To Themistius. (356 AD)
Why I was reluctant to write, you learned from the letter I sent through the sons of Bassus — if you received it. But that this Malchus, who is coming to you, should arrive without becoming your friend through me — that struck me as absurd.
True, even without a letter from me, he would have sought you out before anyone else the moment he stepped off the ship, and you would have received him with the greatest warmth — that much is clear. But it is far more pleasant for both of you that I should be the one who brings you together.
Malchus comes to you full of stories about you, some received from me, others from people who learned them from me and passed them on. About the man himself I will say only this: he is as good a person as you will find anywhere, and no less accomplished in rhetoric than he is in character.
Make the city such for him that he praises his journey. Or rather, you need do nothing else — if you grant him this one thing, that you recognize him for the man he is and count him among your friends, he will have gained the greatest reward of his travels.
Why I was reluctant to write, you learned from the letter I sent through the sons of Bassus — if you received it. But that this Malchus, who is coming to you, should arrive without becoming your friend through me — that struck me as absurd.
True, even without a letter from me, he would have sought you out before anyone else the moment he stepped off the ship, and you would have received him with the greatest warmth — that much is clear. But it is far more pleasant for both of you that I should be the one who brings you together.
Malchus comes to you full of stories about you, some received from me, others from people who learned them from me and passed them on. About the man himself I will say only this: he is as good a person as you will find anywhere, and no less accomplished in rhetoric than he is in character.
Make the city such for him that he praises his journey. Or rather, you need do nothing else — if you grant him this one thing, that you recognize him for the man he is and count him among your friends, he will have gained the greatest reward of his travels.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.