Letter 353: If you do not help those I recommend, that is not the Greek way.

To Maximus. (358) Whether you fail to help those for whom we make request, you act in a way that is not Hellenic; or, while helping those for whom we make request, you do not add to it the favor of a letter, in which case you give less pleasure to the one than you give pain to the other. And by your silence you show me that I, by not keeping silent, am a nuisance. Let what is now at hand be ventured nonetheless, since a friend bids it. He is, indeed, the chief of my friends. For Uranius shares with me the care concerning the flock; he shares my way of life, both its griefs and its delights, and my whole existence; and neither with him do his own children come before me, nor is anyone among my brothers dearer to me than he, so that I would not even consent to obtain any good thing if no part of it were to reach him. This man has kinsfolk among you, all of them decent and poor and in need of having the city learn that they have not been neglected by you; for this small thing is a great thing to the weak in their dealings with the well-off. On both counts, then, you must grant the favor, whether you saved those for whom I made request before or did not. For the one would be the act of a man keeping his own rule, while the other would be the act of a man undoing the charge against the later one [i.e., redeeming a prior refusal by granting this latest request].

Μαξίμῳ. (358) Εἴτε μὴ βοηθεῖς οἷς ἀξιοῦμεν, οὐχ Ἑλληνικὸν τοῦτο ποιεῖς, εἴθ’ οἷς ἀξιοῦμεν βοηθῶν μὴ προστίθης τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν γραμμάτων χάριν, οὐκ ἐκείνῳ μᾶλλον εὐφραίνεις ἢ τούτῳ λυπεῖς. καί μοι τῇ σιγῇ δεικνύεις ὡς ἐγὼ τῷ μὴ σιγᾶν ἐνο- χλῶ. τετολμήσθω δ’ οὖν καὶ τὸ παρόν, ἐπειδὴ κελεύει φί- λος. τὸ κεφάλαιον δή μοι τῶν φίλων. Οὐράνιος γὰρ κοινω- νεῖ μέν μοι τῆς περὶ τὴν ἀγέλην φροντίδος, κοινωνεῖ δὲ διαί- της καὶ λυπηρῶν καὶ τερπνῶν καὶ ὅλως τοῦ βίου, καὶ οὔτε παρ’ ἐκείνῳ πρὸ ἐμοῦ τὰ τέκνα τῶν τε ἀδελφῶν ἐμοὶ τιμιώ- τερον ἐκεῖνος, ὥστ’ οὐδ’ ἂν δεξαίμην ἀγαθοῦ του τυχεῖν, οὗ μὴ τὸ μέρος εἰς ἐκεῖνον ἀφίξεται. τούτῳ γένος ἐστὶ παρ’ ὑμῖν, πάντες ἐπιεικεῖς καὶ πένητες καὶ δεόμενοι γνῶναι τὴν πόλιν, ὡς οὐκ ἠμέληνται παρὰ σοί· τὸ γὰρ δὴ μικρὸν τοῦτο μέγα τοῖς ἀσθενέσι πρὸς τοὺς εὐπόρους. κατ’ ἄμφω δὴ δοῦναί σε δεῖ τὴν χάριν, εἴτ’ ἔσωσας οὓς ἔμπροσθεν ἠξίουν εἴτε μή. τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἂν εἴη τὸν αὑτοῦ νόμον τηροῦντος, τὸ δὲ λύοντος αἰτίαν τῷ τελευταίῳ.