Libanius
Libanius Antiochenus
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All letters (866)
I sent you a short oration on an important subject.
Unless you were well apprised how long ago my friendship with the excellent Macedonius was contracted, and for what...
The laws and myself will take care that that most abandoned servant shall be punished for what he has said and done.
Would you have me believe that you do not take the least concern in the affairs of Ulpian and Palladius , that you...
On all accounts I was pleased to see Ablavius but principally because he brought me a letter from you.
Gemellus is my relation and my friend and by his manners is no disgrace to his family.
[To Clearchus]
You spoke ill of us, and we spoke well of you -- but no one will believe either of us.
When you were governing Palestine, you didn't neglect to write.
You have no idea, my dear Heortius, how many illnesses have hit me, how severe they've been, or how long they've...
The grief we felt over your illness has itself made us ill -- what pleasure can we have when you're suffering?
You ask whether I still remember you.
I received your letter with great pleasure, and the pleasure was doubled by its length -- for you are one of the few...
I received your earlier letter with more pleasure than you can imagine.
We have made a mutual agreement, that I should write to you on behalf of my friends, and that if their requests are...
I can hardly believe that, than which nothing can be more certain.
You know better than most what it means to run a school in times like these.
I was about to scold you for your fondness for the countryside, convinced that you could have no excuse for rushing...
The young man did not come to me without thinking it through.
How could I not be glad to welcome a young man who is the son of a good mother and the nephew of a man who is both a...
I did not forget the agreement we had about exchanging letters.
You have not made this journey for a small reason, but for the sake of a man to see whom you would have been right...
What excuse can you offer for your silence?
You show me that you are no ordinary devotee of learning, composing letters at such an hour as this.
It was only right that your brother should be honored in this way by you and my friend by me.
I feel as if I have received a letter from you even without actually getting one.
I mourned for the city itself -- the one I was so glad to see, which I left unwillingly, and which I longed for even...
Not only am I not annoyed at being urged on -- I actually welcome your encouragement, because it tells me that you...
May your body, as you reported, continue in good health, and may God send relief for your grief.
Pindar says somewhere that he is the guardian of golden apples, that they belong to the Muses, and that he...
You do well to write to me now, and if you had written earlier, you would have done well then too.
The tutor was no small help to your son while he was here -- and he is no tutor in name only, but one who truly...
I asked what our fine Iphicrates has been up to, and I heard that he causes no trouble to any human being, but is...
I am well aware that writing now is an implicit admission that I was wrong not to write before.
I am glad that you are well, and glad that your Titianus has more appetite for hard work than most people have for...
It seems to me that you are being pushed to push me by your own sister, who is Philoxenus's mother.
I delight in this kind of slander.
When an enemy renders such a verdict about me, then I will consider it worth taking pride in -- since it would mean...
Many good things to you for your eagerness on my behalf -- but you seem to have quite forgotten about my body in...
I hear that the danger has reached its peak -- that bridges have been built for the Persian [Shapur II] and the...
It seems we will always have trouble springing from Severus's character, and you will never be free of my letters on...
Domnus -- the man whose penalty you deferred by advising him to appeal to the emperor's mercy for relief -- has done...
I did not hesitate to write to you on behalf of a man who has a case in court -- I might even say in his defense.
Well, the islander has done the right thing and fulfilled his obligations.
Every effort I make on your behalf is a pleasure to me.
A novel kind of theft this is -- to announce in advance where the theft will take place and that you intend to...
When your letter arrived summoning Priscianus -- the dearest of all men to me -- a great buzz went through the city.
Someone came and reported that you had let fall some disparaging remark about me.
Even if you cannot have all that you desire, you have at least half of it.
Thucydides says that a wrong is dissolved by a favor, when someone later does something pleasing to the person he...
I feel a mixture of joy and its opposite.
I was still saying to my friends, "What is this?
It is no burden for me to keep writing and pleading about the same matter, but it may not sit well with you to keep...
The wrongs being done to Cleobulus, who is my teacher and a friend to us both, and who is doing them -- he has...
There is nothing strange about discussing insomnia with a doctor -- explaining the trouble it causes and asking him...
The man delivering this letter to you is a decent person who took on business from which others would have profited,...
Having come to know Parthenius better than before, I love him more than before.
I know perfectly well that asking you to make an effort on behalf of a friend is like inviting a tortoise to a footrace.
My first letter to you is about something noble -- if indeed friendship is noble.
I did not advise you to leave your homeland, your home, your family, and your prospects -- nor would I ever give...
Andronicus the poet [a contemporary poet praised by Libanius] won over the cities as far as Ethiopia, as one might...
When I told the philosopher I would write to him, Andronicus said, "And will you not write to the doctor?
I do not write to you often -- for what would I say?
I'm asking you for a favor you're already eager to grant.
If I could have traveled with Sabinus, I would have spoken to you in person rather than writing -- that's how badly...
Macedonius is one of my closest friends and has been for a long time.
As long as your goodwill toward us keeps growing, we'll keep needing to write to you about our friends.
It seems you fill the senate [of Constantinople] with new members not only through your own efforts but even in your...
Your student Silvanus has been enrolled among the advocates [barristers at the imperial court], with Modestus...
I received your earlier letter too -- you can't imagine how gladly.
I was glad to receive your sons.
By the gods and by philosophy itself -- give some measure of help to the teacher Cleobulus.
I won't put up with the self-portrait you've drawn -- it doesn't resemble the real you at all.
Not even Helen, when she recognized Odysseus's son Telemachus by his appearance, nor Menelaus, who confirmed his...
The man who brought me your second letter took off for Phoenicia.
That I wasn't able to meet you and make your acquaintance while you were here in Antioch -- for that I blame my...
May you continue doing what you do best -- confirming just decisions, saving cities, hating sycophants, and...
If people knew how you really feel about me, they wouldn't ask me to send you letters on their behalf.
By now, Olympius's business should have been settled through you, with letters coming to us from there announcing it...
People who ask for a first favor think the very fact that it's their first request entitles them to it, invoking...
I'm calling you to do what you do best: defend those who've been wronged.
You truly belong to the golden age, you who pour gold over my leaden words in your letters -- like that goldsmith in...
You were part of a gathering convened on urgent business at the home of one of my friends, and you declared that you...
I don't abandon friends when they're in trouble, the way most people do.
Your new governor is a friend of mine, and I'm confident his governorship will profit your province and bring credit...
The horn of Amalthea [a mythological symbol of abundance and good fortune] has arrived in your province: Eutherius,...
How much Eudaemon is worth to anyone who cares about Greek culture, how close a friend he is to us, and how much he...
Your commands delighted me; your fear of imposing on me did not.
Don't worry -- you won't be deceived, and Eupeithius won't turn out to be a villain.
One favor I owe you thanks for; another I'm asking.
This Dorotheus urged me to write to many of our prominent men, thinking he'd collect a harvest of good things from...
There were many reasons -- compelling ones -- for Argyrius's son to stay home (he prefers to be called that rather...
That your city [Constantinople] is bigger than ours, and by a wide margin -- and more beautiful than it is big --...
My uncle honored me in many ways, and in particular, when he was about to die, he made me one of his heirs --...
Among the soldiers there is a brother of this Hesychius, and Hesychius himself has become a friend of ours for no...
Paeonius has decided to take up the study of law as well.
The son of Boethus -- also named Boethus -- manages my affairs, and his father, through our willingness to help...
The fact that you have the power to sway anything with the force of your words, and yet in the courtroom you never...
May your wedding go as you wish, with Zeus the god of marriage and the daughter of Zeus [Aphrodite] whose work is...
You lied, but the lie made your son better -- and there's room for that kind of lie even in Plato's ideal city [a...
You urged me to remember you when I write.
The people who say I've fallen far from real eloquence are actually agreeing with me and disagreeing with you.
Polianus has returned to us and reported the favors he received, and both he and I are grateful.
When I first heard you'd gone all the way to the Danube itself, where the emperor displayed his arms and humbled the...
The estate of Zezos was acquired by my uncle, and not unjustly.
The verses you sent along with your letter -- you, who are truly both "a fine poet and a mighty orator" [a Homeric...
Just as I'm enjoying the hospitality gifts you sent, so I'll make use of your letter's opening.
What is this fear? Where does the idea come from that your son will be spoken of badly -- especially when everyone...
I think you already know the excellent Artemion.
I saw Dositheus after a long time, and he was pale.
Eudaemon the Egyptian, who lives among you but has sent his reputation everywhere, adorns Egypt no less than your city.
"A friend should stand by a man," as the saying goes.
Whatever kindness you do me, know that you'll have dealt not just with a relative but with someone who loves you.
I asked the others to assist Mocimus with the sale he's come for.
I have many reasons to respect Mocimus: he's been a friend since childhood, he never shrank from any task my uncle...
It isn't the letter-writing that needs forgiveness -- it's your failure to write that would have required it.
Here's how it happened: Hermogenes didn't slam the door shut like some savage -- he just fell idle.
If you call your one letter "many," well, I haven't received only this one.
The inheritance is a fine one, and I accept it -- and neither rhetorical cleverness nor forgery of documents will...
You asked me whether I expect you to master your responsibilities.
To the same person. (359/60)
This Philoxenus has proven himself splendid in every way -- in stature, in voice, in his sense of propriety, and in...
It was not only Philoxenus who, by coming home improved, inspired his brother to follow -- there was also a certain...
Miccalus comes to you from Olympius, from home to home -- and from one brother to another, in every real sense.
"Measure is best," someone said, and the saying became a dedication at Delphi.
Theodotus and Charisius are brothers, and their profession is the same.
I believe one should help everyone who suffers undeservedly, to the extent one can, and I consider this pleasing to...
Those colts of mine, whom I have led from the meadows of the Muses and given to you -- some were summoned by you,...
I knew you would do the things you are now doing, and that you would write well.
This Auxentius is not technically my student, but he is far more devoted than many who are.
If you take pleasure in those who praise me and believe you ought to love those who love me, then you could do no...
We have received a wonderful report about both of you -- Hypatius and yourself -- and you should know that you fully...
So you will not collect taxes twice, yet you keep asking for letters on matters about which you already have...
Mothers who have already given birth attend those who are giving birth -- they share the pain, share the toil, and...
A fine set of rewards awaits governors, it seems -- if they are to wear themselves out, neglect their own interests...
Eunomus here is a man of good birth, eloquent speech, and practiced decency.
You could easily obtain a favor from Cyrillus, both as his friend and as the governor of Tyre.
...claims he has been wronged by you, and has added an oath to the charge.
Neither of these things is new -- neither your constant traveling nor your sending of gifts.
The soldiers serving under Modestus have done me many favors.
Zenobius asks you through me for help on behalf of his father.
It is good of you to consider me a friend and to write, even though we have never met in person.
We count you among the company of the Muses, since knowing how to admire educated men is itself a mark of education.
That you, surrounded by so many responsibilities and pricked by anxieties about the war, still take thought for how...
You know Gaudentius, that excellent teacher.
Let me borrow something from Demosthenes to talk to you about this man Bassus.
The uncertainty is resolved -- you no longer receive contradictory reports, one saying that the excellent Elpidius...
The sons of Lollianus are setting sail -- a trading voyage to Sinope [a port on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor].
If we did not trust you completely, we would not have sent a servant and a ship to Sinope.
Now you are truly absent from us, since you have taken away the man who imitated you.
Even if you neglected your wife's brother while he was away -- failing, among other things, to so much as write to...
I am no prophet, but I can foresee certain things by reasoning.
We were not ourselves when you were visiting.
I knew perfectly well that you would welcome the admirable Palladius with great warmth, even without a letter from me.
What have you done? You who committed only one fault -- but the one fault you should never have committed, even if...
Rufinus is a kinsman of the distinguished Olympius and a friend of mine -- he follows his kinsman's example.
Your fine friend Bacchius has been separated from you and has not spent nearly enough time with me.
This was the reward of our homecoming: to meet old classmates, to exchange stories from the old days, and through...
Nothing from you is small, precisely because it comes from you.
The admirable Mares was both my fellow student and my teacher -- for having grown alongside me, he rose to that rank.
Titianus should have been stirred to action by a letter from you, but it seems the rumor is true -- you are unwell.
At first we had no way of knowing where exactly you were.
Sebon is a Cretan, and he is related by blood to the people you govern -- for he descends from those men born to...
You are still writing letters, when we expected to see you in person!
While we were lamenting what has happened to Procopius and praying for his darkness to be lifted, the Cilicians --...
No doubt you and your friends often discuss Phoenicia -- one praising the nature of its soil, another the tempering...
May you complete this stoa of yours -- that broad, long, lofty colonnade, dear to Dionysus -- exactly as you...
Here is another matter that needs correction.
I know that you were going to receive Palladius kindly without any letter from me.
If it were proper to send you something lesser, I would have sent it already.
I remember the deep mud, the bitter cold that struck me on that occasion, and every other hardship -- and all of it...
Nothing from you is small, because it comes from you.
Your letter was full of the wisdom I expected, and I was glad to receive it -- glad both for what you said about our...
So at last you write -- though it took some prompting.
I received your letter with the same pleasure I always feel when something of yours arrives.
You ask how things stand with us, and I wish I could report only good news.
Your letter was a feast, as your letters always are.
I send you these small tokens not because they match the scale of my affection -- nothing could -- but because they...
I know you are overwhelmed with business -- the kind that admits no postponement and offers no rest.
Your silence is not characteristic of you, and I choose to blame it on the press of affairs rather than on any...
I am sending you what you asked for, though not without misgivings.
The school goes on, as it always does -- some years better than others, but never without interest.
This man needs your help, and he deserves it.
You will have heard the latest attacks on our profession -- the usual complaints from people who think that because...
I write in haste because haste is necessary.
I have several things to lay before you, and I hope you will forgive the length of this letter -- it is the price of...
I know that you welcome frankness, so I shall not waste your time with flattery before coming to the point.
Our disagreement on the point you raised is, I think, less serious than it appears.
I will not pretend that things are as they were.
I return to the subject of your building projects, not because I wish to criticize -- you know my admiration for...
You ask me to be honest about your latest speech, and I shall try -- though honesty between friends in matters of...
The news from your quarter confirms what we have long suspected: that education alone is no longer sufficient...
Your letter arrived at exactly the right moment -- when I was beginning to wonder whether the world contained anyone...
I write to you in good health, though "good" is a relative term at my age and in these times.
You will notice that my letters grow longer as your term in office continues.
Your last letter was short, but I treasured it nonetheless.
Your point about the kinship of our professions is well taken.
Antiochus serves the whole city through his medical practice, but the greatest share of his labors is spent on my...
All good things to you, finest of young men, because what the laws have taken such care to establish regarding...
I commend your war on thieves.
You hardly seem to be away from us at all.
This Antiochus here is a man who barely survived.
I both knew your father and am fond of him.
I have never prayed to hold power myself.
I know. "Why do you tell me what I already know?
I was just praising your character -- we happened to be discussing the virtues of governors, and naturally you took...
You call Hyperechius my son in one breath and say you are grateful to me for what you have done for him in the next.
If I were able to share in the journey and the other exertions with Eustochius, you would certainly have me in...
May this pregnancy of yours produce heirs not only to your estate but also to your wisdom -- that wisdom you have...
The poets, I think, were right about Eros when they called him invincible [a reference to the famous Sophocles...
Well, the dreams did a fine job of prompting you -- though I know perfectly well you would have done the same thing...
You received Maran kindly -- that is one favor I have already collected.
These were certainly not the promises you made when you left us to take up your governorship -- silence, and making...
I think I am about to do something like those people who are so eager to see a friend returning after a long absence...
You do not give me a chance to ask for anything -- you who send everything before being asked.
The sons of Caesarius did not make a bad decision in the first place when they entrusted themselves to a...
Your letter has imitated the Spartans.
I will not hesitate to speak to you about justice -- for justice is your passion, and you would be annoyed not at...
If you wish to consider Olympius an excellent man, you will be right.
"They lie who say you are the son of Zeus" -- someone once said this to one of the Heraclidae before Troy [a Homeric...
So your good fortune does not stop with your sons, who are fine young men in love with learning.
It is an old passion of mine to delight in Greek words and to consider that those who traffic in anything else are...
Lucianus, a man not blessed in everything, did not dare to approach me himself -- so thoroughly did he condemn what...
I showed my affection not by accepting the gifts so much as by the pain I felt earlier over what pained me.
Your letters are themselves a festival -- as is everything that arrives from you.
Your love has made you a slanderer -- you think nobody is anything compared to me.
What you write is neither true nor flattering to us -- you who wrestled with our teaching for so long.
You wrote what a father naturally would, but your letter has not made me any better.
If Eutherius did not have a son studying with us, and if he had not asked you to write, you would have kept your...
My occupation is still rhetoric, as before, but the pleasures are nothing like they were.
It seems you have done something to upset our friend Asclepius.
The son of the man bringing this letter is a student of mine.
We are not unaware of the principles with which you approach your office, and knowing them we do what friends...
I have not yet met you, but I long to, and I am fond of you even before seeing you -- so many fine things are...
Nemesius truly is a friend of Hermes [god of eloquence].
You have been doing what is right -- looking after the people I commend to you, not as a favor to me but out of your...
The young men you sent are a credit to your city and to their fathers, and they have shown themselves worthy of the...
I send you greetings through Hyperechius, who will tell you everything about us more clearly than any letter could.
The man carrying this letter deserves your attention -- not because I say so, though that should count for...
If you have ever wondered what kind of man Callimachus is, you will find out from this visit.
Philastrius, a kinsman of Proaeresius -- the man who benefits the whole world through his eloquence -- is active in...
You have long known how much I care about Dulcitius.
You hold a great office.
What happened was just as you predicted in your letter.
I expect you have already befriended Leontius the sophist, since he possesses eloquence and you love it.
Even before the letter-bearer arrived, word had reached us of the honor you enjoy from a man who himself deserves...
It was not, then, Bithynia's fate for her misfortune to last forever.
I displayed both speeches -- both of them in full: the recent combative one and the older laudatory one.
This old man Heraclius has suffered many wrongs -- not on account of your administration (the Phocian War came...
Save those long and elaborate defenses for those who want to bring charges.
I was delighted by your letter.
In other things I would yield to you, but in this contest I won long ago by doing what a friend should -- back when...
Leontius is still carrying letters on the same subject.
When you took on the governorship of Egypt, I took on the obligation of writing to you about my friends.
I would not beg you to do well by Heraclides -- I command you.
My companions -- your rhetors -- the men I gave to you and you admired -- these very men who carry this letter are...
We take refuge at the same Athena on the same kind of business.
Even while you were still with us, I received several letters of recommendation.
We know how well you treated Alexander -- for the man who benefited did not hide it.
Therasius asked me to write to you, demonstrating his affection for both of us through this single gesture -- for he...
Come now, move on and do for the Galatians what you did for the Phrygians.
Pray that many people travel through Bithynia, for then you will have many to sing your praises.
The very quality that makes you admirable as a governor -- your refusal to bend the law for anyone -- is the quality...
The man who brings this letter is trustworthy and deserves your attention.
I need nothing from you but your letters.
The brevity of this letter should not be taken as a measure of the favor being asked.
I have long admired how you handle the affairs entrusted to you, and this admiration only grows with each report I...
You were right to honor the man I recommended -- not because I recommended him, but because he deserved it.
Since you love eloquence and honor those who practice it, I send you this young man with confidence.
The matter is urgent, the man is honest, and the case is just.
Many people write to governors on behalf of friends, and most of those letters say the same thing: "This man is...
The young man who carries this letter is one of my finest students.
Do not think my silence means I have forgotten you.
Accept my gratitude for what you did for the man I recommended.
Short letter, simple request: a man needs justice, and you are in a position to provide it.
I was pleased to learn that your administration continues to win praise.
I was still delighting in your letter -- which described the clever capture of a bandit with an elaborate escape...
Even before your letter arrived, I knew both that you had fallen into terrible illness and that you had recovered...
This Rhetorius was our student, while I attended his father's classes.
I shared your grief at losing your wife, but I also shared your pride in bearing the misfortune nobly.
Dionysius, who urged me to write to you, first convinced me that you speak of me with praise -- and he convinced me...
Your kindness to my former student has not gone unnoticed, and I write to express my gratitude.
Spectatus — who loves you above all others (whether he is right to do so I cannot say, but that he loves you...
If I were writing to introduce Hieronymus to you before you had met him, I would be asking you to befriend the man.
You who come from Greece hold rhetoric in honor, and Hieronymus possesses it in the highest degree.
Word has reached us that you have attained the highest level in eloquence, and that your character is no worse than...
It is simply not right that the dependents of Tiberinus should suffer — a man excellent in every way, who introduces...
Your letter was sweeter than the storax you sent — and not only sweeter than that batch, but than the kind you say...
Fine work you have done.
Noble products of your teaching!
It was right that you mourned your brother — since even we mourned him, though he was not our brother, because he...
If it were fitting to send you something lesser, I would have sent it already.
It was no small thing to hear others bring reports of you — some we had hoped for, others exceeded our hopes.
All that mud, that bitter cold I endured at the time, and every hardship seemed light while I was looking at your...
The entire speech has been delivered.
On my way to the school I ran into Julianus, who was urging Calykion toward the labors of rhetoric.
Dionysius comes to you with a letter of mine.
Since you say you take the greatest pleasure in being rebuked, and I have a passion for praising good men, I shall...
How pleasant your company is — your deeds, performed with justice, there for all to see, and Julianus narrating his...
Many are the demands upon me, scarcely letting me breathe — the crowd of young men outside, the labor of writing...
Why should I not tell you the things with which I delight myself?
Tuscianus and I enjoyed each other's company — I by listening to him, he by hearing me speak.
Was anyone ever so pleased digging the earth for one purpose only to stumble upon gold, as Jovinus was at seeing you...
I have the son I was looking for — your son — and one well suited to receive what he has come for.
Even this counts as a great gift from you: that you remembered those who made a request, sought out the letter,...
If you do not help those I recommend, that is not the Greek way.
Do you remember those conversations in which I urged you to do right by Honoratus?
You took from us something very great and gave something in return — not small, I would not say that, but not equal...
I received a very short letter from you, though if you wanted to tell me how things stand, you should have written...
I knew you would receive my letter gladly — you always welcomed my words in person.
You know Marcellus, I expect — by his profession and, even before that, by his character, for he is no less a good...
To the same. (~358 AD)
Your letter made Nikentios a friend to us; Modestos, who was already a friend, your letter made more of a friend...
This letter should have been praise for what you have done for Honoratus, but instead it arrives still carrying a...
While your son was here, I both loved him and helped him.
Have you been seized by the same feeling that has seized us?
Well now — what was long in the stitching has finally come together.
You have won a double victory — one in arms, the other in letters — and you have raised a trophy from the barbarians...
It was only fitting, dear Paulus, that he should not abolish a rule he himself established.
You do seem to think me very fond of gold, since you told Olympius to bring me the gold piece for the wedding...
This Tiberius suffers a great disadvantage in his lack of connections, but he has a greater help in the fact that...
You delivered a lengthy defense of your concern for the girl when no one, I believe, was prosecuting you.
So you were destined after all to taste the labors of office, since you did not flee governance by every possible means.
We are sending Dianios back to you — a man who brought credit both to us, whom he followed here, and to you...
I have no complaint against your household — quite the contrary, I am deeply grateful.
May you always send such reports about your health, for it would be fitting that a man of such good judgment should...
Those of us who did not share in the wedding feast deserved at least a letter about the marriage, telling us that...
I had supposed your silence was due to some other preoccupation — and so it should have been.
Obodianus fulfilled toward us everything a son should, and his father fulfilled everything a father should, so that...
I knew you as my friend and as one no less devoted to his friends than Theseus.
I was right to do both things: to write and to stop writing.
To the same person. (358/59)
Greece is the sweetest sight.
I ran into Martialis — the good fellow — one evening; we were both on horseback.
You are a good fellow for seeking letters and claiming that not receiving them makes you ill, and that receiving...
Before I had cleanly recovered from the affliction in my head, a greater evil seized me — one that filled my soul...
Many are those who announce that you are coming, but we do not yet see the deed.
If doing less than one's ability permits while willing counts as laziness, then I am far from that charge.
I want my friends, whatever they say, to be seen as speaking the truth.
I was pleased both that you wrote to us and that you arranged such matters through me — for this was the act of a...
It seems that my speech about my head — which I had been composing as a rhetorical exercise — was destined to come...
You will plead your case before the worthy Apellion regarding the wrongs you say you have suffered — the noble...
Whenever I write to Hierocles — and I have done so many times — I never fail to add: "Please do our friend Anthios a...
Our city is more in love with you than you are with me — and while your affection for me may be undeserved, theirs...
We have raised up a governor for you, and our pride rests not merely on the fact that he is our fellow citizen, but...
You are generous in your letter.
What Boeotians have you been keeping company with, that you've lost your skill in rhetoric?
You have permission to come to us.
Among our fellow citizens I am always saying something about you — describing your character as excellent, your...
That wretch Theodoros has caused you trouble and us — the injured parties — anger.
We are faring as you would pray — and as some people here would not.
When we heard your wife was ill, we shared your pain, imagining how you must feel as she suffered.
Once again the wise Olympios is among you — once again those gatherings, dialogues, and banquets worthy of a written...
Klematios reported to us that certain people are making their usual bold attacks against you, sparing no word.
A man who receives a great gift from the gods and then thinks he has received only a small one wrongs those who gave it.
Since you began helping me long ago -- help through which I recovered what was mine -- a brief word will suffice.
In every other respect, my homeland is better than the foreign city.
Do you realize you are at war with yourself?
You're being unfair when you call my inability "deceit.
Both my long silence and my writing now have their reasons.
I know a letter from me delights you.
[To Aristainetus]
Surely you will not demand a long letter from me this time.
I have written to you before and I greet you again now.
We long for a letter from you.
Your sons are enduring the labors that summer demands at Daphne [the famous pleasure suburb of Antioch], and I have...
Zenobius was our teacher and meant everything to us.
I thought that as soon as you heard the governor was on our side, you yourself would be here.
You are still among your fields and your books, but Fortune is calling you to the courtroom and to cases.
After suffering many physical ailments -- having barely recovered from some and still bearing others -- I have one...
You are in possession of my work and free to return it slowly -- or keep it, if you wish.
I have been worried about you ever since you left here -- not because I doubted your ability, but because I could...
What a fine thing is about to begin -- something that deserves to be old rather than new: now Spectatus will be a...
I may be meddling when I urge a father to care for a son he has decided to neglect.
It is the mark of a friend to feel pain when hearing such things and to write about them.
The language of your letters convinces me that you are familiar with Plato.
Every possible pressure and strategy has been brought against Daphnus -- Clematius has done everything, Apodemius no...
I thought you had dropped your charge -- the one where you accuse me of writing too briefly.
If I had written before saying I have little influence with Dionysius, you might not have believed me -- and that is...
From the letter you sent us some time ago, we expected you to come in person.
I rejoice for both philosophy and the emperor -- for him, because he knows how to honor the finest gift the gods...
Do you still remember me now that you have gone to Rome and are gazing at sights you never saw before, convincing...
I have long considered you a good man, based on Themistocles's friendship with you -- that man would never have...
I hear you praise me and never stop doing so, and it seems to me you are doing what is both just and in your own...
I have always admired your goodwill toward me, and I could never convince myself that you did this without some god...
We are gaping in expectation -- not for Aeschylus [i.
We ask everyone who comes from your region how your health is.
Perhaps you will be willing to help me even in the present crisis, keeping faith with me to the end and with all...
The usual news has reached us: the emperor has won a victory and a barbarian nation has been destroyed.
If I desired only a small thing from your letters, I would have tried once, and failing, stopped immediately.
These ambassadors from our city are among our foremost citizens, both by birth and by character.
When I saw Clematius, I was pleased -- and yet the pleasure was not without pain.
There is no need to tell you about the ambassadors -- you know them both.
Whenever someone says a letter has arrived from Andronicus, I know it means complaints have arrived.
You have been granted the chance to see our city's representatives without even stirring from home.
You have reached the rank your good sense was always going to bring you -- a good sense that is both genuine and not...
You left a sting in me that keeps my memory of you alive.
Clematius struck us as far more admirable -- not because he picked up rhetoric in Rome, as he imagines, but because...
Clematius says that those from whom he expected great things gave him little, while those he assumed would ignore...
I have seen the arrows in your speeches, and I would not say "keep shooting like that.
You ask how my affairs stand but say nothing about the state of your own health -- as if I cared less about that...
I believe both things: that you copied them out, and that you consider my trifles a treasure.
I have never ceased to love you — and indeed to admire you — nor shall I ever.
So is this a law for governors now -- that they must not write to their friends simply because they are governing?
I send you a young man who was once my student and who now practices law.
You found an excellent guardian for your son in the good Tatianus -- a man skillful at spurring on teachers,...
I have not written to you for a long time.
I recently heard someone say that Eusebius was fortunate because he was close to the emperor.
I asked the noble Eusebius whether he counted you among his friends.
You did well both in keeping silent when silence was better and in speaking when speaking was better -- bringing the...
The loss in not having such a listener was mine, the speaker's.
I myself fell ill during the summer; Albanius during the autumn.
I expect the good Macedonius has told you about our struggles and about his responses to them.
I commend to you the bearer of this letter, a person of genuine merit who deserves your favorable attention.
"To one the god gave one thing, but denied another," someone said of a man who prayed for two things.
Just as I would certainly have informed you if I saw any fault in Diophantus, so that you might correct him and...
I too am one of those overwhelmed by that great wave.
May the present health and strength that you say you possess be your constant portion!
I do not congratulate you more on governing the city than I congratulate the city on handing you the reins.
Domnus has done me three favors right around the festival of the goddesses: he gives you the means to write, he...
If it were fitting to send you lesser works, I would have done so by now.
It pleases me more than winning a province myself that this has happened under your governorship.
Even if you did not know before what sort of man Julianus is in character, you could see it now that he is here.
You have gained a double victory , one by your arms, the other by your eloquence.
You inherited very little from your father, and what you earned by pleading cases you spent as a judge — so instead...
I am well aware of the efforts you have made on my behalf, and from me you receive a reward greater than any you...
The friendship I have formed with your son is the most pleasant thing in the world to me — for besides being a...
The moment has come for you to do a service to all of Hellenism.
The "reputation" you mention — I believe it is Traianus, for he is the one who convinced himself that I amount to...
While you have leisure, attend to your land and to a builder, so that when you return to public service you may have...
I think you have some anger toward your son.
That you did not receive the letter Clematios carried — I cannot believe it.
Meterius barely slipped away from our city unnoticed.
You should have suffered no blow to your household.
Alas! alas! how insatiable is your desire of further attainments!
To Libanius [the greatest living Greek rhetorician, based in Antioch].
It was good of you to acquit me of blame in the very act of accusing me.
When I have asked favors of you for others, I felt I was doing those people a kindness.
Your habit of mocking the sophists is old and well-established, and apparently the Pythia [the oracle at Delphi]...
Here -- Zoilus has come to you too.
The letters of recommendation I send you on behalf of their bearers are written in the same hand but not with the...
Well, this particular labor has ended well -- the helmsman's skill proved stronger than the wild winds.
Now you have truly repaid me -- not in gold and silver, the kind of payment most people bring and most people enjoy,...
It was no small thing to hear others bring reports about you -- reports we had hoped for, and some that exceeded our...
I admit I don't write often.
What have you done, Andronicus?
If you have met Clematius, then presumably, having been invited to the wedding, you already know the whole story.
If I had to fall ill with a kidney disease, I ought to have suffered it while near you — not that there is any...
The city has recovered the reality behind its name, and is truly prosperous once more: the council is honored for...
You write such things to a second Tantalus — for I too thirst for your springs, and the springs are near, yet you...
My previous letter was carried by the sons of Bassus, whose father is a man of distinction.
Why I was reluctant to write, you learned from the letter I sent through the sons of Bassus — if you received it.
Malchus admired me, and I grew fond of Malchus.
Wishing to secure for Malchus the best of what your city has to offer, how could I pass over you?
I traveled as far as Litarbe — a village of Chalcis — and found a road that still bore the remains of Antioch's...
Malchos will report to you how things stand with us — both my health and my affairs.
It is time for you to call the Nile a small river, since you also call yourself small in eloquence.
If this man arriving from Cyprus had not stood in your way, surely another would have come from Euboea or Scyros.
You reproach me for my silence — and this when the birds have been stirred to song by spring.
Even if you had sent a letter without actually helping me, you would have been counted among those who showed the...
I wrote to you at the start of winter.
In my other letters I praised everyone for their eagerness on my behalf.
I was glad to see Ablabius for many reasons, not least because he brought me a letter from you.
I expect to receive your letter, but I have not yet been able to.
Even before, my fellow citizens did not disbelieve me when I spoke of you as you deserved.
Now you have paid me back the great wages -- by appearing so fine and good at the imperial court.
You wonder why, when you were helping us in deed and giving what aid you could, we never even wrote to say what came...
We grieved as never before and rejoiced as never before — grieved because your wife was ill, a woman who surpasses...
You are not reminding people who had forgotten your hospitality — we have even told others what a host you were to us.
By admitting your wrong in not writing, you have stripped yourself of the right to accuse.
Oh, for those times when we were everything to each other!
It seems I am using unreliable couriers for my letters, if after sending many on top of many I am accused of never...
Louppion announced that he is bringing me a letter from you — he has not delivered it yet, but will.
Leontios saw my brother in the evening and said you had sent me a letter through him, but the next day he was...
You promised to let me know what state you found your household in, and yet you have written nothing.
You need a plan to deal with the scheming of your uncle -- let him keep the title "uncle" in my letters too, so...
You could have written to me with the same ink and the same hand.
However much I condemned that journey, fatiguing as it was , I no less, or rather more, condemned myself for...
You have repaid Aristophanes for his devotion to the gods and his loyalty to you by transforming what was once a...
Are you then forgetful of us?
I believe you already have advisors far better than any mortal could be, and by following them you have never once...
I am surprised that you sent no letter through Clearchus, nor when Iphicles came from you to us.
I was sitting with my uncle in conversation when someone walked up and handed him a letter.
I spent only a little time in your company, owing to my preoccupation with my teaching, and I count it as a real...
I owe my homeland to you, and I may soon add that I owe my health to you as well.
The noble Spectatus has captured me so completely, and so thoroughly persuaded me to devote all my attention to him,...
Leontius never delivered the letter.
You have Spectatus in your hands -- the man you have been longing to get hold of.
Either you are joking in your letter or you are completely out of touch with reality.
I have long known your skill in governing, so I am certain you are handling your present post with all proper care.
I have discharged my obligations to Aristophanes , but you, in return, have given me such splendid tokens of a...
Accept, then, letters from both of us on behalf of a single matter -- the one asking, the other demanding.
Those who saw the honors you lavished on Artemis are the luckier ones.
To the same. (~362)
If things had worked out and you had been part of the triumphant company that Themistius assembled around him, our...
Themistius drove our city mad with love for wisdom.
Letoius is a friend of mine because he is a good man and better than the station in life he occupies.
It has not escaped us how much good you are doing for Egypt, nor how much the Egyptians love you in return.
Dulcitius belongs to the powerful faction, as you well know, but he would rather earn your esteem through decency...
I write to you often, and I rather wish you would not write back.
You are a harbor for Syrians, even those who lack education.
Heliodorus is on his way to Italy, and along the route the finest thing on earth will come into his view -- your city.
What you most desired -- and what you desired, I believe, was a letter from me -- here it is.
Other men take pride in various things, but Severus takes pride in being my friend.
That Alexander was appointed to the government at first, I confess, gave me some concern, as the principal persons...
The oration , which contains some account of your glorious actions, you honour not only with praise but admiration.
I love myself, and that is why I love you, and I freely admit it.
Many blessings on Bacchius, who is both fine himself and a lover of fine things.
I expected your kinsman to be the cause of no harm and of much good for me.
Rufinus enjoyed something pleasant while he was with us -- he heard me speak.
By writing you honor me, but by neither granting what I asked nor explaining why you did not, you cause me pain.
This man Artemon is a fellow citizen of mine but was the student of others.
The moment I heard that Rome had claimed you, I counted you fortunate.
Right now we are exerting ourselves over a matter of the greatest importance, and if you are willing, you will have...
The pleasure I would have felt if you were governing Syria, I feel now that you are governing cities I hold equal to...
Everything would have come easily to Gymnasius even if he had stayed here with us.
We're only human, and no better than our neighbors.
I admired Gerontius's character and made him my friend, and now I do whatever I can for him in return.
I wrote to you before urging you not to dishonor your homeland, and I urge the same now: admire Rome, but live in...
It would have been fine if you had been here in person to follow the custom, and it is also not bad that even in...
Your brother and I had decided to hand the man over to your people and send him to you.
Will you flee from this letter too, and throw it away when you see the name of the sender -- just as you were happy...
Gaudentius shares with me the work of teaching the young.
My cousin established the games in honor of Olympian Zeus some time ago.
Three things need to happen through you: one for a kinsman, one for an orator, and one for a rhetorician.
Every time I went to him and made my case, asking that you receive what is rightly yours regarding the bronze, he...
If I write something complimentary about Themistius [one of Libanius's students], you will show the letter to...
I had heard that you were a fine and upright man, and I wanted to meet you.
What was expected has come to pass.
I once wrote to you that, with one exception, the entire city council is on my side.
Do you not think I would give anything to have delivered that speech with you in the audience?
A letter reached me from Italy describing the nonsense of some sham sophist and your laughter at him, together with...
If I were to tell you who Letoius is by birth, who he is by character, and what he is to me, I would end up teaching...
You, Olympius, won the contest.
When you said you could not write me a treatise on kidney disease because you had not heard a precise enough account...
People find it puzzling that you never shy away from doing things on my behalf, yet will not add a letter -- the...
Spectatus did something as good as if you had told me yourself: he wrote to say that you love me.
I had wanted to write to you before -- everything people sing about your character encouraged it.
Do you still remember the dog and the old woman and those days when you used to invoke Socrates and everything about...
Word of the deeds this man Maiorinus has done for me has probably reached you already.
So Aristainetus has become just one of the crowd -- the man who used to be one of the wise!
Your praises of the good Spectatus are entirely fitting, and by those praises you are honoring our whole family.
Even if I did not get what I wanted when I wanted it, I did in the end get what I wanted.
It must seem a great wonder to you that Letoius carries letters from me to everyone else but not to you alone.
That letter of mine was old and written as a joke.
Late though it was, I did oblige you.
I expected you to spend more time with us now that you have become your own master.
I have sent servants to your area to buy timber.
The reasons Iamblichus [a young kinsman of the famous philosopher, not the philosopher himself] set out, he will...
It suits you to be a friend of Himerius [a famous Athenian sophist], and your sons, by doing well, are imitating the...
This man is the son of Himerius, nephew of Sopater, namesake of Iamblichus [the famous Neoplatonist philosopher],...
I was not upset when the imperial stipend was transferred to others.
I praised Spectatus for what he did for you -- or rather for what he did for me, since I consider everything done...
Iamblichus left us in tears, saying, "Will I ever see the East again?
Fortune did not plan well for you, but you, I think, have planned well for yourself.
Our entire family both gains good things and escapes bad ones through you.
I did not have to ask Iamblichus to carry this letter to you -- he asked me to send it.
That was unmistakably your letter.
I am still writing to you while you are away.
I could have refuted you for writing that way -- not for complaining about the frequency of my letters, but for...
By telling me that many sorrows have befallen you since your governorship, yet not saying what they are, you have...
A fine pair you make, you and the good Dometios.
What am I to do? You say you want complaints, but everything you do deserves praise.
Your sons have good natures and even better eagerness.
You were praising my speeches, and everyone else was praising your appetite for rhetoric.
I was embarrassed by what you wrote about the wild animals.
I received your letter through Thorax.
That you would deal gently with the cities I knew well, for such is your nature.
Leontios is indeed an excellent man and not unworthy of the praise you heaped on him.
Will you never stop treating trifles as treasures and worthless things as priceless?
Your difficulties have been resolved — resolved by the labors of Mariades.
You described the famine and the cold so vividly in your letter that I shivered and felt hungry just reading it.
You gave good counsel to a good man — you found what was right, and he did not reject it.
The excellent Auxentius is on his way to Egypt, and as he passes through Palestine he will pause to observe the...
This man Firmus is a concern to my mother, and a concern to me on her account.
As long as you are alive and watching over Bithynia, the province can triumph through its men — for no one else...
Now that you have what you requested and what you said you would give, send it along and gratify your homeland with...
Your daughter's son is everything a grandfather could wish for: a lover of learning, no lover of physical pleasures,...
We have sent these men not to ask a favor but to collect on a promise.
I care for this Olympius here for many reasons.
I believe my letter has reached you and that yours will reach me, and even before receiving it I take pleasure in my...
You don't know it, but we've composed another exercise — and you would certainly have asked for the second after the...
You sent that letter as a refutation — to show that I had given you too grand a title by calling you first among Greeks.
Whether as a man of good character, as one versed in letters, as a sharp soldier, or as a friend of mine — you will...
Flourish in your own life, and in doing so make your father a happy man.
I sent you the speech — a small thing about great matters.
Open your doors to this young man — as a favor to me, to our city, and to the city of Laodicea.
If you honor our companion as he deserves, you will have done us a favor as well.
Olympius is taking refuge in you once again -- his champion on so many past occasions.
This man is the son of Olympius -- the well-educated one -- and the son himself is no ignoramus, on top of being a...
Do not stop overwhelming me with such treatment — keep it up, and with things still greater.
If you have any regard for your father-in-law, come and see him before he departs — and quickly.
Ascholius brought us news both most terrible and most heartening: having spoken of the fall — at which he himself...
So you weren't actually longing for the speeches — you just wanted to be seen longing for them.
If I knew how to revolve around the doors of the powerful, I would myself be one of the powerful.
Don't take me for the Euripus.
We enjoy your company no less than our own, thanks to these frequent messengers.
I have spoken to you many times about the long-standing friendship of the admirable Thalassius toward me, and about...
I know you were disappointed at not meeting Acacius — both for other reasons and because you were unable to...
In my previous letters I showed that you would rightly grant me favors, and I urged you to do well by Maximus — an...
Harvest season is already upon us here, and it is autumn.
Hear what the bearer of this letter says: he accuses the negligent servants and asks you to correct what has gone wrong.
While others asked those arriving from there all manner of questions — "What of the Arcadians?
Bassianus and his grandmother are both my relatives, both worthy of respect, and whatever service I render at their...
We have never met, yet from what we hear of each other we may reasonably trust one another.
You know Maeonius the copyist.
Spectatus has been a good man to us.
The boy came in the late morning bringing the books, just when I was about to deliver a speech the next day and the...
That you love and miss both us and our city — well done.
The man who brought me your letter but brought you accusations against me instead of a letter from me was, I...
If I were not doing these things, I would be doing wrong; but in doing them, I should not reasonably expect praise.
Manos is quick to borrow but slow to repay.
What outrages have been committed — not on the Danube near the Scythians, nor at the ends of Libya, but in...
What wrongs Eustathius has suffered and comes to seek justice for, you will learn from my letter to your father.
If this is how things stand, then necessity is stronger even than the gods, as the saying of the wise goes.
Who could blame a man for fleeing fire?
Herodianus has been granted a short leave by us, so that he may go and see the small piece of land he owns.
To the same. (361)
The profit is yours, if you are seen to benefit the household of Bassiana, a woman who deserves every fine word I...
Even if your office and the demands pulling you from every direction have driven Plato from your hands, Plato still...
We are truly in a desert with you gone — or rather, in something worse than a desert.
Eudikios is said to have grieved only briefly for his father, and the reason is said to be you — you who removed...
To Βασιλείῳ. (361?)
To Κυρίλλῳ. (361)
To Παλλαδίῳ. (361)
To Φουρτουνατιανῷ. (361)
To Ἀκακίῳ. (361)
This Hilarinos is a Greek from Euboea — not inexperienced in legal matters.
Look — you have drawn even Greece to yourself, and along with the young you have persuaded practically even old men...
That man who sold portions of the farmland — when we wished to buy, he claimed he was selling Thessaly and Boeotia,...
I am really ashamed of sending you the Cappadocians one by one. I should prefer to induce all our youths to devote themselves to letters and learning, and to avail themselves of your instruction in their training. But it is impracticable to get hold of them all at once, while they choose what suits themselves.
1. After some little time a young Cappadocian has reached me. One gain to me is that he is a Cappadocian.
Lo and behold, yet another Cappadocian has come to you; a son of my own! Yet my present position makes all men my sons. On this ground he may be regarded as a brother of the former one, and worthy of the same attention alike from me his father, and from you his instructor — if really it is possible for these young men, who come from me, to obtai...
I know you will often write, Here is another Cappadocian for you! I expect that you will send me many. I am sure that you are everywhere putting pressure on both fathers and sons by all your complimentary expressions about me.
What could not a sophist say? And such a sophist! One whose peculiar art is, whenever he likes, to make great things small, and to give greatness to small things!
Whatever comes from a loving heart is no small thing to me.
In your anger at Karterios you have done something pleasing to the Muses and all the gods of eloquence — for he,...
Were we asking for something unjust, and is that why we failed?
You acted, noble friend, using wisdom on behalf of truth.
We remain the same in both our affection and our admiration.
Lysimachus is truly my pupil, to judge by what he says and writes — both in panegyrics of governors and in practice...
"Now let Earth know this, and the broad sky above" — and I will add, if you like, the Styx and all the other gods —...
When I heard that you turned your troubles into an occasion for philosophy, I nearly praised the man who wronged you.
Who will win the crown at our festival — whether in wrestling, the pankration, or boxing — Zeus and Heracles know,...
I hear that you uphold the laws in your courts, show gentleness toward the decent and severity toward those who...
Had you been for a long time considering how best you could reply to my letter about yours, you could not in my judgment have acquitted yourself better than by writing as you have written now. You call me a sophist, and you allege that it is a sophist's business to make small things great and great things small. And you maintain that the object ...
You have not yet ceased to be offended with me, and so I tremble as I write. If you have cared, why, my dear sir, do you not write? If you are still offended, a thing alien from any reasonable soul and from your own, why, while you are preaching to others, that they must not keep their anger till sundown, have you kept yours during many suns?
All who are attached to the rose, as might be expected in the case of lovers of the beautiful, are not displeased even at the thorns from out of which the flower blows. I have even heard it said about roses by some one, perhaps in jest, or, it may be, even in earnest, that nature has furnished the bloom with those delicate thorns, like stings of...
IF these are the words of an untrained tongue, what would you be if you would polish them? On your lips live fountains of words better than the flowing of springs. I, on the contrary, if I am not daily watered, am silent.
I am dissuaded from writing often to you, learned as you are, by my timidity and my ignorance. But your persistent silence is different. What excuse can be offered for it?
It is, I think, more needful for me to defend myself for not having begun to write to you long ago, than to offer any excuse for beginning now. I am that same man who always used to run up whenever you put in an appearance, and who listened with the greatest delight to the stream of your eloquence; rejoicing to hear you; with difficulty tearing ...
You yourself will judge whether I have added anything in the way of learning to the young men whom you have sent. I hope that this addition, however little it be, will get the credit of being great, for the sake of your friendship towards me. But inasmuch as you give less praise to learning than to temperance and to a refusal to abandon our soul...
Every bishop is a thing out of which it is very hard to get anything. The further you have advanced beyond other people in learning, the more you make me afraid that you will refuse what I ask. I want some rafters.
If γριπίζειν is the same thing as to gain, and this is the meaning of the phrase which your sophistic ingenuity has got from the depths of Plato, consider, my dear sir, who is the more hard to be got from, I who am thus impaled by your epistolary skill, or the tribe of Sophists, whose craft is to make money out of their words. What bishop ever ...
Will you not give over, Basil, packing this sacred haunt of the Muses with Cappadocians, and these redolent of the frost and snow and all Cappadocia's good things? They have almost made me a Cappadocian too, always chanting their I salute you. I must endure, since it is Basil who commands.
Your annoyance is over. Let this be the beginning of my letter. Go on mocking and abusing me and mine, whether laughing or in earnest.
Many, who have come to me from where you are, have admired your oratorical power. They were remarking that there has been a very brilliant specimen of this, and a very great contest, as they alleged, with the result that all crowded together, and no one appeared in the whole city but Libanius alone in the lists, and everybody, young and old, lis...
Behold! I have sent you my speech, all streaming with sweat as I am! How should I be otherwise, when sending my speech to one who by his skill in oratory is able to show that the wisdom of Plato and the ability of Demosthenes were belauded in vain?
I have read your speech, and have immensely admired it. O muses; O learning; O Athens; what do you not give to those who love you! What fruits do not they gather who spend even a short time with you!
Now I recognise men's description of me! Basil has praised me, and I am hailed victor over all! Now that I have received your vote, I am entitled to walk with the proud gait of a man who haughtily looks down on all the world.
Are you living at Athens, Basil? Have you forgotten yourself? The sons of the Cæsareans could not endure to hear these things.
I am delighted at receiving what you write, but when you ask me to reply, I am in a difficulty. What could I say in answer to so Attic a tongue, except that I confess, and confess with joy, that I am a pupil of fishermen? About this page Source.
What has made Basil object to the letter, the proof of philosophy? I have learned to make fun from you, but nevertheless your fun is venerable and, so to say, hoary with age. But, by our very friendship, by our common pastimes, do away, I charge you, with the distress caused by your letter...in nothing differing.
If I did not know you as a man who understands friendship — one who has often worried and labored so that some good...
To the same [Italicianus].
I would not say that Julian was equally distressed at leaving us and delighted at going to you — rather, his...
This Julian is a possession worthy of you: first in Greek, first in the language of the rulers [Latin], steeped in...
If Julian were not my friend, I would envy him his fortune — that he had your company here with us before, and now...
What people on shore feel when they watch others sailing through a storm — imagining the waves crashing against...
I have told the excellent Phosphorus [the new governor] what sort of man you are — your character, your learning,...
What an injury you have done me, dear Menander — and right after delighting me!
If you did not already know from what length of time and through how many acts the friendship between us and our...
You cannot avoid helping the Galatians, whom you once governed, wherever they turn, and I am bound by many reasons...
Oh, for the old days in which we were all in all to one another! Now we are sadly separated! You have one another, I have no one like you to replace you.
You, who have included all the art of the ancients in your own mind, are so silent, that you do not even let me get any gain in a letter. I, if the art of Dædalus had only been safe, would have made me Icarus' wings and come to you. But wax cannot be entrusted to the sun, and so, instead of Icarus' wings, I send you words to prove my affection.
I have heard of your loss, and I grieve with you.
I knew well that you would hold to the agreement about the parchment; and what you ask to be arranged for you—we...
As for the most villainous slave—how he will pay the penalty for both what he said and what he did—that is a matter...
You did well to quench a great deal of nonsense with a few words—of which I was already laughing before your letter...
The boys have arrived.
Consider me a father to Helladius's daughters as well.
The man who preserves Helladius's household by his tireless efforts is this Martyrius here.
I remember you, for I love you, and I write, for I wish to please you.
You gave your order to one who serves gladly.
You have lived uprightly, acquired your wealth justly, and are slandered openly.
Stop saying great things about small matters — my letters.
I do not wish to believe that you cared little for the affairs of Ulpianus and Palladius — that you neither honored...
Marcianus, on whose behalf I write, is my fellow citizen, an old friend, no stranger to letters, and he has a son...
As if I didn't notice you wanted to undermine the praise sung by everyone about me and Olympius — that we think...
Even when you were staging those remarkable spectacles, purchasing glory with money, I considered it an honor to be...
I have loved and admired you since those days when Klematios — that man who, after a just life, met an unjust end —...
What I would have done for Socrates, had I lived in Socrates' time, when the beasts were upon him — three sycophants...
"Not without a god," as Homer says — and you did not write this without the hand of Asclepius.
Right from the starting line you showed yourself worthy of our hopes.
You seem to have forgotten the state of both my mind and my body if you actually expected to see me among the...
I have not suffered anything like what happened to your shoulder, but my soul is no less disturbed than yours when I...
So this charming headland of yours, which you consider equal to the governorship of Cilicia -- do not many sailors...
If justice were done, you would have held that office long ago, and by now you would hold one even greater.
Help for your shoulder has reached you from our doctors, through both words and medicines -- you yourself sent for both.
You know this young man, I think -- you were never unaware of those among my students who showed promise in oratory.
Oh, how many times you must have shaken your head and said to yourself in some solitary moment or in the dead of...
I see no need for a preamble when asking a favor from a friend.
I have sent my brother to supplicate the god who dwells near you on my behalf.
An affliction has taken up residence in my head.
I am amazed that even this much was collected.
We have given up asking every person who arrives from your region when you are coming back.
The governor took part in your festival in the same way I did -- he missed nothing I had heard.
When the good Menander arrived from your region and wanted to tell me everything that had happened from sky to...
This month is packed with business, and a wedding cannot tolerate such rush and worry.
There is nothing surprising about falling in love with Attica.
Your office gave you the advantage of meeting the admirable Fortunatianus before I did.
If you did not already know Theophilus, I would tell you that even when circumstances invited excess, the man...
The god has raised our hierophant [the chief priest of a mystery cult] from his bed.
You send people to greet me by word of mouth, but you have abandoned the greeting that comes in a letter -- and this...
This man Menecrates came from home to study with me full-time, but a host of illnesses made his time with me brief.
You know this Diogenes as one of our citizens.
[To Paulinus]
The law requires of doctors only one public service: the practice of their art.
You know better than most that I want the temples to recover their beauty no less than the priests do.
Even if you do not write to me, I still feast on your letters.
So why did you sit by the Bosporus if you were only going to do the same thing in Cilicia?
What debt you say I have not repaid, I do not know.
I was pleased to see your sons -- one come for oratory, the other leading his brother to it.
As far as oratory goes, you have sent your companion from one Eleusis to another -- for these are the same...
You did not grieve me by being silent toward me, because the reputation you were winning elsewhere was enough to...
Having congratulated both you and your father -- him for his generosity toward you, you for pleasing your father...
The first favors were enough for me -- when you saved Maximus's household and honored his son with no small...
Among the consolations Obodianus found while nursing his injured shoulder in your city, he counted his time with you...
Just as last year I was unhappy with everything except one thing -- and you know what that one thing was, since...
But what did you expect me to do, by Athena herself, when Titianus was being sent elsewhere and your vote -- the...
No sooner had the emperor released you than he encountered me.
I am delighted to receive your letters -- not only because a letter from a friend is the sweetest thing, but because...
What a treasure I had in my hands and never used!
May your sacrifices go well, and may you find favor with the gods -- with the leader of the Muses and with the god...
The good Salutius has restored us to the honor from which the boorish Elpidius had driven us.
I was about to blame you for your silence toward me, but then I realized the same charges would condemn me too.
Back when we were enjoying that blessed life in Nicomedia -- rich not in wealth but in leisure for our studies --...
This man Pandorus is from Cilicia -- dead last in wealth, but first in desire for learning.
I knew perfectly well that you would be among the first to share in my joy, since I also knew you were among the...
The sons of a dear friend have come to a dear friend through a dear friend.
If someone has already said that a favor can sometimes work to a man's disadvantage, what wonder is it that a...
Word has already reached us that your governorship is worthy of the speeches you were composing before you took office.
Your insult did not go unnoticed, my dear Magnus -- though you certainly hoped it would.
My first letter was an appeal for you to do justice by the son of my teacher.
Agroicius and Eusebius are both former students of mine.
You have gotten back the man you were seeking, and I am looking for the man I had.
When you dine with Miccalus, do not waste the dinner hour on jokes and laughter.
I thought it terrible not to greet you through the good Miccalus, but equally absurd to write at length when he is...
Those many splendid speeches you delivered — first in Phoenicia, then here, and now in fair Palestine (and how could...
Eutropius, who is coming to you, knows that you will be a friendly and willing host, given how highly you regard his...
It is no surprise that a man born in Ancyra set out to pursue one of the nobler arts, for your city is rich in fine...
Be such a man for me in the matter of what you are collecting from Basilicus: divide his payment so that he may put...
To the Emperor Julian.
Mine was a desire not entirely unreasonable; yours was the wiser counsel.
To the Emperor Julian.
I am not introducing these doctors to you as strangers — I write on behalf of men already known to you, and loved...
I owe this Sopater a debt from an old kindness.
To the same. (362 AD)
I have never seen Phrygia, but I honor it greatly — not so much for having raised the excellent Aesop as because the...
What you asked for has been accomplished.
Such has Diophantus been since boyhood: self-controlled, fair-minded, industrious, pleasing to the best men.
This Achillius was my fellow student, and his son is being raised under my care — a boy of a lively nature who knows...
If you were sending me a great quantity of Colophonian gold, or something more precious than gold, and you sent the...
Quite a few young men have come from you to us, yet not a single letter from you.
At last you have taken hold of what is truly yours and become the overseer of work suited to your nature.
Well, Celsus — a man, as you know, incapable of lying — said he both saw the books and received them from Diotimus,...
You should have had a better judgment when a friend was approaching, and you would now be among those enjoying the...
So it is not only in guardianship of the laws and the splendor of your offices that you follow your family — you...
The moment I received your letter, in which you asked for the restoration of the old honors, I ran to the excellent...
If you had written to Olympius what you wrote to me about my letters, and if he had known your passion for them, you...
I love Magnus, as one naturally loves a fellow student and a good man, and I admire him as a formidable and powerful...
I commend your decision to stay at home for now.
I was distressed that I did not see you when you departed.
Everything about you is fine, beginning with your very appearance — or rather, beginning from your very soul.
The Phoenicians enjoy the blessings, while I dream of Phoenician blessings: councilors honored, populace cheerful,...
I know what you call my reputation: not a thousand or ten thousand or twice that many people, but Acacius the orator...
It seems I have received young Gaius as the child of three fathers: the one who begot him, you his uncle and...
You should have been receiving such letters from others on such matters, but you fled the rank of teachers and...
This Tyrannus is both a good man and a skilled physician, a friend of ours, and one who has lived no small time in...
Second attempts are better, they say — or, if you prefer, luckier.
You yourself spoke first of the consolation — which you might rightly call a celebration too — a wife good,...
Look — the elder of Justinianus's two sons is now my relation by marriage.
To the same. (362)
To the same. (362/63)
Add the excellent Pompeianus to the roster of our friends.
To the same. (362/63)
I count you among those now celebrating that the noble Modestus is recognized for who he truly is.
I did not receive Spectatus as someone who had wronged me — for I would write nothing about you that I would wish to...
I rejoice at your letters and far more at what you are doing.
Not only did your being pulled in both directions over the things delivered show the lover at a loss — unable to...
I was amazed that you considered my not writing to you worthy of reproach, yet make nothing of the emperor's letter...
You seem to want letters from a scoundrel — whether I have forgotten a friend through length of time or suffered...
You have honored me with your remembrance, but you did not quite gauge the weakness of my eyes.
For I too am your possession — so it is no wonder that you are mine as well.
Your boy came to me asking for a letter.
As much as I blamed the road — for it was harsh — so much and more I blame myself for turning back so quickly,...
You were good to write, but I was unlucky not to receive the letters — and the scoundrels who mishandled the gift...
I was pleased that you urge me to do the very thing I urge you to do.
Sufficient reward for me is that Hyperechius is the sort of man to be declared, while you are still living, master...
There is nothing strange in students being loved by their teachers, just as there is nothing strange in sons being...
The young men have come to collect on your promises, and you — noble in all else and incapable of falsehood — will...
Hyperechius claimed he made this journey on behalf of his brother, but it turned out he came more on your behalf...
I am older than you, but I do not think myself better in nature.
It is obvious that in every city you passed through, you filled them all with talk about me.
To the Emperor Julian.
You should have received my friend from my own hands.
This is what good neighbors do — they help those living nearby in times of misfortune.
"I ask for Arcadia — a great thing I ask.
That famous and great city, where you both distinguished yourself and were honored, has been shaken by many evils —...
A poet, a companion of the Muses — to whom else was I going to send him but to a friend of the Muses?
Do well by the poets, for a debt of gratitude lodged with a poet is a fine treasure.
I thought I had been cleared of every charge after that letter, and that your feelings toward me had returned to...
Orion became my friend when he was prosperous.
Consider this an embassy from the Muses themselves, who want Asteius, one of their dancers, to remain with them a...
Brachinus is a veteran of that campaign through which you accomplished so many great things in our region.
When you had fallen into all those Abydene misfortunes, I grieved.
I was delighted by the letter, by what was in it, and by the fact that, seized by necessity, you resorted to the...
I'm embarrassed to be asking you a favor when I've never done you any kindness, and don't expect I ever will.
The emperor is no worse than his predecessor — I would say better, if one values complete virtue over reckless daring.
I knew both things well: that you would remember our shared request, and that you would set to work — being noble...
The poem is a praise of a skilled rhetorician, but when I search within myself for those many great qualities, I...
This Elpidius is the son of the famous Xiphidius, and no less skilled than his father in his craft.
I have assisted, as far as I could, the affairs of all who shared in my teaching.
If you know Eutocius, you know he is a good man.
This Aeneas is not a man of rhetoric, nor of wealth, nor of any other kind of power — unless one calls fairness and...
This Theodorus was born among us but is enrolled among you, having inherited his father's citizenship.
I am not recommending Theodorus to you — you raised him yourself, and I need not ask you to love him, since you have...
What is this? You have sent us money — performing a service for us who perform none for you — as though you had not...
You add deeds to hopes, noble Maximus — or rather, your deeds have surpassed our hopes.
My dearest Julianus ought to be returning home for other reasons — to see his mother and to bring her the sweetest...
I consider that day the beginning of our friendship — the day I invited you to a modest dinner, and you thought even...
The horses of Tros, the horses of Achilles, even winged Pegasus himself — all mean less to me, Dionysius, than the...
If Midas were alive today and ruled the Phrygians and possessed all the gold the legend claims — do you think I...
Let Heraclides, too, receive your support — a man of Memphis, devoted to Asclepius, gentle in character, having...