To Clematius. (357)
I was still delighting in your letter -- which described the clever capture of a bandit with an elaborate escape plan, the crowd that came for the trial, your eloquent flow, and the applause of the bystanders -- when Asclepiades the physician arrived and plunged me into gloom. He claimed you had done things that only a madman would do. His words convinced those he told, and a great storm arose.
When I learned of this, I restrained the governor, calling the doctor a slanderer and demanding that the matter be put to the test. I persuaded Asclepiades that it was wrong to stir up trouble, and I had the support of both Evagrius and the man of greatest judgment -- I mean the admirable Ampelius.
So this is how things stand with the governor: he is neither your enemy nor the friend he was before. We prevented the first; the liar set the second in motion. But you -- control your tongue entirely, and put a bridle on your mouth. It is better to live prudently without fear than to act boldly and tremble. Grant your friends only those favors that are consistent with justice, and do not think it fine to resemble the Cyclops -- shouting at random, kicking, and scorning the gods.
I am writing this to you despite having resolved to stop corresponding with you, because you do not even know my dearest friends and companions, Eunomius and Eudaemon from Elusa, even though I have spoken to you about them at length and asked you to do something for them. They are both rhetoricians who make their living as advocates. But you could not even be bothered to call them in and tell them you had received a word about them from me. Let this neglect be remedied now, so that I may receive from them a letter unlike the present one -- for this one is full of grief. If you will not grant this, you will teach me to withhold what it is in my own power to give.
I was still delighting in your letter -- which described the clever capture of a bandit with an elaborate escape plan, the crowd that came for the trial, your eloquent flow, and the applause of the bystanders -- when Asclepiades the physician arrived and plunged me into gloom. He claimed you had done things that only a madman would do. His words convinced those he told, and a great storm arose.
When I learned of this, I restrained the governor, calling the doctor a slanderer and demanding that the matter be put to the test. I persuaded Asclepiades that it was wrong to stir up trouble, and I had the support of both Evagrius and the man of greatest judgment -- I mean the admirable Ampelius.
So this is how things stand with the governor: he is neither your enemy nor the friend he was before. We prevented the first; the liar set the second in motion. But you -- control your tongue entirely, and put a bridle on your mouth. It is better to live prudently without fear than to act boldly and tremble. Grant your friends only those favors that are consistent with justice, and do not think it fine to resemble the Cyclops -- shouting at random, kicking, and scorning the gods.
I am writing this to you despite having resolved to stop corresponding with you, because you do not even know my dearest friends and companions, Eunomius and Eudaemon from Elusa, even though I have spoken to you about them at length and asked you to do something for them. They are both rhetoricians who make their living as advocates. But you could not even be bothered to call them in and tell them you had received a word about them from me. Let this neglect be remedied now, so that I may receive from them a letter unlike the present one -- for this one is full of grief. If you will not grant this, you will teach me to withhold what it is in my own power to give.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.