Letter 826

To Maximus. (363 AD) You add deeds to hopes, noble Maximus — or rather, your deeds have surpassed our hopes. For beyond preserving your friends' property through your guardianship, you have also won them distinction through oratory. You have shown Albanius to be both an orator and a prosperous man, neither allowing him to remain silent nor failing to support him when he speaks, adorning him in every way. And so two most welcome reports reach me through visitors: one revealing the precision of your governance, the other his ability — partly realized, partly anticipated — and all of it owing to nothing other than your excellence in office. These things are worth more to me than the talents of Tantalus, and I would not have accepted even the land between Corinth and Sicyon on top of those talents in exchange for being able to hear such news. Continue to treat Albanius gently in other matters. But if you catch him being lazy about his oratory, be harsh and demand an accounting — even if you put him in chains for it, I will applaud the bonds. I ask you also to urge the others toward the same pursuits, so that no one may strike us with the proverb about the single swallow [i.e., one swallow does not make a summer]. You have many who could run well if they accepted the whip. If you set them in motion, you will raise a tower for our art and strip away the means by which the flies now try to sting us.

Μαξίμῳ. (363) Ἐλπίσιν ἔργα προστίθης, ὦ γενναῖε Μάξιμε, μᾶλλον δὲ παρῆλθες τοῖς ἔργοις τὰς ἐλπίδας, ὃς πρὸς τῷ τὰ ὄντα τοῖς ἑταίροις σεσωκέναι τῇ περὶ ταῦτα φρουρᾷ καὶ τὴν ἐκ λόγων αὐτοῖς δόξαν εἰργάσω. τὸν γοῦν Ἀλβάνιον ὁμοῦ ῥήτορά τε καὶ πλούσιον ἔδειξας οὔτε σιγᾶν ἀφιεὶς καὶ λέγοντι βοηθῶν καὶ πανταχῆ κοσμῶν· ὥστε μοι δύ’ ἥδιστοι λόγοι κομίζονται διὰ τῶν ἀφικνουμένων, ὁ μὲν τῆς σῆς ἀρχῆς τὴν ἀκρίβειαν μηνύω, ὁ δὲ τὴν ἐκείνου δύναμιν, τὴν μὲν οὖσαν. τὴν δὲ προσδοκωμένην, καὶ ταῦτα οὐκ ἄλλοθεν ἢ παρὰ τῆς σῆς εἰς τὸ ἄρχειν ἀρετῆς. ταῦτά μοι μείζω τῶν Ταντάλου ταλάν- των καὶ οὐδ’ ἂν τὸ μέσον πρὸς τοῖς ταλάντοις Κορίνθου καὶ Σικυῶνος ἐδεξάμην πρὸ τοῦ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἀκούειν ἔχειν. γί- γνου δή μοι παραπλήσιος κἀν τοῖς ἄλλοις πρᾴως προσφερό- μενος Ἀλβανίῳ· περὶ δὲ λόγους εἰ ῥᾳθυμοῦντα λάβοις, χαλε- πὸς ἴσθι καὶ δίκην ἀπαίτει· κἂν δήσῃς ἐπὶ τούτῳ, τὸν δεσμὸν ἐπαινέσομαι. δέομαι δέ δου καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἐπὶ τὰ αὐτὰ προτρέπειν, ὡς ἂν μή τις ἡμᾶς τῇ ἀπὸ τῆς μιᾶς χελιδόνος παροιμίᾳ βάλλῃ. πολλοὺς δὲ ἔχεις δυναμένους, εἰ δέξαιντο μάστιγα, δραμεῖν· οὓς εἰ κινήσεις, πυργώσεις ἡμῖν τὴν τέ- χνην ἀφελὼν οἷς νῦν ἡμᾶς ἐπιχειροῦσι δάκνειν αἱ μυῖαι.