Letter 53
To his Brother
Prolixity in a letter argues a certain lack of intimacy with
ourselves in the letter-carrier. But my good friend Acacius is as well informed as I
myself, and he will tell you even more than he knows, because he is very fond of you, and
has a tongue which rises above the facts. So I favour with you this letter, rather from
the law of correspondence than from any necessity; but if I announce to you that your son
Dioscurius is in good health, that he is reading books, and that he is glued to them, my
letter itself will at all events have a certain value to you.
I have given to Dioscurius a whole company of brothers, adding further
a pair of many brothers for Hesychius. May God bestow his blessing on these, themselves,
their brothers, their parents' house, the rest of their family, and their ancestral
cities.
Letter 54
To his Brother
A great number of people, either private individuals or priests, by moulding dreams, which they call revelations, seem likely to do me harm when I am awake, if I do not happen with all speed to visit sacred Athens. Whenever, then, you happen to meet a skipper sailing for the Piraeus, write to me, as it is there I shall receive my letters. I shall gain not only this by my voyage to Athens-- an escape from my present evils, but also a relief from doing reverence to the learning of those who come back from Athens. They differ in no wise from us ordinary mortals. They do not understand Aristotle or Plato better than we, and nevertheless they go about among us as demi-gods among mules, because they have seen the Academy, the Lyceum, and the Poecile where Zeno gave his lectures on philosophy. However, the Poecile no longer deserves its name, for the proconsul has taken away all the pictures, and has thus humiliated these men's pretensions to learning.
Letter 55
To his Brother
At the very moment when you weighed anchor, I pulled up my mules on the western shore. I jumped out of my carriage, but you had already set sail, and the wind was blowing your stern. Albeit, I followed you with my eyes as long as I could. I said much to the winds in behalf of a soul so beloved by me, and the ship to which so precious a freight had been entrusted I commended to their care. As they are not without love of fair things, they promised me a happy voyage for you, and a happy return, and as they are honest gods, it cannot be that they will be faithless to their promise; but do you, even as you said prayers to them when parting, pray to them also when you are about to return. For then they will be more favourable to you.
Letter 56
To his Brother
You wrong me, divine and precious head. After having inspired a simple soul, and one whose affections are easily won by daily intercourse, with a love of yourself and of his niece, you make a breach between him and yourself, as also between him and his niece. When she was with me, I seemed to have before my eyes a twofold image; in the girl I seemed still to see her uncle. Now all that was dear to me is gone, and I even blame my natural character because of its unmeasured tendency to become subject to unjust treatment. But if philosophy has really any value at all, I shall steel my heart to more manliness, and henceforth you will see how tough I am, and how unyielding.