Letter 492: We grieved as never before and rejoiced as never before — grieved because your wife was ill, a woman who surpasses...

To Strategius. (356) We grieved as we never had before, and we rejoiced as we never had at any other time: the one, because your wife was ill, a wife who surpasses in virtue those women who are celebrated in song; while what produced our cheerfulness was that the disease yielded to the physicians. But know this well, that even had no physicians been present she would have been saved, since the gods owe you a debt of gratitude in return for your justice in all things. Our city is now given over to dancing, and the pretext is the weddings, but the truth is that it has been stirred to this by the fact that fear has ceased. And if you should add what we most long for, and should appear bringing the children together with their mother, you will make it a double festival. And I am not unaware that, were I present, I ought both to have shared in the hopes and now to be enjoying the present things, and to be saying these things by word of mouth instead of writing them; but, O best of men, I hear the proverb that bids us go to our friends, even friends who are far away; yet the evil by which my body is oppressed forbids me to obey the proverb. For my one safety is to spend most of my time upon my bed, and even going to the marketplace is now a danger, and many a time, after receiving an onset, I have departed driven away. But you see how, among those by whom [...], there run many others, and Clematius, to whom you have been and will be everything, who is so much with us as to ask and to learn how matters stand with you. And having learned that things are better, not even he himself any longer considers that his own affairs are faring badly. And yet the man is among those who have made use of a storm, but nevertheless out of your good fortune he is lightened with respect to his own affairs; thus for all there is one refuge: that the house of Strategius the good should be safe.

Στρατηγίῳ. (356) Ἠλγήσαμέν τε ὡς οὔπω πρότερον καὶ ἥσθημεν ὡς οὐκ ἄλλοτε τὸ μέν, ὅτι σοι ἔκαμνεν ἡ γυνὴ, γυνὴ τὰς ὑμνουμέ- 20 νᾶς ἀρετῇ νικῶσα, τὴν δὲ εὐθυμίαν ἐποίει τὸ τὴν νόσον εἴξαι τοῖς ἰατροῖς. εὖ δὲ ἴσθι, καὶ μὴ παρόντων ἰατρῶν ἐσώζετ’ ἂν ὀφειλόντων σοι τῶν θεῶν χάριν ἀντὶ τῆς περὶ πάντα δικαιο- σύνης. ἡ πόλις δὲ ἡμῖν ἐν χορείαις τὸ νῦν καὶ πρόφασις μὲν οἱ γάμοι, τὸ δὲ ἀληθές, ὑπὸ τοῦ πεπαῦσθαι τὸν φόβον εἰς τοῦτο κεκίνηνται. εἰ δέ, ὃ μάλιστα ποθοῦμεν, προσθείης καὶ φανείης ἄγων μετὰ τῆς μητρὸς τὰ παιδία, διπλῆν ἑορτὴν ἐργάσῃ. καὶ οὐκ ἀγνοῶ μὲν ὅτι με παρόντα χρῆν τῶν τε ἐλπίδων κεκοινωνηκέναι καὶ τῶν νῦν ἀπολαύειν καὶ ταῦτα ἀντὶ τοῦ γράφειν ἀπὸ στόματος λέγειν· ἀλλ᾿, ὦ ἄριστε τῆς μὲν παροιμίας ἀκούω στείχειν ἀξιούσης παρὰ τοὺς φίλους τοὺς τηλοῦ φίλους· τὸ κακὸν δὲ ᾧ μοι τὸ σῶμα πιέζεται, πείθεσθαι τῇ παροιμίᾳ κωλύει. μία γάρ μοι σωτηρία τὰ πολλὰ διάγειν ἐπὶ τῆς εὐνῆς, κίνδυνος δὲ ἤδη καὶ τὸ ἀγοράζειν, καὶ πολλάκις δεξάμενος προσβολὴν ἐλαυνόμενος ἀπῆλθον. ἀλλ’ οἷς Μιν ὁρᾷς ὡς θέουσιν ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ καὶ Κλη- μάτιος, ᾧ πάντα γέγονάς τε καὶ ἔσῃ, ὃς τοσοῦτόν ἐστι παρ’ ἡμῖν, ὅσον ἐρέσθαι καὶ μαθεῖν , ὅπως ἔχοι σοι τὰ πράγματα. γνοὺς δὲ ὡς ἄμεινον οὐδ’ αὐτὸς ἡγεῖται τοῖς αὑτοῦ πράττειν ἔτι κακῶς. καίτοι τῶν χειμῶνι κεχρημένων ἁνήρ, ἀλλ’ ὅμως ἐκ τῶν σῶν εἰς τὰ αὑτοῦ κουφίζεται· οὕτως ἅπασι κα- ταφυγὴ μία Στρατηγίῳ τῷ χρηστῷ σῶν εἶναι τὸν οἶκον.