To Aerius the Sophist, for Celestinianus

Now is the time for your Academy to prove the value of your discussions. I am told that a brilliant company gathers at your house, whose members are both distinguished by birth and polished in speech, and that you debate about virtue, the immortality of the soul, and other related subjects. Show now, at the right moment, your nobility of soul and your wealth of virtue. Receive the most admirable and honorable Celestinianus in the spirit of people who have learned how quickly human prosperity changes. He was once an ornament of the city of Carthage, where he threw open the doors of his house to many priests, and never thought he would need a stranger’s kindness. Be his spokesman, my friend, and help him, since he needs your voice; for he cannot bring himself to follow the advice of the poet, who bids the man in need to speak, even though he is ashamed. [a] Persuade, I beg you, any members of your circle who are able to do so to imitate the hospitality of Alcinous, to remove the poverty that has unexpectedly fallen on him, and to turn his bad fortune into good. Let them praise our kind Lord for making us wise through other people’s calamities, not sending us to strangers’ houses but bringing strangers to our doors. To those who show kindness he promises to give what words cannot express and no mind can understand. [c]