Letter 808: A poet, a companion of the Muses — to whom else was I going to send him but to a friend of the Muses?

To Nicocles. To whom was I going to send a man who is a poet and a companion of the Muses, if not to one who is dear to the Muses? The poems you will judge for yourself, and I think you will admire them; see to it that this man too admires your knowledge of how to give. For it seems to me to be some clever device of the Muses, this fact that those who are able to speak are not wealthy, so that, by gathering silver, they may speak. You, then, give of yourself, remembering how pleasantly you used to describe to me your earlier [...] gifts, and make the others more ambitious for honor.

Νικοκλεῖ. (363) Ποιητὴν δὲ ἄνδρα καὶ Μουσῶν ἑταῖρον παρὰ τίνα πέμ- ψειν ἔμελλον ἢ παρὰ τὸν ταῖς Μούσαις φίλον; τὰ μὲν οὑν ποιήματα αὐτὸς κρινεῖς καὶ οἶμαι ὅτι θαυμάσῃ· σκόπει 81 ὅπως καὶ οὗτος ὑμῶν τὸ εἰδέναι διδόναι θαυμάσῃ δοκεῖ γάρ μοι σόφισμά τι τοῦτο εἶναι τῶν Μουσῶν τὸ μὴ πλουτεῖν τοὺς δυναμένους εἰπεῖν, ὅπως ἀγείροντες ἀργύριον λέγωσι. σὺ οὖν αὐτός τε δίδου μεμνημένος, ὡς ἡδέως μοι διηγοῦ προτί ῥᾶς δόσεις, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἐργάζου φιλοτιμοτέρους.