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51 TO APELLA. Neither have I been ignorant of human nature, nor do I disdain mercy, of which I am most in need. I know also how to grant things to friends who ask, since I too, being in need of this, am willing to receive it. But I wish to be asked for and to ask for things that do not work great harm. But if anyone, in ignorance, should ask for something of that sort, I am compelled to lay bare the request, and to persuade him that I, who heard it, am distressed. For the favor harms both the one asking and the one giving. This I have now thought it important to do and to persuade your Magnificence; and to persuade, with my conscience as witness, that I have no human ill-will towards so-and-so; but it grieves me that he has completely renounced the divine laws and has become an instrument of the contrary power. 52 TO ISOCASIUS THE SOPHIST. True, then, is the tragic saying that seeks for a life without grief and cries out that it has found it with no one; for most men fall into unexpected misfortunes. And this is what Theocles, our most noble son, has suffered. For his father made him master of a single field; but it bears not myrtles and flowers, like that field in the comedy, but the drunken outrages on account of the taxes. Having inherited so much, he was summoned to the most just praetura, and being scarcely able to obtain necessary food, he has been compelled to be concerned with so great a burden of loss; for which reason he is hastening to reach the queen of cities. He therefore asks your Magnificence through us, that he might come with letters from you, eloquently and sophistically dramatizing his poverty. For entering the court with such great testimony, he will persuade all the judges to cast their vote for philanthropy alone.

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51 ΑΠΕΛΛΗ. Οὔτε τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν ἠγνόησα φύσιν, οὔτε δυσχεραίνω τὸν ἔλεον, οὗ μάλιστα δεόμαι. Οἶδα καὶ φίλοις αἰτοῦσι παρέχειν, ἐπειδὴ κἀγὼ τούτου δεόμενος ἐθέλω λαβεῖν. Αἰτεῖσθαι δὲ καὶ αἰτεῖν τὰ μὴ πολλὴν ἐργαζόμενα βούλομαι λώβην. Εἰ δέ τι τοιοῦτον ἀγνοῶν τις αἰτήσοι, γυμνοῦν τὴν αἴτησιν ἀναγκάζομαι, καὶ πείθειν ὡς ἐγὼ ἤκουσα δυσπαθής. Λωβᾶται δὲ καὶ τῷ αἰτοῦντι καὶ τῷ διδόντι ἡ χάρις. Τοῦτο καὶ νῦν προὔργου δρᾶσαι νενόμικα καὶ τὴν σὴν πεῖσαι μεγαλοπρέπειαν· καὶ πεῖσαι, τοῦ συνειδότος μαρτυροῦντος, ὡς οὐδεμίαν ἔχω πρὸς τὸν δεῖνα ἀνθρωπίνην δυσμένειαν· ἀνιᾷ δέ με τοῖς θείοις παντελῶς ἀποταξάμενος νόμοις καὶ ὄργανον τῆς ἐναντίας ἐνεργείας γενόμενος. 52 ΙΣΟΚΑΣΙΩ ΣΟΦΙΣΤΗ. Ἀληθὴς ἄρα ὁ τραγικός ἐστι λόγος ὁ τὸν ἄλυπον βίον ἐπιζητῶν καὶ παρ' οὐδενὶ τοῦτον εὑρηκέναι βοῶν· ἀδοκήτοις γὰρ οἱ πλεῖστοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων περιπίπτουσι συμφοραῖς. Τοῦτο δὲ πέπονθε καὶ Θεοκλῆς ὁ εὐγενέστατος ἡμῶν υἱός. Ἀγροῦ μὲν γὰρ ἑνὸς αὐτὸν κύριον πεποίηκεν ὁ πατήρ· φέρει δὲ οὗτος οὐ μυῤῥίνας καὶ ἄνθη, κατὰ τὸν κωμικὸν ἐκεῖνον ἀγρόν, ἀλλὰ τὰς ὑπὲρ τῶν εἰσφορῶν παροινίας. Τοσοῦτον δὲ κληρονομήσας, εἰς τὴν δικαιοτάτην πραιτοῦραν ἐκλήθη, καὶ μόγις οἷός τε ὢν τροφῆς τῆς ἀναγκαίας μεταλαχεῖν, τοσοῦτον ζημίας φορτίον ἠνάγκασται μεριμνᾶν· οὗ δὴ χάριν καὶ τὴν βασιλίδα καταλαβεῖν ἐπείγεται πόλιν. ∆εῖται τοίνυν δι' ἡμῶν τῆς ὑμετέρας μεγαλοπρεπείας, ὥστε μεθ' ὑμετέρων ἐπιδημῆσαι γραμμάτων, καλῶς αὐτοῦ τὴν πενίαν καὶ σοφιστικῶς τραγῳδούντων. Μετὰ γὰρ τηλικαύτης μαρτυρίας εἰς τὸ δικαστήριον εἰσιὼν πείσει τοὺς δικάζοντας πάντας τῆς φιλανθρωπίας μόνης τὴν ψῆφον ἐξενεγκεῖν.