Letter 110: That your city [Constantinople] is bigger than ours, and by a wide margin -- and more beautiful than it is big --...
Libanius→Datianus, consular|c. 324 AD|Libanius
humorimperial politics
**To Datianus** (359/60)
That your city is greater than ours — and greater by far, and more beautiful even than it is great — and that it surpasses not only us but all cities in the gifts it receives from the sea: these things cannot be denied. But what we have suffered, I shall not conceal from you.
There was a belief among us that that god — swift on his wings, mighty with his arrows — had moved you toward *this* city more than toward *that* one. He does the same, after all, even with human bodies: many a man has passed over a fair-skinned, aquiline beauty and given himself to one dark and snub-nosed, Eros, I suppose, taking delight in the perverse.
And so we believed that this city — call her what you will — was your beloved, while that aquiline, imperial one was not neglected, certainly, but did not burn with so great a flame. And learn why our belief was not unreasonable.
If a man were to lavish more on one of two women and less on the other, which one would you say he was more devoted to? Is it not obvious that where the expenditure is greater, the desire is greater too?
"*Me*," says our city, "*you adorned with many houses like so many necklaces, with many baths — some within the walls, others just outside the gates — and you planted gardens and built banquet halls, confections of delight. These handmaidens — the estates, themselves partaking of beauty — stand all around me. And after such expenditure, have you turned your gaze elsewhere?*"
Should the city say these things — and should the ambassador say them too (and say them he will, for the city has instructed him) — what will you answer? You will not be at a loss for words, perhaps, resourceful as you are in impossible situations. But we want to hear a deed, not a speech — whatever you might say — and to see what we need.
Consider this embassy to be seeking two things: first, to restore to us the savior who was raised up among us; second, the emperor's Nestor. Do not, then, prove false the splendid promises of Obodianus, who departed declaring that he would certainly persuade you.
But when you praise him before the company there, you will also do honor to our whole council through his judgment — for the man is truly more beautiful in soul than in form. And you: crown your many benefactions with the capstone by granting him this message to bring back to us: "*I spoke; I persuaded.* The man is on his way."
And when we receive the one who bears the name of Calliope — for the bird of Zeus would hardly be parted from the son of Zeus — we shall love him because he placed you above his homeland, but we shall accuse him of not having long ago brought both himself and you back to this city with that great tongue of his. The penalty, however, if you command it, we shall remit.
That your city is greater than ours — and greater by far, and more beautiful even than it is great — and that it surpasses not only us but all cities in the gifts it receives from the sea: these things cannot be denied. But what we have suffered, I shall not conceal from you.
There was a belief among us that that god — swift on his wings, mighty with his arrows — had moved you toward *this* city more than toward *that* one. He does the same, after all, even with human bodies: many a man has passed over a fair-skinned, aquiline beauty and given himself to one dark and snub-nosed, Eros, I suppose, taking delight in the perverse.
And so we believed that this city — call her what you will — was your beloved, while that aquiline, imperial one was not neglected, certainly, but did not burn with so great a flame. And learn why our belief was not unreasonable.
If a man were to lavish more on one of two women and less on the other, which one would you say he was more devoted to? Is it not obvious that where the expenditure is greater, the desire is greater too?
"*Me*," says our city, "*you adorned with many houses like so many necklaces, with many baths — some within the walls, others just outside the gates — and you planted gardens and built banquet halls, confections of delight. These handmaidens — the estates, themselves partaking of beauty — stand all around me. And after such expenditure, have you turned your gaze elsewhere?*"
Should the city say these things — and should the ambassador say them too (and say them he will, for the city has instructed him) — what will you answer? You will not be at a loss for words, perhaps, resourceful as you are in impossible situations. But we want to hear a deed, not a speech — whatever you might say — and to see what we need.
Consider this embassy to be seeking two things: first, to restore to us the savior who was raised up among us; second, the emperor's Nestor. Do not, then, prove false the splendid promises of Obodianus, who departed declaring that he would certainly persuade you.
But when you praise him before the company there, you will also do honor to our whole council through his judgment — for the man is truly more beautiful in soul than in form. And you: crown your many benefactions with the capstone by granting him this message to bring back to us: "*I spoke; I persuaded.* The man is on his way."
And when we receive the one who bears the name of Calliope — for the bird of Zeus would hardly be parted from the son of Zeus — we shall love him because he placed you above his homeland, but we shall accuse him of not having long ago brought both himself and you back to this city with that great tongue of his. The penalty, however, if you command it, we shall remit.