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We now inhabit the city of Alexander, imagining ourselves to be with you. Such a thought the Loves engender in me. And if, recovering for a short while, I become myself again, I luxuriate in your tales. And everyone in turn recalling your qualities, one the gentleness of your speech, another the dignity of your manners. Others named you sweet, another speaks of the moderation of your judgment, and another said you bear the Muses on your tongue, and everyone strives eagerly to surpass the others by being the only one to recount your qualities. But you, write, healing your absence with your letters, and deign to see with pleasure the one who brings this letter. 121 To Nephalius As much as you formerly roused our anger with your letters, so much have you now with your kindness surpassed our hopes. For to correct past events and to console the one who is persuaded that he is wronged in friendship, how is this not the work of a man wise in judgment and one who knows how to heal what causes pain? Only one thing in your letter vexed me, if you think that I have been so affected as to need gifts to change my mind, just as Agamemnon once thought of the Thessalian soldier. Nevertheless, I have also received the gifts eagerly, admiring not so much these as the intention of the one who sent them. And may the one who brings this letter, needing your good will, obtain it in those things for which he asks without causing trouble. 122 To Gessius the iatrosophist The man delivering this letter, raised by a widowed mother and citing a lack of necessities, nevertheless has not been carried away by youth nor, having the freedom to do what he wants, has he inclined toward idleness, but, wishing to improve his fortune, he both loves learning and hastens to your eloquence, to draw from it sufficient means for a respectable life, since it is enough to look to you and to have a release from troubles, setting aright his hopes for the future by your teaching. Therefore, knowing your disposition and how you are ready to help those who need to be treated well, I confidently bring this young man to you, instead of a great gift supplying you with material to be able to cultivate again. 123 To Philip the brother You have with difficulty changed us from our perplexity, by writing that you wish to sing a wedding-hymn. And to become a father of children. For a widespread rumor brought other stories from other places, and while everyone was recounting them we listened in silence, ignorant of the most important of our own affairs and seeming to those who asked to be joking, as if pretending to be ignorant on purpose. But now, pleased by what has been written, I would gladly have become a winged Perseus at once, and having flown over the sea and having arrived among you, I would have gazed upon the sacred bridal chamber and the sweetest sight of all, a bridegroom in love out of philosophy, even if one calls him materialistic, answering philosophically that it was necessary to adorn generation, supplying a contribution in his own stead and dedicating what is fitting to it. Nevertheless, you have been caught, my good sir, and at long last you learn the arrows of the Loves, and the bride is beautiful, they say, by the Graces, and capable of turning her lover away from philosophy. Only become a father "1of legitimate children for the plough,"2 as the comedy says, and may I quickly see from you a child who proclaims his father by his appearance, or rather is like him in his gentleness and magnanimity, and in his other virtues. 124 To Hieronymus How proud you are of the Nile, and you bring Egypt into the argument against us, as if you have forgotten dearest Elousa. And how sophistic are your writings; I seemed to see the arrogance of Gorgias. For you said the Nile rains from the earth, if none of your words escaped me, and makes navigable what was formerly passable on foot. But what is this to you who inhabit Hermopolis, which neither Zeus the rain-god watches over and which the Nile, running past, hastens on to another place? And why do you say you gather a false harvest? Unless perhaps you call the snakes a harvest and such a great multitude of scorpions. Having been struck long ago, it seems, by one of these, and having cried out, as they say, "Alas, alas!", then in the meantime, seeing a luxurious table, you rushed wholly toward it, telling the scorpion to go hang, saying to it perhaps this line from comedy: "1For not even when dead may I ever be without you."2 You should have written these things, not about the good things of others

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τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου νῦν οἰκοῦμεν, τὸ σὺν ὑμῖν εἶναι τῇ φαντασίᾳ πλαττόμενοι. τοιαύτην μοι γνώμην ἐναποτίκτουσιν Ἔρωτες. κἂν πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀνενεγκὼν ἐν ἐμαυτῷ πάλιν γένωμαι, τοῖς σοῖς ἐπεντρυφῶ διηγήμασι. καὶ πάντες ἀνὰ μέρος τὰ ὑμέτερα μνημονεύουσα, ὁ μὲν τοῦ λόγου τὸ ἥμερον, ὁ δὲ τῶν τρό πων τὸ σεμνόν. ἄλλοι γλυκὺν προσωνόμασαν, ὁ δὲ τῆς γνώμης λέγει τὸ μέτριον, ὁ δέ σε φέρειν ἐπὶ τῆς γλώττης εἶπε τὰς Μούσας, καὶ πᾶς τις φιλο νεικεῖ φθάσαι τοὺς ἄλλους μόνος τὰ σὰ διηγούμενος. σὺ δὲ γράφε, τὴν ἀπου σίαν θεραπεύων τοῖς γράμμασι καὶ τὸν φέροντα τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἡδέως ἰδεῖν καταξίωσον. 121 Νηφαλίωι Ὅσον ἡμῖν πάλαι τὸν θυμὸν ἐπαφῆκας τοῖς γράμμασι, τοσοῦτον νῦν χρηστότητι τὰς ἡμετέρας ἐλπίδας ἐνίκησας. τὸ γὰρ διορθοῦσθαι τὰ φθάσαντα καὶ παραμυθεῖσθαι τὸν εἰς φιλίαν ἀδικεῖσθαι πειθόμενον πῶς οὐ σοφοῦ τὴν γνώμην ἀνδρὸς καὶ τὸ λυποῦν θεραπεύειν εἰδότος; ἕν με μόνον τῶν ὑμετέρων ἠνίασεν, εἰ τοσοῦτον ἐμὲ πεπονθέναι δοκεῖς, ὡς καὶ δώρων δεῖσθαι μεταβαλ λόντων τὴν γνώμην, ὥς που καὶ Ἀγαμέμνων τὸν Θετταλὸν στρατιώτην. πλὴν καὶ τὰ δῶρα δέδεγμαι προθύμως, οὐ ταῦτα ζηλώσας μᾶλλον ἢ τὴν τοῦ πεπομφότος προαίρεσιν. ὁ δὲ φέρων τὴν ἐπιστολὴν τῆς ὑμετέρας εὐνοίας δεόμενος τυγχανέτω ταύτης ἐν οἷς αἰτῶν οὐ λυπεῖ. 122 Γεσσίωι ἰατροσοφιστῆι Ὁ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἐπιδιδοὺς ὑπὸ μητρὶ χήρᾳ τραφεὶς καὶ τὴν τῶν ἀναγ καίων ἔνδειαν αἰτιώμενος, ὅμως οὐχ ὑπὸ νεότητος ἐπαρθεὶς οὐδ' ἐν ἐξουσίᾳ τοῦ πράττειν ὅ τι θέλοι γενόμενος πρὸς ῥαθυμίαν ἀπέκλινεν, ἀλλ' ἐπανορ θοῦσθαι τὴν τύχην ἐθέλων καὶ λόγων ἐρᾷ καὶ πρὸς τὴν ὑμετέραν γλῶτταν ἐπείγεται, ἀρκοῦσαν ἀφορμὴν πρὸς εὐσχήμονα βίον ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀρυσόμενος, ὡς ἀρκοῦν ἐς ὑμᾶς ἰδεῖν καὶ τῶν λυπούντων ἔχειν τὴν λύσιν, τῇ παρ' ὑμῶν διδασκαλίᾳ τὰς πρὸς τὸ μέλλον ἐλπίδας ἐπανορθούμενος. ὅθεν τὴν ὑμετέραν γνώμην εἰδὼς καὶ ὡς πρόκεισθε τοῖς εὖ παθεῖν δεομένοις, θαρρῶν ὑμῖν προσάγω τὸν νέον, ἀντὶ μεγάλης δωρεᾶς ὕλην ὑμῖν χορηγῶν τοῦ πάλιν δύνασθαι γεωργῆσαι. 123 Φιλίππωι ἀδελφῶι Μόλις ἡμᾶς ἀμηχανοῦντας μετέβαλες, γράψας ὡς ᾄδειν ἐθέλεις ὑμέναιον. καὶ παίδων γενέσθαι πατήρ. πολλὴ γὰρ ἐπιδραμοῦσα φήμη ἄλλους ἀλλα χόθεν ἐπήγετο λόγους, καὶ πάντων διηγουμένων σιωπῶντες ἡμεῖς ἠκροώ μεθα, τῶν ἡμετέρων ἀγνοοῦντες τὰ μέγιστα καὶ τοῖς πυνθανομένοις παίζειν δοκοῦντες, ὡς ἀγνοεῖν ἐπίτηδες προσποιούμενοι. νυνὶ δὲ τοῖς γραφεῖσιν ἡσθείς, ἡδέως ἂν εὐθὺς Περσεὺς ἐγενόμην ὑπόπτερος, καὶ τοῦ πελάγους ὑπερπτὰς καὶ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀφικόμενος παστάδα κατεῖδον ἱερὰν καὶ τὸ πάντων ἥδιστον θέαμα, νυμφίον ἐκ φιλοσοφίας ἐρωτικόν, κἂν ὑλικόν τις αὐτὸν ὀνο μάζῃ, φιλοσόφως ἀποκρινόμενον ὡς κοσμεῖν ἔδει τὴν γένεσιν, ἔρανον ἀνθ' ἑαυτοῦ χορηγοῦντα καὶ τὰ εἰκότα πρὸς ταύτην ἀφοσιούμενον. ἑάλως δ' οὖν ὅμως, ὦ βέλτιστε, καὶ ὀψέ ποτε τὰ τῶν Ἐρώτων μανθάνεις τοξεύματα, ἥ τε νύμφη καλή φασι, νὴ τὰς Χάριτας, καὶ ἱκανὴ φιλοσοφίας παρατρέψαι τὸν ἐραστήν. πατὴρ μόνον γίνου "1παίδων ἐπ' ἀρότῳ γνησίων"2, ἡ κωμῳ δία φησί, καὶ θᾶττον ἐξ ὑμῶν ἴδοιμι παῖδα διὰ τῆς θέας τὸν πατέρα κηρύτ τοντα, μᾶλλον δὲ πραότητι καὶ μεγαλοψυχίᾳ, καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις ἀρεταῖς παραπλήσιον. 124 Ἱερωνύμωι Ὡς μεγάλα τῷ Νείλῳ φρονεῖς, καὶ ἀντεξάγεις ἡμῖν εἰς μέσον ἄγων τὴν Αἴγυπτον, ὥσπερ Ἐλούσης τῆς φιλτάτης εἰς λήθην ἐλθών. ὡς καὶ σοφιστικὰ δέ σου τὰ γράμματα, καὶ τὸν Γοργίου τῦφον ἐδόκουν ὁρᾶν. ὕειν γὰρ τὸν Νεῖλον ἔφης ἐκ γῆς, εἴ τί με μὴ τῶν ῥημάτων παρέλαθε, καὶ πλωτὴν ποιεῖν τὴν πάλαι βατήν. τί δέ γε τοῦτο πρὸς σὲ τὴν Ἑρμοῦ κατοικοῦντα, ἣν οὔτε Ζεὺς ὑέτιος ἐφορᾷ καὶ παρατρέχων ὁ Νεῖλος εἰς ἑτέραν ἐπείγεται; τί δὲ καὶ ψευδῶς ὀπωρίζεσθαι φής; πλὴν εἰ μὴ τοὺς ὄφεις ὀπώραν καλεῖς καὶ σκορ πίων ὅσον γε πλῆθος. ὑφ' ὧν τινος ὡς ἔοικε πάλαι πληγεὶς καὶ ἰοὺ ἰού φασι κεκραγώς, εἶτα μεταξὺ τράπεζαν τρυφῶσαν ἰδών, ὅλος ἐπ' αὐτὴν ἐφέρου, τῷ σκορπίῳ χαίρειν λέξας, τουτὶ τάχα που τὸ κωμικὸν πρὸς τοῦτον εἰπών "1μηδὲ γὰρ θανών ποτε σοῦ χωρὶς εἴην"2. ταῦτα γράφειν ἐχρῆν, οὐκ ἀλλο τρίοις ἀγαθοῖς