Letter 290
To Eusebius. (359/360)
We take refuge at the same Athena on the same kind of business. Recently you snatched a young man from the fire for us, enduring labors such as a man would undertake for his own son. The same labors and the same eagerness are needed now -- or rather, much more.
For this Agroicius is no different to me from a son, and I have sustained his household up to this very day -- a household with many siblings, all of them poor.
But the men who so readily draft decrees want to demonstrate that I can do nothing for my friends beyond praying for them. And yet, when your anger was directed at those very men, I defended them not with prayers but with deeds, and I calmed the storm. But they remember that favor so well that in return for my benefaction they treat me like Agamemnon [i.e., they repay kindness with ingratitude, as in the Iliad].
Let them learn, then, that my power is your power, and that I am not easy to harm as long as you have strength. As for the details of the case, let Agroicius explain...
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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