Letter 365: You have won a double victory — one in arms, the other in letters — and you have raised a trophy from the barbarians...

To Julian. (358) You have won a double victory, the one in arms, the other in words, and a trophy stands erected to you: the one taken from the barbarians, the other from me, your friend. This trophy is a pleasant one to the man who has been defeated. For to all fathers it is part of their prayer to be bested by their children; and you too, having received from me the paths to writing, have outstripped with what you received the one who gave it. Concerning the length of this letter, I must surely make my defense, the orator to the general, or rather to one who has learned to speak no less than to fight. Since the emperor has called you into a share of his rule, I thought I ought to take away something of my frankness and not to do what I did before toward a man become so great. For it would be a strange thing if, while shadow-boxing in the practice of our exercises we shall know how one ought to converse with Pericles and Cimon and Miltiades, yet in reality we shall overlook the rule. For this very thing which you say, that the letters of generals are brief because of their being busy with affairs, was persuading me too to compress my writing, knowing as I do that whoever, from lack of leisure, cannot send long letters would also be troubled if another wrote at length. Now therefore, since you summon me to length, I shall obey. And I congratulate you, first, that having arms in your hands you did not relax your zeal for words, but in battle act as one doing nothing else, while you live among books as one withdrawn from battle; and next, that you gave to the man who shared the rule with you no cause to repent that he shared it, but, considering the same man to be at once your cousin and your fellow-ruler and your master and your teacher, you ascribe to him the things you do, and to your enemies as they fall you say, "What would you have suffered, had the emperor himself appeared?" These things I praise, and that you did not change your mind together with your dress, nor cast out, under the influence of power, the memory of your friends. And may many good things come to you, because you have not shown me, who praise your nature, to be a liar; or rather, because you have shown me to be a liar, since I said nothing so great as what you have demonstrated. That at least was truly your own, and set in motion from no example. For while the others, together with kingship, [receive] a longing also for money, and of these desires some, even if they did not crave them before, begin to be in love, while others intensify the passion that already dwells within them, you alone, having been established in power, withdrew from your patrimony, giving to your acquaintances, to one a house, to another slaves, land to another, gold to yet another, and you were shown to be a private man rather than a wealthy king. And do not think that I am driving myself out from among your friends, because I am not one of those who received, even I. For I am able to say in return for what I alone do not receive. You would wish to the cities both the other things through which cities prosper, and also the strength of words, knowing that, should anyone extinguish these, we come to the same level as the barbarians. You were afraid, then, that if I got hold of prosperity I would flee my craft, and you thought it necessary to keep me in poverty, so that I too might keep my post. So much the better is it for me thus to be a prophet. For you could not say this, that Capaneus and Amphiaraus had barley-meal, while so-and-so was neither in account nor in number. But not to give is the mark of one who cares for the whole. Therefore in scarcity of money we are rich in words, this very phrase being yours, and the office which we hold we do not perhaps disgrace, just as neither do you the great one.

Ἰουλιανῷ. (358) Διπλῆν ἀνῄρησαι νίκην, τὴν μὲν ἐν ὅπλοις, τὴν δὲ ἔ λόγοις, καί σοι τρόπαιον ἕστηκε, τὸ μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν βαρβάρων, τὸ δ’ ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ τοῦ φίλου. τουτὶ δὲ τὸ τρόπαιον ἡδὺ τῷ κεκρατημένῳ. πᾶσι γὰρ δὴ πατράσιν εὐχῆς μέρος παίδων ἡτ- τᾶσθαι, καὶ σὺ παρ’ ἐμοῦ λαβὼν τὰς εἰς τὸ γράφειν ὁδοὺς οἷς ἔλαβες τὸν δόντα παρήνεγκας. περὶ δὲ τοῦ μέτρου τῆς ἐπιστολῆς δεῖ δήπου με ἀπολογήσασθαι τῷ στρατηγῷ τὸν ῥή- τορα, μᾶλλον δέ, τῷ λέγειν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ μάχεσθαι μαθόντι. ἐπειδή σε βασιλεὺς ἐκάλεσεν εἰς κοινωνίαν τῆς ἀρχῆς, ᾠή- θην δεῖν ἀφελεῖν τῆς παρρησίας καὶ μὴ ποιεῖν ἃ πρὸ τοῦ πρὸς ἄνδρα τοσοῦτον γεγενημένον. δεινὸν γάρ, εἰ σκιαμαχοῦν- τες μὲν ἐν ταῖς τῶν ἀγώνων μελέταις εἰσόμεθα, πῶς Περικλεῖ καὶ Κίμωνι καὶ Μιλτιάδῃ διαλεκτέον, ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς ἀληθείας παροψόμεθα τὸν νόμον. αὐτὸ γὰρ τοῦθ’ ὃ σὺ φῄς, ὡς αἱ τῶν στρατηγῶν ἐπιστολαὶ βραχεῖαι διὰ τὸ πράττειν, ἔπειθέ με καὶ αὐτὸν συστέλλειν τὰ γράμματα εἰδότα ὡς ὅστις ὐπ ἀσχολίας οὐκ ἔχει μακρὰ ἐπιστέλλειν, κἂν ὑπ’ ἄλλου μακρὰ γράφοντος ἐνοχληθείη. νῦν οὖν ἐπειδή με παρακαλεῖς εἰς μῆκος, ὑπακούσομαι. καί σοι συγχαίρω πρῶτον μέν, ὅτι τὰ ὅπλα ἔχων ἐν χεροῖν οὐκ ἐξέλυσας τὴν περὶ λόγους σπουδήν, ἀλλὰ μάχῃ μὲν ὡς οὐδὲν ἄλλο δρῶν, ζῇς δὲ ἐν βιβλίοις ὡς ἀφεστηκὼς μάχης· ἔπειθ’ ὅτι τῷ μεταδόντι τῆς ἀρχῆς οὐ παρέσχες μετάμελον, ὅτι μετέδωκεν, ἀλλ’ ἡγούμενος τὸν αὐτὸν ἀνεψιόν τε εἶναί σοι καὶ συνάρχοντα καὶ δεσπότην καὶ διδά- σκαλον οἷς τε πράττεις ἐκεῖνον ἐπιφημίζεις καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐν- αντίους πίπτοντας λέγεις· τί δ’ ἂν ἐπάσχετε βασιλέως φανέντος; ταῦτα ἐπαινῶ καὶ τὸ μὴ μετὰ τῆς ἐσθῆτος ἀμεῖψαι τὴν γνώμην μηδ’ ὑπὸ τῆς ἐξουσίας ἐκβαλεῖν τὴν μνήμην τῶν φίλων. καί σοι πολλὰ ἀγαθὰ γένοιτο, ὅτι με τὸν ἐπαινοῦντα τὴν σὴν φύσιν οὐ ψεύστην ἀπέφηνας, μᾶλ- λον δέ, ὅτι ψεύστην ἀπέφηνας οὐδὲν εἰπόντα τοσοῦτον ὀπό- σον ἔδειξας. ἐκεῖνό γε μὴν σὸν ἀτεχνῶς καὶ ἐξ οὐδενὸς παραδείγματος ὁρμηθέν. τῶν γὰρ ἄλλων ὁμοῦ τῇ βασιλείᾳ δε- παραδείγματος καὶ χρημάτων ἔρωτα καὶ τῶν μέν, εἰ καὶ μὴ πρότε- ρον ἐπεθύμουν, ἀρχομένων ἐρᾶν, τῶν δ’ ἐπιτεινόντων προ- ενοικοῦν τὸ πάθος σὺ μόνος ἐν δυναστείᾳ καταστὰς τῶν πα- τρῴων ἀπέστης τοῖς γνωρίμοις τῷ μὲν οἰκίαν διδούς, τῷ δὲ ἀνδράποδα, γῆν ἑτέρῳ, χρυσίον ἄλλῳ, καὶ διεδείχθης ἰδιώτης μᾶλλον ἢ βασιλεὺς εὔπορος. καὶ μή με οἴου τῶν φίλων ἐξελαύνειν ἐμαυτόν, ὅτι μὴ τῶν εἰληφότων εἷς καὶ αὐτός. ἔχω γὰρ εἰπεῖν, ἀνθ’ ὅτου μόνος οὐκ ἔχω. σὺ ταῖς πόλεσι τά τε ἄλλα βούλοι’ ἂν εἶναι, δι’ ὦν εὐδαιμονοῦσι πόλεις, καὶ δὴ καὶ λόγων ἰσχὺν εἰδὼς ὅτι, τούτους ἂν σβέσῃ τις, εἰς ἴσον ἐρχόμεθα τοῖς βαρβάροις. ἔδεισας οὖν μὴ λαβόμενος εὐπο- ρίας φύγω τὴν τέχνην, καὶ δεῖν ᾠήθης ἐν πενίᾳ με φυλάτ- τειν, ὅπως καὶ αὐτὸς φυλάττοιμι τὴν τάξιν. οὕτω μοι μαν- τεύεσθαι βέλτιον. οὐ γὰρ ἐκεῖνό γ’ ἂν εἴποις, ὡς ἄλφιτα μὲν Kαπανεύς τε καὶ Ἀμφιάραος, ὁ δεῖνα δὲ οὔτ᾿ ἐν λόγῳ οὔτ’ ἐν ἀριθμῷ. ἀλλ’ ἔστι τὸ μὴ δοῦναι κηδομένου τῶν ὅλων. τοιγαροῦν ἐν ἀπορίᾳ χρημάτων πλουτοῦμεν ῥημά- των, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ σόν, καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἣν ἄρχομεν ἴσως οὐ καταισχύνομεν, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ σὺ τὴν μεγάλην.