Letter 341: 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?
You still haven't forgiven me — I can feel it as I write this, and it makes my hand shake.
If you're no longer upset, then why haven't you written? And if you are still upset — which seems strange for a man of your wisdom and character — consider this: you preach to others that anger must not last past sundown [a reference to Ephesians 4:26], yet you've held onto yours through many sunsets.
Perhaps your plan was to punish me by cutting me off from the sound of your voice? Please, my dear friend — be kind. Let me enjoy that golden tongue of yours again.
Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
[Πρός: Λιβάνιος Βασιλείῳ]
Οὔπω μοι τῆς λύπης ὑφῆκας, ὥστε με μεταξὺ γράφοντα τρέμειν. ἀλλʼ εἰ μὲν ἀφῆκας, τί οὐκ ἐπιστέλλεις, ὦ ἄριστε; εἰ δὲ ἔτι κατέχεις, ὃ πάσης λογίας ψυχῆς καὶ τῆς σῆς ἐστιν ἀλλότριον, πῶς ἄλλοις κηρύττων μὴ χρῆναι μέχρι δυσμῶν ἡλίου λύπην φυλάττειν, αὐτὸς ἐν πολλοῖς ἡλίοις ἐφύλαξας; ἢ τάχα ζημιῶσαί με προείλου τῆς μελιχρᾶς σου φωνῆς ἀποστερῶν; μὴ σύ γε, ὦ γενναῖε, ἀλλὰ γενοῦ πρᾶος, καὶ δὸς ἀπολαῦσαι τῆς παγχρύσου σου γλώττης.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg2040/tlg004/tlg2040.tlg004.perseus-grc2.xml
Related Letters
The proverb says You are not proclaiming war, and, let me add, out of the comedy, O messenger of golden words. Come then; prove this in act, and hasten to me. You will come as friend to friend.
(The reply to Basil's somewhat angry answer to the last.) This was a case which any wiser man would have foreseen; but I who am very simple and foolish did not fear it in writing to you. My letter grieved you; but in my opinion neither rightly nor justly, but quite unreasonably. And while you did not acknowledge that you were hurt, neither did y...
(Perhaps about a.d. 357 or 358; in answer to a letter which is not now extant.) I have failed, I confess, to keep my promise. I had engaged even at Athens, at the time of our friendship and intimate connection there (for I can find no better word for it), to join you in a life of philosophy.
(Written about the same time, in a more serious vein.) What I wrote before about our stay in Pontus was in joke, not in earnest; what I write now is very much in earnest. O that one would place me as in the month of those former days, Job 29:2 in which I luxuriated with you in hard living; since voluntary pain is more valuable than involuntary d...
The divine Paul names love as the chief of all goods, and commands that the children of the faith be nourished by it.