Letter 100
To Pylaemenes
Here at last is that Anastasius about whom I have so often spoken. If I had been introducing you to him, I should have praised you as I am praising him at this moment. You are both of you neighbours in my heart, and have been so for a long time past. Let your meeting, therefore, be an act of recognition. Embrace each other, and see in this, both of you, a means of doing me a little good. Now leisure is the greatest good, a good of which one might say that, like a country bearing in abundance, it brings all noble things to the soul of the philosopher. This leisure I shall enjoy when I succeed in freeing myself from entanglement in the political life of the Romans; and that will be when I am released from these accursed curial functions. So far as the Emperor is concerned, I am free of them, but I should justly blame myself and feel ashamed, if I were to take any profit from my personal activity. I shall accordingly make my defence to myself. For I shall appear to be fulfilling the duty of ambassador again, since my tongue is again an ambassador; nor will any one who praises Pythagoras contradict me, since he defined a friend as a second self.
Letter 101
To Pylaemenes
A man from Phycus (Phycus is a harbour of the Cyreneans) has brought
me a letter written in your name. I have read it both with pleasure and admiration. It was
worthy of both, because of its note of feeling and because of the beauty of its language.
I quickly called together in your honour an assembly of the Greeks who reside in Libya,
and I told them to come and listen to an eloquent letter. And now in our cities
Pylaemenes, the creator of the divine letter, is famous. One thing only seemed strange,
and struck the audience as contrary to expectation. You asked for my Cynegetica, as
if there were some value in it. You seemed, therefore, to reveal a humorous disposition,
and to be brimming with sarcasm; but the Cyreneans did not admit that the poorest speaker
among them could have produced something in a sportive vein worthy of your attention: but
I acquitted you on this charge of sarcasm. I explained that besides the rest of your good
qualities, you were extremely kind, and lavish in your praise; that thus you had not made
the request in jest, but rather to fill me with joy that I had been honoured by such a
judge as you. Write to me, therefore, as often as you can. Give the Cyreneans a feast of
eloquence.
No recital could be pleasanter to them than the letters of Pylaemenes,
now that they have been inspired by this example. At all events you will meet plenty of
men on their way here, and if no others, at least those who are to be our rulers, both of
the less and of the greater province, and the province of Egypt as well. It is easy to
recognize them buy the train of money-lenders who follow them. Since it interests you to
know about my life, we stud y philosophy, my dear friend, and we have only splendid
isolation for our fellow-worker, not one human being. I have never anywhere in Libya heard
a man uttering a philosophical phrase except when an echo is repeating my own voice. But
as the proverb says, 'Adorn the Sparta which fate has given you.' (Euripdes, Telephus).
And for my part I think I shall be content with my own fate, and shall myself adorn it,
regarding this as a contest set before my life, and a test, whether I am abandoning
philosophy in her evil days. If I have no other witness, at least God himself will bear
witness for me, God whose seed, the intellect, has come to man. I think even the stars at
all times fix a kindly gaze upon me, for they see that I alone in this vast stretch of
country examine them with knowledge. Pray for me, then, that I remain in my present way of
life, and for yourself, that you may abandon the ill-omened forum, you who use your
natural gifts so ill.
How I long to see you turn thoughts to what is within, even when your
outward circumstances are prosperous; for to exchange happiness for prosperity is to
barter gold for bronze. For myself, I rejoice when they twit me with being myself a
private citizen, the while all my many relations are eager for office. I prefer that my
soul should be guarded by virtues, rather than my body by soldiers, since no longer do
circumstances afford room for a philosopher to control the State. Even if you do not get
on any better in the forum (which I do not believe for a moment), at all events I have
never had gloomy anticipations about you, such as thinking that you would turn false to
your character, and that you might come to resemble those famous scribes; I would not
dignify them by the name of orators.
Now in no other manner is it possible to get rich in your courts except
by a general confusion of human and divine justice, and by not even getting rich, look to
philosophy all the more. If you come across an earnest philosopher, share with me your
great acquisition. It is quite a harmless quest, to wander through Greek and foreign lands
on such a hunting expedition as this.
But if, amidst a harvest blighted by drought, we seem to suffice unto
you, come and take your share of us and whatever is ours, 'on fair and equal terms', as
the Lacedaemonian saying has it. Give all my kindest message to the venerable Marcian. If
I had said in the language of Aristides that he was the image of Hermes, the god of
eloquence, come amongst men, I should scarcely have praised him as he deserves, for he is
more than an image. I should have liked to write to him directly, but I have become stiff,
that I may not expose myself to correction from the pedants who polish every syllable.
There is no small danger that the letter would be read in the Panhellenion. This is the
place in which parts of the world meet, to hear the sacred voice of the old gentlemen
whose researches comprehend tales both past and present. Give my compliments to my friend
Eucharistus, and to all those to whom you think fitting.