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24 TO BASIL THE PRESBYTER. 25 TO MARTYRIUS THE PRESBYTER. 26 TO ULPIAN THE COMES, 27 TO ISOCASIUS THE SOPHIST. Our bees run again to your Attic meadows, having learned by experience the usefulness of those flowers. Therefore, let your learning fill them with honey and teach them to weave their honeycombs with skill. For your good repute is the eloquence of your students. And I ask that they enjoy even more of your providence. For I wish our city also to be made glorious by your fruits. 28 TO THE SAME. If I had more sons, I would have sent you more students. Those whom I have, therefore, I both send and deem worthy to partake of your instruction. One of these is our most noble son Theodotus, who is both proud of his paternal nobility and adorned by his own character. Therefore, both for these reasons and for my sake, I ask your wisdom to undertake this kind of good deed; for it is a good deed, at least according to the aim of your magnificence, even if it is considered a loss by those who know the affairs of cities. For by doing this, your magnificence will show again its fatherly affection. 29 TO CYRUS THE PRESBYTER. Having been asked for a letter to your God-fearing self by so-and-so and having done this, I thought I had received rather than given a favor; for both are dear to me, both the one who asked and your God-fearing self to whom he asked it. So, being thus disposed, I have written; and may your reverence both look upon him with pleasure and gladden us with a reply. For in this way you will increase our friendship. 30 TO ARCHELAUS, BISHOP OF SELEUCIA. The sea is thought to cut both continents, having been ordered to occupy the space between them. But if one should wish to investigate the truth, it joins rather than cuts the extremities; for by providing for merchants to make an easy and swift transport of necessities, it prepares the opposite continent to run here, and this one to rush to that one, and to stretch the sail, and to move the rudders. But if the sea were also a continent, which of the merchants would have been able, with so great a journey lying before them, either to bring what is lacking to each country, or to carry out what is surplus? But as it is, offering its back to those wishing to sail, it fulfills the needs of both sellers and buyers. I praise it, therefore, for these reasons, but I praise it more because it has become for me an occasion for a letter to your holiness, and because, by calling us to it for the need of necessities, it has prepared me to converse with that most divine head, dearest to me of all. Its true praise, therefore, is its proximity to your God-fearing self; for you are a harbor of a harbor, for those who are storm-tossed in the harbor itself

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24 ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΩ. 25 ΜΑΡΤΥΡΙΩ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΩ. 26 ΟΥΛΠΙΑΝΩ ΚΟΜΗΤΙ, 27 ΙΣΟΚΑΣΙΩ ΣΟΦΙΣΤΗ. Πρὸς τοὺς ἀττικοὺς ὑμῶν πάλιν τρέχουσι λειμῶνας αἱ ἡμέ τεραι μέλιτται, τῇ πείρᾳ μαθοῦσαι τῶν ἀνθέων ἐκείνων τὸ χρήσιμον. Ἐμφορησάτω τοίνυν αὐτὰς ἡ ὑμετέρα παίδευσις τοῦ μέλιτος καὶ διδαξάτω τὰ κηρία μετ' ἐπιστήμης ὑφαίνειν. ἡ ὑμετέρα γὰρ εὔκλεια τῶν φοιτητῶν ἡ εὐγλωττία. Ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ πλείονος αὐτοὺς ἀπολαῦσαι προμηθείας παρακαλῶ. Βούλομαι γὰρ καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν πόλιν λαμπρύνεσθαι τοῖς ὑμετέροις καρποῖς. 28 ΤΩ ΑΥΤΩ. Εἰ πλείους εἶχον υἱεῖς, πλείους ἂν ὑμῖν ἐξέπεμψα φοιτη τάς. Οὓς τοίνυν ἔχω, καὶ πέμπω καὶ τῆς ὑμετέρας παιδεύσεως μεταλαχεῖν ἀξιῶ. Τούτων εἷς ἐστιν ὁ εὐγενέστατος υἱὸς ἡμῶν Θεόδοτος, καὶ τῇ πατρῴᾳ σεμνυνόμενος εὐγενείᾳ, καὶ τρόποις οἰκείοις κοσμούμενος. Καὶ διὰ ταῦτα τοίνυν καὶ δι' ἐμὲ παρα καλῶ σου τὴν σοφίαν ἀναλαβέσθαι τοῦτο τῆς εὐεργεσίας τὸ εἶδος· εὐεργεσία γάρ ἐστι, κατά γε τὸν τῆς σῆς μεγαλοπρε πείας σκοπόν, εἰ καὶ τοῖς εἰδόσι τὰ τῶν πόλεων πράγματα βλάβη νομίζεται. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ σὴ ποιοῦσα μεγαλοπρέπεια τὴν πατρικὴν αὖθις δείξει φιλοστοργίαν. 29 ΚΥΡΩ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΩ. Αἰτηθεὶς πρὸς τὴν σὴν θεοσέβειαν γράμματα παρὰ τοῦ δεῖ νος καὶ τοῦτο ποίησας, εἰληφέναι μᾶλλον ἢ δεδωκέναι χάριν ᾠήθην· ἄμφω γάρ μοι προσφιλεῖς, καὶ ὁ αἰτήσας καὶ ἡ σὴ θεοσέβεια πρὸς ὃν ᾔτησεν. Ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν οὕτω διακείμενος γέγραφα· ἡ δὲ σὴ εὐλάβεια καὶ αὐτὸν μεθ' ἡδονῆς θεασάσθω καὶ ἡμᾶς τοῖς ἀμοιβαίοις εὐφρανάτω. Τούτῳ γὰρ τῷ τρόπῳ τὴν φιλίαν αὐξήσεις. 30 ΑΡΧΕΛΑΩ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΩ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΕΙΑΣ. Τέμνειν ἡ θάλαττα τὰς ἠπείρους ἀμφοτέρας νομίζεται, τὸν μέσον τούτων χῶρον κατέχειν διαταχθεῖσα. Ἂν δέ τις τὸ ἀληθὲς ἐρευνῆσαι θελήσῃ, συνάπτει μᾶλλον ἢ τέμνει τὰ πέρατα· ῥᾳδίαν γὰρ τοῖς ἐμπόροις καὶ ταχεῖαν τῶν ἀναγκαίων ποιεῖσ θαι τὴν κομιδὴν παρέχουσα, τὴν ἀντίπεραν ἤπειρον τρέχειν ἐνταῦθα παρασκευάζει, καὶ ταύτην πρὸς ἐκείνην ὁρμᾶν, καὶ τὴν ὀθόνην ἐκτείνειν, καὶ κινεῖν τὰ πηδάλια. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἤπειρος ἦν ἡ θάλασσα, τίς ἂν ἴσχυσε τῶν ἐμπόρων, τοσαύτης ὁδοῦ προκειμένης, ἢ τὸ ἐνδέον ἑκάστῃ χώρᾳ φέρειν, ἢ τὸ περιττὸν ἐκφέρειν; Νῦν δὲ αὕτη τὰ νῶτα τοῖς πλεῖν βουλομένοις παρέ χουσα, καὶ τῶν πωλούντων καὶ τῶν ὠνουμένων τὰς χρείας ἀποπληροῖ. Ἐπαινῶ μὲν οὖν καὶ διὰ ταῦτα, ἐπαινῶ δὲ πλέον ὅτι μοι πρόξενος καὶ τῶν πρὸς τὴν σὴν ὁσιότητα γραμμάτων γεγένηται, καὶ διὰ τὴν χρείαν ἡμᾶς τῶν ἀναγκαίων παρ' αὐτὴν καλέσασα, παρεσκεύασε τῇ θειοτάτῃ καὶ πάντων ἐμοὶ φιλτάτῃ προσδιαλεχθῆναι κεφαλῇ. Ἐκείνης μὲν οὖν ἔπαινος ἀληθὴς τὸ τῆς σῆς θεοσεβείας γειτόνημα· λιμὴν γὰρ ὑπάρχεις λιμέ νος, τοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ λιμένι χειμαζομένους