Letter 381: Greece is the sweetest sight.
Ἰαμβλίχῳ (358)
Ἥδιστον ἡ Ἑλλὰς θέαμα. τούτου μετέσχες. οὐ χεῖρον ἡ
Αἴγυπτος. καὶ τούτου προσαπολέλαυκας. λείπεται δὴ τῇ μὲν
οἰκεία σαυτόν, σαυτῷ δὲ ἀποδοῦναι τὴν οἰκείαν, ἣν εἰ καὶ μὴ
πρότερον ἐτίμας, Ἕλλησί γε συγγεγονὼς θαυμάζοις ἂν εἰκό-
τως.
εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐγνωκὼς φιλοσοφεῖν ἡγῇ σοι τοῦτο ἂν
γενέσθαι παρ’ Αἰγυπτίων, μηδεὶς ἴστω λόγος μήτε χρυσοῦ
μήτε γῆς ἀρίστης μήτ’ ἀνδραπόδων μήτ’ οἰκίας, ἀλλ’ ἔστω
πατρὶς ἡ τὸν καλὸν ἔρωτα πληροῦσα· εἰ δὲ μεῖζον ἡμῶν
ἐκεῖνο τὸ πέλαγος, συνέχωμεν ἃ πατὴρ φιλοπόνως ἀσκήσας
παρέδωκεν.
ἀναμιμνήσκω δέ σε τόπων τε ἐν οἷς διετρίβο-
μεν, καὶ λόγων οὓς ἐποιούμεθα, καὶ σπουδῶν αἷς ἐχρώμεθα,
καὶ φίλων καὶ οἰκείων, οἱ νῦν τῆς σῆς ἀπουσίας παρ’ ἐμοῦ
λαμβάνουσι δίκας ἐγκείμενοι καὶ σπαράττοντες καὶ πολλάκις
ἐρωτῶντες· ποῦ δὲ ὁ πάντα σοι πειθόμενος; ἐγὼ δ᾿ οὔθ᾿
ὡς ἀπειθεῖς σοι λέγειν ἔχων οὔθ’ ὡς οὐ κέκληκά σε, κύπτων
εἰς γῆν ἀναγκάζομαι σιγᾶν.
Related Letters
Your boy came to me asking for a letter.
I received a very short letter from you, though if you wanted to tell me how things stand, you should have written...
You described the famine and the cold so vividly in your letter that I shivered and felt hungry just reading it.
Who will give me wings like a dove? Or how can my old age be so renewed that I can travel to your affection, satisfy my deep longing to see you, tell you all the troubles of my soul, and get from you some comfort in my affliction? For when the blessed bishop Eusebius fell asleep, we were under no small alarm lest plotters against the Church of ...
Alas! alas! how insatiable is your desire of further attainments!