐπράττετο. καί μοι δοκεῖτε, σὺ μὲν ἐοικέναι παλαιστῇ διὰ πό- νων ἐπειγομένῳ πρὸς στέφανον, ὁ δὲ ἐν στεφάνῳ πάλαι. καὶ δέδοικα δὴ μὴ τὴν Αἴγυπτον οὗτος ἀφείς, εἰς ἣν πέμ- πεται μοχθήσων οὐκ ἐπὶ κέρδει, σοί γε παρακαθήμενος διαλέ- γηται πράγματα μὲν φεύγων, φίλοις δὲ χαίρων πλέον ἢ πράγ- μασιν ἕτεροι. ἀλλὰ σὺ κίνει τε καὶ παρακάλει. πιστεύω γὰρ τὴν περὶ τὰ πλοῖα ταύτην φροντίδα δείξειν ἡμῖν τὸν ἄνδρα κυβερνήτην ἐθνῶν.