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whom it was most right to be present and to pray with us. 231.2 And yet I also promised, for hoping was present with my longing; and wishing is sufficient for deception. And having set out many times, and many times having hesitated, in the end I was defeated by my illness. 231.3 Let others then invoke loves, -since playfulness is also part of marriage, -and let them describe a maiden's beauty and extol a bridegroom's grace and pelt the bridal chambers with words along with flowers. 231.4 But I will sing to you my own nuptial song: 20May the Lord bless you from Zion20, and may He Himself join the union, and 20may you see your children’s children20, and it is not too much to say, even better ones. 231.5 This I would have prayed for you had I been present, and I pray for it now. Let your father be concerned with and crown the rest, as he prayed. For this is what we have established whenever we have attended weddings: that the crowns are theirs, but the prayers are ours, which I know are not confined by place. 232.T TO DIOCLES 232.1 We have not been invited to the wedding of our daughter, yet we are present, both celebrating with you and sharing your zeal and praying for you all that is most excellent. 232.2 And one of the excellent things is for Christ to be present at the wedding (and where Christ is, there is good order), and for the water to become wine (which is for all things to be transformed for the better), in such a way that unmixable things are not mixed, nor are bishops and jesters, prayers and applause, psalmody and concerts brought into the same place. 232.3 For it is necessary, just as with all other things, so also for the weddings of Christians to have good order; and order is solemnity. These things we offer as a gift to the wedding; may you in return give us your obedience. As for the bridegroom, if he follows these things, you have a son; but if not, a soldier. 233.T TO ABLABIUS 233.1 I learn that you are in love with sophistry, and that your demeanor is marvelous, such as to speak pompously, to look grandly, to walk tall and loftily, your spirit carrying you there to Marathon and Salamis, these indeed your affectations, and to think of nothing but Miltiades and Cynaegirus, Callimachus and Lamachus, and that everything has been prepared sophistically and is very close to the undertaking. 233.2 If, then, along with this you also take some account of virtue, you are one of us and the means to good repute will proceed for you on your way; but if you are entirely a sophist and forget our friendship, and the things we often discussed with each other about the good, I will say nothing else harsh, but perhaps it is moderate to say this: 233.3 know that while you jest briefly among the youths, you will be jested at most by yourself, whenever sense comes to you, - but for later. 234.T TO OLYMPIANUS 234.1 The small tablet which you have received from us, the Letters of Aristotle, I could have not taken back, but allowed to remain with you, both a fitting gift for a man of letters and a favorable reminder of friendship. 234.2 But so that you may not bring an indictment against us of lawlessness and insolence toward your office, being both a most skillful orator and an excellent judge, that we are attempting to corrupt a judge so incorruptible and above every kind of bribe, let what we have given come back again. 234.3 But as payment we seek from your learnedness nothing else (for what could you give us who philosophize on having nothing?), but the very act of writing letters, so that the matter of repayment may also be rational for you, repaying the favor of the Letters by means of letters. 235.T TO ADAMANTIUS 235.1 You ask for tablets from us as you are entering upon rhetoric, which we have abandoned, inclining upwards from God and through God, since it was necessary for us at some point to cease both playing and stammering the things of youth, and to look up to the true education, and to give to the Word our words along with the other things we once had. 235.2 It would be better if you had asked for divine books, and not these; since we know that those are both more profitable for you and more fitting. 235.3 But since the worse things prevail and it is not possible to persuade you otherwise, behold for you also the tablets from us which you ask, as many as have escaped the moths and the smoke above which they were laid, just like the rudders for sailors after the voyage and the season. 235.4 But you, contribute to me from your sophistry

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οὓς μάλιστα παρεῖναι καὶ συνεύχεσθαι δίκαιον ἦν. 231.2 Καίτοι καὶ ὑπεσχόμην, τὸ γὰρ ἐλπίζειν ὑπῆν τῷ ποθεῖν· ἱκανὸν δὲ εἰς ἀπάτην τὸ βούλεσθαι. Καὶ πολλάκις μὲν ὁρμήσας, πολλάκις δὲ κατοκνήσας, τέλος ἡττήθην τῆς ἀρρωστίας. 231.3 Ἄλλοι μὲν οὖν καλείτωσαν ἔρωτας, -ἐπειδὴ γαμικὸν καὶ τὸ παίζειν, -καὶ παρθένου κάλλος γραφέτωσαν καὶ νυμφίου χάριν ἀντεγειρέτωσαν καὶ βαλλέτωσαν λόγοις μετὰ τῶν ἀνθέων τὰς παστάδας. 231.4 Ἐγὼ δὲ ὑμῖν προσᾴσω τὸν ἐμὸν ἐπιθαλάμιον· 20Εὐλο γήσαι Κύριος ὑμᾶς ἐκ Σιών20, καὶ αὐτὸς ἁρμόσαι τὴν συζυγίαν, καὶ 20ἴδοις υἱοὺς τῶν υἱέων20, οὐ πολὺ δ' εἰπεῖν ὅτι καὶ κρείσσονας. 231.5 Τοῦτο καὶ παρὼν ἐπηυξάμην ἂν ὑμῖν καὶ νῦν ἐπεύχομαι. Τἄλλα δὲ ὑμῖν μελέτω καὶ στεφανούτω πατήρ, ὡς εὔξατο. Τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ εἴ που γάμοις παραγεγόναμεν, ἐτυπώσαμεν· ἐκείνων μὲν εἶναι τοὺς στεφάνους, ἡμῶν δὲ τὰς εὐχάς, ἃς οἶδα μὴ τόποις ὁριζομένας. 232.Τ ∆ΙΟΚΛΕΙ 232.1 Οὔτε κεκλήμεθα πρὸς τοὺς γάμους τῆς θυγατρὸς ἡμῶν, καὶ πάρεσμεν καὶ συνεορτάζοντες καὶ συμπροθυ μούμενοι καὶ ἐπευχόμενοι πᾶν ὑμῖν ὃ κάλλιστον. 232.2 Ἓν δὲ τῶν καλῶν, παρεῖναι Χριστὸν τοῖς γάμοις (οὗ δὲ Χριστός, εὐκοσμία), καὶ τὸ γενέσθαι οἶνον τὸ ὕδωρ (τὸ δέ ἐστι πάντα μεταποιεῖσθαι πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον), οὕτως, ὡς μὴ τὰ ἄμικτα μίγνυσθαι, μηδὲ εἰς ταὐτὸν ἄγειν ἐπισκόπους καὶ γελωτοποιούς, εὐχὰς καὶ κρότους, ψαλμῳδίας καὶ συναυλίας. 232.3 ∆εῖ γάρ, ὥσπερ τἄλλα πάντα, οὕτω καὶ τοὺς γάμους Χριστιανῶν ἔχειν τὸ εὔκοσμον· κόσμος δέ, ἡ σεμνότης. Ταῦτα δωροφοροῦμεν τῷ γάμῳ· σὺ δ' ἡμῖν ἀντιδοίης τὴν εὐπείθειαν. Τὸν δὲ γαμβρόν, εἰ μὲν ἕπεται τούτοις, ἔχεις υἱόν· εἰ δὲ μή, στρατιώτην. 233.Τ ΑΒΛΑΒΙΩΙ 233.1 Πυνθάνομαί σε σοφιστικῆς ἐρᾶν, καὶ τὸ σχῆμα εἶναι θαυμάσιον, οἷον σοβαρὸν φθέγγεσθαι, μέγα βλέπειν, βαδίζειν ὑψηλὸν καὶ μετέωρον, τὸ λῆμά σοι φέρειν ἐκεῖσε εἰς Μαραθῶνα καὶ Σαλαμῖνα, ταῦτα δὴ τὰ ὑμέτερα καλλωπίσματα, καὶ μηδὲν ἐννοεῖν ὅτι μὴ Μιλτιάδας καὶ Κυναιγείρους, Καλλιμάχους τε καὶ Λαμάχους, καὶ πάντα ἐσκευάσθαι σοφιστικῶς καὶ ὅτι ἐγγύτατα τῆς ἐγχειρήσεως. 233.2 Εἰ μὲν οὖν μετὰ τούτου καὶ ἀρετῆς ποιῇ τινα λόγον, ἡμέτερος εἶ καὶ καθ' ὁδόν σοι προΐοι τὰ τῆς εὐδοκιμήσεως· εἰ δὲ τὸ ὅλον εἶ σοφιστὴς καὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐπιλανθάνῃ φιλίας, ὧν τε πρὸς ἀλλήλους πολλάκις περὶ τοῦ καλοῦ διελέχθημεν, ἄλλο μὲν οὐδὲν ἐρῶ δυσχερές, ἐκεῖνο δὲ εἰπεῖν ἴσως μέτριον· 233.3 ἴσθι βραχέα μὲν παίζων ἐν τοῖς μειρακίοις, πλεῖστα ὑπὸ σεαυτοῦ παισθησόμενος, ἡνίκα ἂν ἔλθῃ σοι τὸ φρονεῖν, - ἀλλ' εἰς ὕστερον. 234.Τ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΝΩΙ 234.1 Τὸ πυκτίον ὅπερ εἴληφας παρ' ἡμῶν, τὰς Ἀριστο τέλους Ἐπιστολάς, ἠδυνάμην μὲν μὴ ἀνακομίσασθαι, ἀλλὰ παρὰ σοὶ μένειν ἐᾶσαι, λογίῳ τε δῶρον οἰκεῖον καὶ φιλίας ὑπόμνημα δεξιόν. 234.2 Ὡς ἂν δὲ μὴ γραφὴν ἀπενέγκῃς καθ' ἡμῶν τῆς εἰς ἀρχὴν παρανομίας καὶ ὕβρεως, ὡς καὶ ῥήτωρ δεινότατος καὶ δικαστὴς ἄριστος, ὅτι διαφθείρειν ἐπιχειροῦμεν δικαστὴν οὕτως ἀνάλωτον καὶ παντὸς ὑψηλότερον λήμματος, ἡκέτω πάλιν ὃ δεδώκαμεν. 234.3 Μισθὸν δὲ ἐπιζητοῦμεν παρὰ τῆς σῆς λογιότητος ἄλλο μὲν οὐδὲν (τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ δοίης ἡμῖν τὸ μηδὲν ἔχειν φιλο σοφοῦσιν;), αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ ἐπιστέλλειν, ἵνα σοι καὶ πρὸς λόγον ᾖ τὸ τῆς ἀντιδόσεως, τὴν ἐπὶ ταῖς Ἐπιστολαῖς χάριν δι' ἐπιστολῶν διαλύοντι. 235.Τ Α∆ΑΜΑΝΤΙΩΙ 235.1 Αἰτεῖς πυκτία παρ' ἡμῶν εἰς ῥητορικὴν ἀνηβάσκων, ἣν ἡμεῖς κατελύσαμεν, ἐκ Θεοῦ καὶ διὰ Θεὸν ἄνω νεύσαντες, ἐπειδὴ ἐχρῆν ποτε παύσασθαι καὶ παίζοντας ἡμᾶς καὶ τὰ μειρακίων ψελλιζομένους, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀληθινὴν ἀνακύψαι παίδευσιν, καὶ δοῦναι τῷ Λόγῳ τοὺς λόγους μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἅ ποτε εἴχομεν. 235.2 Κάλλιον μὲν εἰ θεϊκὰς ᾔτεις βίβλους, ἀλλὰ μὴ ταύτας· ἐπεὶ καὶ λυσιτελεστέρας σοι καὶ οἰκειοτέρας ἐκείνας οἴδαμεν. 235.3 Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὰ χείρω νικᾷ καὶ μεταπείθειν οὐκ ἔστιν, ἰδού σοι καὶ τὰ πυκτία παρ' ἡμῶν ἅπερ αἰτεῖς, ὅσα τοὺς σῆτας διέφυγε καὶ τὸν καπνὸν ὑπὲρ οὗ κατέκειτο, καθάπερ τοῖς ναυτικοῖς τὰ πηδάλια μετὰ τὸν πλοῦν καὶ τὴν ὥραν. 235.4 Σὺ δέ μοι προεισένεγκε τῆς σοφιστικῆς