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20.1 It's been a long time since you've had a letter from us; but not longer than since one came from you, and that, though many people have come to us in succession from your parts. If you had given letters to all of them in turn, there would be nothing to prevent you from feeling that you were with us and enjoying our company as if we were present, so continuous was the stream of those arriving to us. But why do you not write? And yet a sophist has no other business than to write. Or rather, even if your hand is slow, you will not need to write; for another will serve you. You need only your tongue, which, even if it does not converse with us, will at any rate talk to one of your companions; and if no one is by, it will converse with itself; but it will by no means be silent, being both sophistic and Attic, no more than the nightingales when spring rouses them to song. For as for us, the press of business in which we are now engaged might perhaps furnish an excuse for our lack of letters, and the fact that we are, so to speak, sullied by our excessive dealings with common folk naturally makes us reluctant to address you sophists, who, if you do not hear something worthy of your own wisdom, will be annoyed and will not tolerate it. But you, on the contrary, it is likely on every pretext make your voice public, being the most capable speaker of the Hellenes I myself know. For I know, I think, the most famous among you. So there is no excuse for one who is silent. And so much for that. I have also sent the works against Eunomius, and whether one ought to call them child's play, or a little more serious than child's play, I leave to you yourself to judge, who for your own purposes, I think, have no further need, but against those of the perverse who encounter them, I expect it will be for you a not ignoble weapon, not so much trusting in the power of the composition, but knowing well that from a few starting points you are inventive in many things. And if anything should appear to you to be weaker than is needful, do not hesitate to point it out. For in this most of all a friend differs from a flatterer, that the one converses for pleasure, while the other does not even abstain from things that cause pain.

21. TO LEONTIUS THE SOPHIST

21.1 The good Julian seems to be experiencing in his own affairs something of the general situation. For he himself is also being dunned and vehemently accused, since everything now is full of people dunning and accusing. Except that his arrears are not of taxes, but of letters. And yet whence he has come to be in arrears, I do not know. For he always gave a letter, but has received one. Unless perhaps with you too this much-talked-of fourfold amount has been preferred. For not even the Pythagoreans so much preferred the tetractys as those who now collect the public revenues prefer the fourfold amount. And yet perhaps it were reasonable that the opposite should be the case, that you, being a sophist and abounding in so many words, should yourself be liable to us for the payment of the quadruple amount. And do not think that we write these things in annoyance. For I rejoice even in your reproaches, since they say that with the noble all things happen with the addition of nobility, so that even griefs and angers are becoming to them. At any rate, one would rather see the one who is loved being angry than another man fawning. Therefore, never cease making such accusations. For the very accusations will surely be letters, than which nothing is more precious for me to hear or brings more pleasure.

22. ON THE PERFECTION OF THE MONASTIC LIFE

22.1 Although there are many things revealed by the divinely-inspired Scripture and which ought to be rightly performed by those who are zealous to please God, for the present, concerning only those things which have now been raised among you, as I learned from the very

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20.1 Χρόνια μέν σοι καὶ τὰ παρ' ἡμῶν γράμματα· οὐ μὴν χρονιώτερα τῶν αὐτόθεν, καὶ ταῦτα πολλῶν καὶ συνεχῶν ἐπιδημησάντων ἡμῖν ἀπὸ τῆς ὑμετέρας· οἷς εἰ πᾶσιν ἐφεξῆς γράμματα ἐπετίθεις, οὐδὲν ἦν τὸ κωλύον αὐτῷ σοι δοκεῖν συνεῖναι ἡμᾶς καὶ οἱονεὶ παρόντας καὶ συνόντας ἀπολαύειν, οὕτω συνεχὲς ἦν τὸ πλῆθος τῶν πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀφικνουμένων. Ἀλλὰ τί οὐκ ἐπιστέλλεις; Καίτοιγε οὐδὲν ἔργον σοφιστῇ ἢ τὸ γράφειν· μᾶλλον δέ, εἰ καὶ τῆς χειρὸς ἔχεις ἀργῶς, οὐδὲ γράφειν δεήσει· ἄλλος γάρ σοι διακονή σει. Γλώττης δὲ χρεία μόνης, ἥ, κἂν ἡμῖν μὴ διαλέγηται, ἀλλ' ἑνί γε πάντως τῶν συνόντων λαλήσει· κἂν μηδεὶς παρῇ, ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς διαλέξεται· σιωπήσει δὲ οὐδαμῶς, σοφιστική τε οὖσα καὶ Ἀττική, οὐ μᾶλλόν γε ἢ αἱ ἀηδόνες, ὅταν τὸ ἔαρ αὐτὰς πρὸς ᾠδὴν ἀναστήσῃ. Ἡμῖν μὲν γὰρ τὸ πυκνὸν τῆς ἀσχολίας τοῦτο ἐν ᾧ νῦν ἐσμεν, κἂν παραί τησιν ἐνέγκοι τυχὸν πρὸς τὴν ἔνδειαν τῶν γραμμάτων, καὶ τὸ οἱονεὶ ἐρρυπῶσθαι λοιπὸν τῇ κατακορίᾳ πρὸς ἰδιωτισ μὸν ὄκνον εἰκότως ἐμποιεῖ προσφθέγγεσθαι ὑμᾶς τοὺς σοφιστάς, οἵ, εἰ μή τι ἄξιον τῆς ὑμετέρας αὐτῶν σοφίας ἀκούσεσθε, δυσχερανεῖτε καὶ οὐκ ἀνέξεσθε. Σὲ δέ που τὸ ἐναντίον εἰκὸς ἐπὶ πάσης προφάσεως δημοσιεύειν σαυτοῦ τὴν φωνήν, ἐπιτήδειον ὄντα εἰπεῖν ὧν αὐτὸς οἶδα Ἑλλή νων. Οἶδα γάρ, ὡς οἶμαι, τοὺς ὀνομαστοτάτους τῶν ἐν ὑμῖν. Ὥστε οὐδεμία παραίτησις σιωπῶντι. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν εἰς τοσοῦτον. Ἀπέστειλα δὲ καὶ τὰ πρὸς Εὐνόμιον· ἃ εἴτε παιδιὰν χρὴ καλεῖν, εἴτε μικρῷ παιδιᾶς σπουδαιότερα, αὐτῷ σοι κρίνειν παρίημι, ὃς πρὸς μὲν τὰ οἰκεῖα σαυτοῦ οὐκέτι, οἶμαι, χρῄζεις, πρὸς δὲ τῶν ἐνδιαστρόφων τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας οὐκ ἀγεννές σοι ὅπλον ἔσεσθαι προσδοκῶ, οὐ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ συντάγματος καταπιστεύοντες τοσοῦ τον, ἀλλ' ἀκριβῶς γνωρίζοντες ἀπὸ ὀλίγων ἀφορμῶν ἐπὶ πολλά σε ὄντα εὑρετικόν. Ἐὰν δέ τί σοι καὶ ἀσθενέστερον ἔχειν τῆς χρείας καταφανῇ, μὴ κατοκνήσῃς ἐλέγξαι. Τούτῳ γὰρ μάλιστα φίλος κόλακος διενήνοχε, τῷ τὸν μὲν πρὸς ἡδονὴν ὁμιλεῖν, τὸν δὲ μηδὲ τῶν λυπούντων ἀπέ χεσθαι.

21.τ ΛΕΟΝΤΙΩ ΣΟΦΙΣΤΗ

21.1 Ἔοικέ τι τῆς κοινῆς καταστάσεως καὶ εἰς τὰ ἑαυτοῦ πράγματα ὁ χρηστὸς

Ἰουλιανὸς ἀπολαύειν. Ἀπαιτεῖται γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ ἐγκαλεῖται σφοδρῶς, ἐπειδὴ πάντα νῦν ἀπαιτουμένων καὶ ἐγκαλουμένων γέμει. Πλὴν ὅσον οὐκ εἰσφορῶν ἐλλείμματα, ἀλλ' ἐπιστολῶν. Καίτοι πόθεν αὐτῷ ἐλλέλειπται ἀγνοῶ. Ἔδωκε γὰρ ἀεὶ ἐπιστολήν, τὴν δὲ ἐκομίσατο. Εἰ μή τί που καὶ παρὰ σοὶ ἡ πολυθρύλητος αὕτη τετραπλῆ προτετίμηται. Οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ Πυθαγόριοι τοσοῦτον προετίμησαν τὴν τετρακτὺν ὅσον οἱ νῦν ἐκλέ γοντες τὰ δημόσια τὴν τετραπλῆν. Καίτοιγε ἴσως τὸ ἐναν τίον εἰκὸς ἦν, σοφιστὴν ὄντα καὶ εὐποροῦντα λόγων τοσού των, αὐτὸν ἡμῖν εἰς τὴν τῶν τετραπλασίων ἔκτισιν ὑπο κεῖσθαι. Καὶ μὴ οἴου ταῦτα δυσχεραίνοντας ἡμᾶς γράφειν. Χαίρω γάρ σου καὶ ταῖς μέμψεσιν, ἐπειδὴ τοῖς καλοῖς φασι πάντα μετὰ τῆς τοῦ καλοῦ προσθήκης γίνεσθαι, ὥστε καὶ λύπας αὐτοῖς καὶ ὀργὰς ἐπιπρέπειν. Ἥδιον γοῦν ἄν τις ἴδοι ὀργιζόμενον τὸν ἀγαπώμενον ἢ θεραπεύοντα ἕτερον. Μήποτε οὖν ἀνῇς ἐγκαλῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα. Γράμματα γάρ που ἔσται αὐτὰ τὰ ἐγκλήματα, ὧν ἐμοὶ οὐδὲν ἄκουσμα τιμιώτερον οὐδὲ πλείονα φέρον τὴν ἡδονήν.

22.τ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΕΛΕΙΟΤΗΤΟΣ ΒΙΟΥ ΜΟΝΑΧΩΝ

22.1 Πολλῶν ὄντων τῶν ὑπὸ τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς δηλουμένων καὶ τῶν

κατορθοῦσθαι ὀφειλόντων τοῖς ἐσπου δακόσιν εὐαρεστῆσαι τῷ Θεῷ, περὶ μόνων τέως τῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος κινηθέντων παρ' ὑμῖν, ὡς ἔμαθον ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς