Ep. LXXXVIII.

It was needful that the Royal Image should adorn the Royal City.  For this reason it wears you upon its bosom, as was fitting, with the virtues and the eloquence, and the other beauties with which the Divine Favour has conspicuously enriched you.  Us it has treated with utter contempt, and has cast away like refuse and chaff or a wave of the sea.  But since friends have a common interest in each other’s affairs, I claim a share in your welfare, and feel myself a partaker in your glory and the rest of your prosperity.  Do you also, as is fitting, partake of the anxieties and reverses of your exiles, and not only (as the tragedians say) hold and stick to happy circumstances, but also take your part with your friend in troubles; that you may be perfectly just, living justly and equally in respect of friendship and of your friends.  May good fortune abide with you long, that you may do yet more good; yes, may it be with you irrevocably and eternally, after your prosperity here, unto the passage to that other world.

[88] ΝΕΚΤΑΡΙΩΙ

Ἔδει τὸ βασίλειον ἄγαλμα τὴν βασιλίδα πόλιν κοσμεῖν. Διὰ τοῦτό σε μέν, ὡς ἔπρεπεν, ἐγκόλπιον ἔχει μετὰ τῶν ἀρετῶν καὶ τῶν λόγων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων καλῶν οἷς ἡ θεία σε χάρις ἀξιοπρεπῶς κατεπλούτισεν. Ἡμᾶς δὲ μακρὰν ἀπεσκυβάλισε καὶ ἀπέρριψεν ὡσανεὶ συρφετόν τινα καὶ ἄχνην καὶ κῦμα θαλάσσιον. Ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ τὰ τῶν φίλων κοινά, κοινοποιοῦμαι μὲν ἔγωγε τὴν σὴν εὐπραγίαν καὶ τῆς τε δόξης μετασχεῖν ἡγοῦμαι καὶ τῆς ἄλλης εὐημερίας. Κοινώνει δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ὅσα δεῖ τῶν ἐνταῦθα φροντίδων καὶ περιστάσεων τοῖς σοῖς ἀποδήμοις: « καὶ μὴ μόνος τὸ χρηστὸν ἀπολαβὼν ἔχε », τοῦτο δὴ τὸ τῶν τραγῳδῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν πόνων ἐν μέρει συναντιλαμβάνου τῷ φίλῳ, ἵνα καθόλου δίκαιος ᾖς, δικαίως καὶ ἴσως διαιτῶν φιλίᾳ καὶ φίλοις. Καί σοι παραμένοι τὸ εὐπραγεῖν χρονιώτερον, ὡς καὶ εὖ δράσῃς πλεῖον, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀναφαίρετόν σοι προσείη καὶ ἀΐδιον μετὰ τὴν ἐντεῦθεν εὐημερίαν ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκεῖ διαβάντι.