Letter 818: The poem is a praise of a skilled rhetorician, but when I search within myself for those many great qualities, I...

To Gaius. (363) The poem is a eulogy of an accomplished orator, but when I searched within myself for those many great qualities, I found none of them. Yet I have profited by learning what a man might do to be a good writer, while I am one of those who produce mean things. But if I do not seem so to you, that is no wonder; for loving is by its nature apt to deceive. And for this very reason I greatly admired those men to whom I showed the encomium; for they went away declaring that they had seen much of the poet's affection toward the orator. And for my own part I do not know what to do. For if I should hide verses so fine, I shall wrong the man who made them; but by displaying them I shall incur ridicule, since I myself believe I am present in the verses. But as to how I may wrong neither you nor myself, I shall consider; and in setting the crown first upon Eudaemon you did a thing which I myself would have done, had I in fact been a poet. For the man was likely to render him recompense in that very kind, a poem in return for a poem. And in general men are accustomed to make those who are more alike to themselves before those who resemble them less. For being so honored, then, I know how to feel gratitude rather than reckon which of us was the earlier.

Γαΐῳ. (363) Τὸ ποίημά ἐστιν ἔπαινος δεξιοῦ ῥήτορος, ἐγὼ δὲ τῶν πολλῶν ἐκείνων καὶ μεγάλων ἐν ἐμαυτῷ ζητῶν εὗρον οὐδέν. ἀλλ’ ὤνημαι μὲν μαθών, ἃ ποιῶν ἄν τις ἀγαθὸς εἴη συγγρα- φεύς, εἰμὶ δὲ τῶν τὰ φαῦλα γεννώντων. εἰ δὲ σοὶ μὴ δο- κῶ, θαυμαστὸν οὐδέν· τὸ γὰρ φιλεῖν ἐξαπατᾶν πέφυκε. διὸ καὶ σφόδρα ἠγάσθην τῶν ἀνδρῶν, οἷς ἔδειξα τὸ ἐγκώμιον· ἀπῆλθον γὰρ πολὺ φήσαντες ἑωρακέναι τοῦ ποιητοῦ τὸ φίλ- τρον εἰς τὸν ῥήτορα. καὶ ἔγωγε οὐκ ἔχω ὅ τι ποιῶ. εἰ μὲν γὰρ κρύψαιμι οὕτω καλὰ ἔπη, τὸν ποιήσαντα ἀδικήσω· δεικνὺς δὲ γέλωτα ὀφλήσω οἰόμενος αὐτὸς ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν εἶ νᾶι. ἀλλ’ ὅπως μὲν μήτε σὲ μήτε ἐμαυτὸν ἀδικήσω, σκέ- ψομαι· τὸν στέφανον δὲ Εὐδαίμονι προτέρῳ περιθεὶς πρᾶγμα ἐποίησας, ὅ κἂν αὐτὸς ἐγώ, ποιητὴς εἴπερ ἦν. ὁ γὰρ ἀνὴρ ἔμελλεν αὐτῷ τῷ εἴδει τὴν ἀμοιβὴν ἀποδώσειν, ποίημα ἀντὶ ποιήματος. καὶ ὅλως τοὺς μᾶλλον ὁμοίους πρὸ τῶν ἧττον αὑτοῖς ἐοικότων εἰώθασιν ἄνθρωποι ποιεῖσθαι. τοῦ οὖν τετιμῆσθαι μᾶλλον οἶδα χάριν ἢ λογίζομαι πότερος πρότερος.