Letter 449: You ask how my affairs stand but say nothing about the state of your own health -- as if I cared less about that...

To Phasganius. (355/56) You ask how matters stand with me, but as for your own body, how it fares, you give no report, as though our concern about that were not greater than yours about these affairs of mine. Listen, then. No alarming letter has come to me, and Spectatus indeed announces good news as well. But that raving fellow, who is also ruining the city of Megale, has, by employing the emperor's authority, transferred to others the allowance of food that I was drawing from the city, and he is now exacting gold from me, having written to the governor about it. At these things Strategius was so indignant that he never before raised such an outcry. And indeed these very things make the man well disposed toward us; for he thinks it fitting that one who is hated by that fellow should be treated well by himself. As for the affairs concerning the young men, in other respects they are as before, but Julius the elementary schoolmaster has perished from grief, and Eudaemon, having realized that not everything is yet easy for him, persuades Sebastianus to ask me to assign him some post of oversight. To Eubulus I made it plain that I would gladly see Acacius here, and he made a speech about this to the governor, adding that he would thereby be doing what is pleasing to me. But the governor did not pay much attention, not thinking it right to drag the man here against his will; and some of our acquaintances who have arrived from Palestine say that he will remain there, and they report a display of his that was not a fortunate one. But Herodianus, in coming to me, makes me master of his affairs and of the terms on which Uranius thinks fit to live. And there are many things that need your help, some of them mine, others ones we share in common.

Φασγανίῳ. (355/56) Ἐρωτᾷς, ὅπως ἔχει μοι τὰ πράγματα, τὸ σὸν δὲ ὅπως σοι σῶμα πέπραγεν, οὐ μηνύεις ὥσπερ οὐ πλείονος οὔσης ἡμῖν ὑπὲρ ἐκείνου φροντίδος ἢ σοὶ περὶ τούτων. ἄκουε δὴ οὖν γράμμα οὐδὲν ἥκει μοι φοβερόν, Σπεκτάτος δὲ καὶ χρηστὸν ἐπαγγέλλεται. ὁ δὲ μάργος ἐκεῖνος καὶ τὴν Μεγάλην φθείρων πόλιν ἥν τε ἐκαρπούμην ἐκ τῆς πόλεως τροφὴν εἰς ἑτέρους μετέθηκε γνώμῃ βασιλέως χρησάμενος καὶ χρυσὸν εἰσπράττει δή με πρὸς τὸν ἄρχοντα ἐπιστείλας ἐφ’ οἷς οὕτως ὴγανά- κτήσι Στρατήγιος, ὥστ’ οὐ πώποτε τηλικοῦτον ἀνεβόησε. καὶ δὴ καὶ ταῦτα ἡμῖν εὔνουν τὸν ἄνδρα ποιεῖ· τὸν γὰρ ὑπ’ ἐκεί- νου μισούμενον οἴεται προσήκειν εὖ πάσχειν ὑφ’ ἑαυτοῦ. τὰ δὲ περὶ τοὺς νέους τὰ μὲν ἄλλα ᾗ πρὸ τοῦ, Ἰούλιος δὲ ὁ γραμματιστὴς ὑπὸ λύπης οἴχεται, καὶ γνοὺς Εὐδαίμων ὡς οὔπω πάντα αὑτῷ ῥᾴδια, Σεβαστιανὸν πείθει δεηθῆναί μου νεῖμαί τι προνοίας αὑτῷ. τῷ δὲ Εὐβούλῳ δῆλός τε ἐγενό- μην ἡδέως ἂν ἰδὼν Ἀκάκιον ἐνθάδε καὶ ἐποιήσατο περὶ τού- του πρὸς τὸν ἄρχοντα λόγον προσθείς, ὡς ἄρα ἀρέσκοντά μοι ποιοῖ. ὁ δὲ οὐ μάλα προσέσχεν οὐκ οἰόμενος δεῖν ἄκοντα ἕλ- κειν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἐκ δὲ Παλαιστίνης ἀφιγμένοι τῶν γνω- ρίμων τινὲς λέγουσί τε ὡς αὐτοῦ μενεῖ καί τινα ἐπίδειξιν ἀπαγγέλλουσιν οὐκ εὐτυχῆ. ὁ δὲ Ἡρωδιανὸς προσιὼν ἐμέ τε αὑτοῦ ποιεῖται κύριον καὶ ἐφ’ οἷς Οὐράνιος ζῆν ἀξιοῖ. καὶ πολλὰ τὰ σοῦ χρῄζοντα, τὰ μὲν ἐμά, τὰ δὲ κοινά.