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The fact that those who excel in virtues pass on to their fate while young, as though beloved of the gods, I have already called to your attention in an earlier part 111 B supra of my letter, and I shall endeavour at this time to touch upon it very briefly, merely adding my testimony to that which has been so well said by Menander From the Double Deceiver: Cf. Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii. p. 36, Menander, No. 125, and Allinson’s Menander (L.C.L.), p. 345. The sentiment is found many times in other writers, Cf. Plautus, Bacch. iv. 7. 18 quem di diligunt adulescens moritur. : Whom the gods love dies young. But perhaps, my dearest Apollonius, you would say in retort that your young son had been placed under the special care of Apollo and the Fates, and that it should have been you who, on departing this life, received the last offices from him, after he had come to full manhood; for this, you say, is in accordance with nature. Yes, in accordance with your nature, no doubt, and mine, and that of mankind in general, but not in accordance with the Providence which presides over all or with the universal dispensation. But for that boy, now among the blessed, it was not in accordance with nature that he should tarry beyond the time allotted to him for life on this earth, but that, after fulfilling this term with due obedience, he should set forth to meet his fate, which was already (to use his own words i.e. his dying words, Fate summons me; Cf. the dying words of Alcestis, Charon summons me, Euripides, Alcestis, 254, and Plato, Phaedo, 115 A.) summoning him to himself. But he died untimely. Yes, but for this very reason his lot is happier, and he is spared many evils; for Euripides In an unknown play; cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag., Euripides, No. 966. says: Life bears the name of life, being but toil. But he, in the most blooming period of his years, has departed early, a perfect youth, envied and admired by all who knew him. He was fond of his father and mother and his relatives and friends, or, to put it in a word, he loved his fellow men; he respected the elderly among his friends as fathers, he was affectionate towards his companions and familiar friends, he honoured his teachers, and was most kind toward strangers and citizens, gentle with all and beloved of all, both because of his charm of appearance and because of his affable kindliness.
