Letter 463: The friendship I have formed with your son is the most pleasant thing in the world to me — for besides being a...

To Marcianus. (355/56) The friendship that has arisen between me and your son is to me the sweetest of all things; for besides his being formidable at speaking he is also a good man, and the fact that your letters about these matters have come is no less a mark of my friendship toward him—for they were fine letters about a fine matter, [...] and they arrived from a tongue that is forever in motion and has accomplished more than all others, yet finer things than many. But do not be surprised that you wrote long ago, while now it is I who write. For it was fitting that you should be confident and that we should hesitate. And the very man who carries the letters is far better than the letters—Sabinus, mad for discourse, the treasury of eloquence. And there comes to you also the whole chorus of the Muses, all of them at the peak; among whom I know that you, casting off your sickness, will leap the leaps of Pan when you behold what you long ago yearned for—now in Phoenicia the office of general in this present guise. And Priscianus will stand beside you, both helping and rejoicing with you as a father. And you too will see that he prevails in whatever he says. Surely the festal assembly is fitting for Berytus [Beirut].

Μαρκιανῷ. (355/56) Ἥ τε πρὸς τὸν υἱόν σου γενομένη μοι φιλία πάντων ἥδιστον ἐμοί, πρὸς γὰρ τῷ δεινὸς εἶναι λέγειν καὶ χρηστὸς ἀνήρ, τό τε σὰ περὶ τούτων ἐλθεῖν γράμματα τῆς πρὸς ἐκεῖ- νόν μου φιλίας οὐχ ἧττον καλὰ γὰρ ὑπὲρ καλοῦ πράγματος ἀφῖκτο καὶ παρὰ γλώττης ἀεὶ κινουμένης καὶ πλείω μὶν ἢ πάντες εἰργασμένης, καλλίω δὲ ἢ πλείω. εἰ δὲ σὺ μὲν πά- λαι, νῦν δὲ ἐγὼ γράφω μὴ θαυμάσῃς. καὶ γὰρ σοὶ θαρρεῖν ἔπρεπε καὶ ἡμῖν ὀκνεῖν. αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ φέρων τὰ γράμματα μα- κρῷ τῶν γραμμάτων ἀμείνων, Σαβῖνος ὁ μανικὸς εἰς λόγους, τὸ ταμιεῖον τῶν λόγων. ἥκει δέ σοι καὶ σύμπας ὁ τῶν Μόρων χορός, πάντες ἄκροι, ἐν οἶς οἶδα ὅτι σὺ τὴν νόσον ἐκδὺς τὰ τοῦ Πανὸς σκιρτήσεις ὁρῶν, ὃ πάλαι ἐπόθεις, ἐν Φοινίκη νῦν Στρατήγιον ἐπὶ τοῦδε τοῦ σχήματος. ὁ δέ σοι Πρισκιανὸς παρεστήξει πατρὶ βοηθῶν τε καὶ συγχαίρων. ὄψει δὲ καὶ σὺ τοῦτον ὁπόσα λέγοι νικῶντα. πρέπουσά γε ἡ πανήγυρις τῇ Βηρυιῷ.