Letter 498: Louppion announced that he is bringing me a letter from you — he has not delivered it yet, but will.

To Araxius. (356/57) Luppio [Luppion], having said that he was bringing me letters from you, has not yet given them to me, but he will. For now, then, we rejoice as men who are about to receive them, but at that time we shall rejoice in the very receiving. Having marvelled at Fortune for what she has determined concerning you, I can marvel at your own character no less than at hers. For she is forever moving your affairs toward the better, while you keep your dealings toward your friends on a secure footing, and those whom, when you were not yet so great a man, you loved, these same men you cherish now that you have risen. But most men, when they become great, cast off their old acquaintances just as they cast off the rotten among their garments. And Gymnasius, having praised you along with us, shows his admiration both in word and in deed. For though he could, if he wished, reap the fruit of his own art among us, where indeed the tongues are like the snowflakes of winter, he would rather earn a little under you than surpass Cinyras [the proverbially wealthy Cypriot king] elsewhere. And now there both brings him back to you all his longing for the city, which is fair, by the gods, and great and clean of troubles and of tears -- a thing that among others is abundant. But he has been summoned still more by your office, since the city itself one man has already abandoned and gone off, having fled into other magistracies, just as, I suppose, men fled Athens in the time of the Thirty. And the greatest sign of a lawful office is that many stream toward it, while of the opposite sort the sign is flights into exile. The greatest encomium upon you, then, is Gymnasius running from Syria to Araxius. As for me, I wish the same things as he does, but I cannot do equally, for you know the constraints that bind those engaged in teaching.

Ἀραξίῳ. (356/57) Λουππίων εἰπὼν ὅτι μοι φέρει γράμματα παρὰ σοῦ δέδωκε μὲν οὔπω, δώσει δέ. νῦν μὲν οὖν ὡς ληψόμενοι χαί- ρομεν, τότε δὲ αὐτῇ τῇ λήψει. τὴν Τύχην δὲ οἶς περὶ σοῦ βεβούλευται θαυμάσας τὸν σὸν οὐχ ἧττον τρόπον ἢ ’κείνην ἔχω θαυμάσαι. ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἀεὶ τὰ σὰ πρὸς τὰ βελτίω κινεῖ, σὺ δὲ τὰ πρὸς τοὺς φίλους ἐν βεβαίῳ τηρεῖς καὶ οὕς, ὅτε οὔπω τοσοῦτος ἦσθα, τούτους ηὐξημένος ἀγαπᾷς. οἱ πολλοὶ δὲ ἐν τῷ γενέσθαι μεγάλοι τοὺς πάλαι γνωρίμους ἀπορρίπτου- σιν ὥσπερ τῶν ἱματίων τὰ σαπρά. Γυμνάσιος δὲ μεθ ἡμῶν σε ἐπαινέσας τῷ λόγῳ καὶ ἔργῳ τὸ θαυμάζειν δεικνύει. ἔχων γάρ, εἴπερ ἐβούλετο, παρ’ ἡμῖν τὴν αὑτοῦ καρποῦσθαι τέχνην, οἱ, δὴ γλῶτται νιφάδεσσιν ἐοικυῖαι χειμερίῃ- σιν, ὑπὸ σοὶ μικρὰ κερδαίνειν ἢ τὸν Κινύραν ἑτέρωθι βού- λοιτ’ ἂν παρελθεῖν. καὶ νῦν αὐτὸν ὑμῖν ἐπανάγει μὲν καὶ τὸ τὴν πόλιν ποθεῖν καλήν τε, νὴ τοὺς θεούς, καὶ μεγάλην καὶ καθαρὰν πραγμάτων καὶ δακρύων, ὃ παρ᾿ ἑτέροις πολύ. κέκληται δὲ ὑπὸ τῆς σῆς ἀρχῆς πλέον, ἐπεὶ τήν γε πόλιν αὐ- τὴν ἤδη τις ἀφεὶς ἐν ἄλλωι ἀρχαῖς ᾤχετο ἀποδράς, ὥσπερ, οἶμαι, τὰς Ἀθήνας ἐπὶ τῶν τριάκοντα. σημεῖον δὲ μέγιστον ἀρχῆς ἐννόμου μὲν τὸ συρρεῖν ἐκεῖσε πολλούς, τῆς δὲ ἐναν- τίας αἱ φυγαί. μέγιστον οὖν ἐγκώμιον κατὰ σου Γυμνά- σιος ἐκ Συρίας παρὰ Ἀράξιον τρέχων. ἐγὼ δὲ ταὐτὰ μὲν ἐκείνῳ βούλομαι, δύναμαι δὲ οὐκ ἴσα τὰς γὰρ ἀνάγκας οἶσθα τῶν ἐν τῶ διδάσκειν δεθέντων.