Letter 119

To Trypho. Whatever you did for Diogenes — and I know you are capable of doing much — will be nothing new. You will simply be adding another good deed to the long list of those you have already accomplished. He is from Cyrene, and that city owes its continued existence to you. Help him now, as you have helped our homeland before.

Letter 119: A Recommendation [1] To Trypho Whatever you did for Diogenes, of all that it is in your nature to accomplish, you will have done nothing new, but will be adding another deed to those already achieved by you. He is from Cyrene , and that city owes its continued existence to you. note [A reference to the siege of Cyrene in the preceding year.] But you must benefit the citizens not only collectively but also individually. [2] As to the matter in which Diogenes is implicated, and for which he stands in need of friends to come to his aid, he will tell you all about this in conversation much better than I could do in writing, for nothing could be more eloquent than the man who has suffered. [3] Salute Marcian the philosopher for me; I mean the ex-governor of Paphlagonia . If he can do anything, and I fancy he can, I beg him to prevent my relative, my very own cousin, from becoming the victim of calumniating informers, who are the curse of the whole country. [4] I commend him to your care with this letter. Treat him like a son, for if we are only two brothers by blood, Euoptius and I, nevertheless, with Diogenes, we become three by the links of affection.