Letter 93
To Hesychius
The Athenians praised Themistocles, the son of Neocles, because
although as much a love of political power as any man of his time, he decline every office
in which his friends should possess nothing more than strangers. The times have recognized
your merits. Through you an office, new both in name and in reality, has come into the
administration of the State. I am very glad of this, as it quite natural when one
considers our old friendship, and that sacred geometry has linked us one to the other. But
when I see that you deem my brother's name worthy to be ranked in the list of senators,
and yet do not strike out his family from the black list, although under a cloud of
ancient misfortune something happened before, I can only say that in this you are not
behaving as an imitator of Themistocles, nor in accordance with the principles of divine
geometry. You ought to treat Euoptuus as among the number of your brothers, if it is true
that two things equal the same thing are equal also to each other.
If through your too numerous occupations you have hitherto neglected
your duty, do at once honour my claim upon you, my dearest friend, and after receiving my
letter, exempt his mother-in-law both in the future and in the past from the absurd fine.
Also give me back my brother. God knows whether he has left the country on this very
account. But that is the only excuse Euoptius give for not being here to console me. I
have great need of consolation for many misfortunes of which you have certainly heard.