Letter 253: I showed my affection not by accepting the gifts so much as by the pain I felt earlier over what pained me.
To Auxentius. (361)
I showed my affection not by accepting the gifts so much as by the pain I felt earlier over what pained me. For it is the mark of a lover, I think, and a jealous one at that, to be unable to bear that anything of yours should be managed by another while I am still alive.
And so my heart was stung -- while you perhaps were preening, thinking yourself another Phaon [Phaon was a legendary ferryman so beautiful that Aphrodite herself fell in love with him].
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Αὐξεντίῳ. (361)
Οὐ τῷ δέξασθαι τὰ ξένια μᾶλλον ἔδειξα τὸ φιλεῖν ἢ τῷ
λυπηθῆναι πρότερον οἷς ἐλυπήθην. ἦν γὰρ ἐρῶντος, οἶμαι,
καὶ ζηλοτυποῦντος τό τι τῶν σῶν ἐμοῦ ζῶντος ὑφ’ ἑτέρου
πράττεσθαι μὴ φέρειν.
ἐντεῦθεν ἐγὼ μὲν ἐδήχθην τὴν καρ-
δίαν, σὺ δὲ ἴσως ἐκαλλωπίζου Φάων τις ἕτερος ἡγούμενος
Revision history
- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from AI-assisted translation from original text.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/blob/master/volume_xml/libanius_10.xml
Related Letters
To Auxentius [a childhood friend with whom Synesius was trying to mend a quarrel].
To Auxentius [a childhood friend with whom Synesius was ending a quarrel].
I was about to scold you for your fondness for the countryside, convinced that you could have no excuse for rushing...
Rufinus is a kinsman of the distinguished Olympius and a friend of mine -- he follows his kinsman's example.
If it were fitting to send you something lesser, I would have sent it already.