Letter 746: Those many splendid speeches you delivered — first in Phoenicia, then here, and now in fair Palestine (and how could...

To Acacius. (362) Of those many noble speeches which you delivered first in Phoenicia, then afterwards here, and which now you are practicing in fair Palestine -- for how could it not be fair, being in love with the beauty that resides in you? -- of these noble offspring, then, the ones that Eutropius produced have brought you no lesser glory. For these too are yours, at least as much as they are their begetter's, so that the kinship seemed to be revealed no more by their form than by the stamp of the diction, in which he displays a running with vigor, that very characteristic of you people. And being so good an orator, he is so good a man that, perceiving that I wished him to be honored in every way that touches you, he treats me too as though he were my own nephew and pupil. And so I myself have enrolled the man among my old familiars, and ahead of many of the old ones at that; for indeed he surpassed many in his affection. Hence even the small things of mine -- and I think all that is mine is small, for how could anyone fail to know himself, especially when a wise man cries out that one must know oneself? -- but of these very things he loved even the very smallest, and there is nothing that I said which he did not hear, nor again did he ever hear without praise. This fine and good man, then, wishing to be just as well, has done me some wrong. And do look at the writing of the charge: Eutropius has wronged me in the matter of the speech. Acacius did well in writing it, and he did well in sending it, having given it to the emperor before giving it to me. And he will lay the blame upon the old man, for indeed against me too he kept devising such sophistries. But you, do not believe him -- for neither do I. For even if he is exceedingly clever, still we came first, both I and you. And in any case he knows what Homer has granted to the elders. Let him therefore say nothing, but let him make his defense by deed, and let him imitate Achilles, since he has the power, as that hero did, to heal the wound.

Ἀκακίῳ. (362) Τῶν πολλῶν ἐκείνων καὶ γενναίων λόγων, οὓς τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἐν Φοινίκῃ, μετὰ ταῦτα δὲ τῇδε, νῦν δὲ πράττεις ἐν Παλαιστίνῃ τῇ καλῇ — πῶς γὰρ οὐ καλὴ τοῦ γε παρὰ σοὶ κάλλους ἐρῶσα; — τούτων δὴ τῶν γενναίων ἐγγόνων οὐχ ἥττω σοι δόξαν ἤνεγκαν οὓς Εὐτρόπιος ἐποίησε. καὶ γὰρ οὗτοι σοὶ τοῦ γε σπείραντος, ὥστ’ ἔδοξεν οὐ μᾶλλον τῇ μορφῇ τὴν συγγένειαι μηνύειν ἡ τῷ τύπῳ τῶν λόγων, ἐν οἷς δει- κνύει μετὰ ῥώμης δρόμον, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ ὑμέτερον. οὕτω δὲ ὢν ῥήτωρ ἀγαθὸς οὕτως ἐστὶ χρηστός, ὥστ’ αἰσθόμενος ὅτι με βούλοιο τιμᾶσθαι πᾶσιν οἷς εἰς σέ, καὶ πρὸς ἐμὲ κίχρηται καθάπερ ἐμὸς ὢν ἀδελφιδοῦς τι καὶ μαθητής τοιγαροῦν καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς τοὺς πάλαι συνήθεις τὸν ἄνδρα ἐνέγραψα καὶ πρὸ πολλῶν γε τῶν πάλαι, παρῄει γὰρ δὴ πολλοὺς ἐν τῷ φιλεῖν. ὅθεν αὐτῷ καὶ τὰ μικρὰ τῶν ἐμῶν — πάντα δὲ οἶμαι μικρὰ τἀμά, τί γὰρ ἄν τις αὑτὸν ἀγνοοίη καὶ ταῦτα βοῶντος ἀνδρὸς σοφοῦ δεῖν γιγνώσκειν αὑτόν; — ἀλλ᾿ αὐτῶν γε τούτων καὶ τὰ σμικρότατα ἠγάπα καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὃ ἐγὼ μὲν εἶπον, ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἀκήκοεν, οὐδ’ αὖ ἤκουσε μέν, οὐ σὺν ἐπαίνω δέ. οὗτος τοίνυν ὁ καλὸς κἀγαθὸς καὶ δίκαιος εἶναι βου- λόμενος ἔστιν ὅ τι με ἠδίκησε. καὶ σκόπει γε τὴν γραφήν ὴδίκηκέ με Εὐτρόπιος τὸν λόγον, εὖ μὶν ποιῶν Ἀκάκιος ἔγραψεν, εὖ δὲ ποιῶν ἔπεμψε, τῷ βασιλεῖ δεδωκὼς πρὶν ἐμοί καὶ τὴν μὲν αἰτίαν ἐπὶ τὸν πρεσβύτην οἴσει, καὶ γὰρ πρὸς ἐμὲ τοιαῦτα ἐσοφίζετο· σὺ δὲ μὴ πίστευε, οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐγώ. καὶ γὰρ εἰ σφόδρα ἐστὶ δεινός, ἀλλὰ πρότεροι γεγόναμεν ἐγώ τε καὶ σύ. πάντως δὲ οἶδεν ἃ τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις δέδωκεν Ὁμη- ρος. λεγέτω μὲν οὖν μηδέν, ἔργῳ δὲ ἀπολογείσθω, καὶ μι- μείσθω τὸν Ἀχιλλέα κύριος ὤν, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος, ἰᾶσθαι τὸ τραῦμα.