Letter 8: To the Rulers of the Mytilenaeans (1-5)

The sons of Aphareus,[*] my grandsons, who were instructed in music by Agenor,[*] have asked me to write to you and beg that, since you have restored some of the other exiles, you will also allow Agenor, his father, and his brothers to return home. When I told them that I feared I should appear ridiculous and meddlesome in seeking so great a favor from men with whom I have never before spoken or been acquainted, they, upon hearing my reply, were all the more insistent.

And when they could obtain nothing of what they hoped, they clearly showed to all that they were displeased and sorely disappointed. So when I saw that they were unduly distressed I finally promised to write the letter and send it to you. That I may not justly seem foolish and irksome I make this explanation.

I think you have been well advised both in becoming reconciled to your fellow-citizens and, while trying to reduce the number of exiles, in increasing that of the participants in public life and also in imitating Athens[*] in handling the sedition. You are especially deserving of praise because you are restoring their property to the exiles who return; for thus you show and make clear to all that you had expelled them, not because you coveted the property of others, but because you feared for the welfare of the city.

Nevertheless, even if you had adopted none of the measures, and had received back no one of the exiles, the restoration of these individuals is to your advantage, I think; for it is disgraceful that while your city is universally acknowledged to be most devoted to music and the most notable artists in that field have been born among you,[*] yet he who is the foremost authority of living men in that branch of culture is an exile from such a city; and that while all other Greeks confer citizenship upon men who are distinguished in any of the noble pursuits, even though they are foreigners, yet you suffer those who are both famous among the other Greeks and share in your own racial origin to live abroad in exile.

I marvel that so many cities judge those who excel in the athletic contests to be worthy of greater rewards than those who, by painstaking thought and endeavor, discover some useful thing,[*] and that they do not see at a glance that while the faculties of strength and speed naturally perish with the body, yet the arts and sciences abide for eternity, giving benefit to those who cultivate them.