Letter 465: Envy, Epiphanos, is remarkable among the vices for this: it punishes its possessor more reliably than it punishes...
To Asclepius: Since you wished perhaps to show that military valor in wars is superior to worldly wisdom, you walled off from us the orator who says: As much as doing things openly is superior to doing them secretly, and as acting from a position of victory is more honorable than acting by deceit, so much the nobler is it. Conon set up the walls rather than Themistocles...
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
ΥΞΕ΄. – ΑΣΚΛΗΠΙΩ.
Ἐπειδὴ δεῖξαι ἴσως βουλόμενος τῆς σοφίας τῆς κοσμικῆς κρείττονα τὴν ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις ἀνδρείαν, ἀπετείχισας ἡμῖν τὸν ῥήτορα φάσκοντα· Ὅσῳ τὸ φανερῶς τοῦ λάθρα κρεῖττον, καὶ τὸ νικῶντας ἢ παρακρουσαμένους πράττειν ὁτιοῦν ἐντιμότερον, τοσούτῳ κάλλιον. Κόνωνα τὰ τείχη στῆσαι Θεμιστοκλέους. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ λαθών, ὁ δὲ νικήσας τοὺς κωλύσαντας ταῦτα ἐποίησεν. Ἐκεῖνό φημι, ὅτι μάλιστα μὲν οὔτε ταύτην, οὔτε ἐκείνην ἀποδεχόμεθα · ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν, εἰ μὴ κοσμηθείη τῇ θείᾳ παιδεύσει, οὐδὲν εἶναι ἡγούμεθα· τὴν δὲ κακίζομεν. ᾿Αδικεῖσθαι γὰρ, οὐκ ἀδικεῖν μεμαθήκαμεν. ᾿Ανδρείαν δὲ ἡγούμεθα, τὴν κατὰ
---CONTINUES---
ΥΣΤ. – ΖΗΝΩΝΙ.
Hermogenis episcopi laus, et modestiæ humilitatisque commendatio.
Ερμογένης ὁ ἐπίσκοπος, ἀγαθὸς, εἰ καί τις ἄλλος
γέγονεν, ἀνήρ. Τραφεὶς γὰρ ἐν τοῖς τοῦ Χριστοῦ νό-
μοις, παιδευθεὶς δὲ ἐν τοῖς ἀποστολικοῖς παραδείγ-
μασιν, ἐπισκοπῆς δὲ ἄξια καὶ φρονήσας καὶ πράξας,
συνηβῶσαν (47) τῷ χρόνῳ τὴν δόξαν καὶ τὴν τιμὴν
κέκτηται. Ὁ γὰρ τοῖς ἄλλοις τοῖς τὴν ἀρετὴν ἀσκοῦ-
σιν ἀντοφθαλμεῖν μεμελετηκὼς φθόνος, τούτῳ διὰ
τὸ μέγεθος τῆς πραότητος καὶ τῆς μετριοφροσύνης
οὐδ᾽ ἀντιβλέψαι ἐτόλμησεν. Ἡ γὰρ πρὸς τὰ ἐν-
δοξότατα τῶν ἔργων σύντροφος ἀγρυπνία κοσμη-
θεῖσα τῇ ταπεινοφροσύνῃ, καὶ τὸν τῶν καλλίστων
λυμεῶνα φθόνον κατεδουλώσατο. Εἰ τοίνυν καὶ αὐ-
τὸς κατ᾿ ἔχνος ἐκείνου βαδίσαι προήρησαι, καθάπερ
εἰς ἀρχέτυπον τινα εἰκόνα: ὁρῶν, σφράγιζε τὴν
ἀρετὴν τῇ μετριοφροσύνῃ. Καλὴν γὰρ ἀσφάλειαν καὶ
μέγιστον σήμαντρον τῷ ταμείῳ τῶν κατορθωμάτων
ἐπιθήσεις.
Revision history
- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from Patrologia Graeca 78 OCR.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/PatrologiaGraeca
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