Letter 443: You have reached the rank your good sense was always going to bring you -- a good sense that is both genuine and not...
To Elpidius.
You have arrived at that rank to which your good sense was bound to lead you, being excellent as it is and not escaping the notice of the emperor's mind. Toward me you were kindly disposed even before, but now you might reasonably add affection as well, on account of the marriage connection.
Concerning the envoys I would most gladly write to you, but I do not yet venture upon such matters before a letter from you reaches me.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ἐλπιδίῳ. (355)
Ἥκεις εἰς τοῦτο τάξεως, οἷ σε ἔμελλον ἄξειν αἱ φρένες
ἀγαθαί τε οὖσαι καὶ τὸν τοῦ βασιλέως οὐ λανθάνουσαι νοῦν.
ἐμοὶ δὲ καὶ πρόσθεν εὐνοικῶς εἶχες, νῦν δ’ ἂν καὶ προσθείης
τὸ φιλεῖν εἰκότως διὰ τὸ κῆδος.
περὶ δὲ τῶν πρέσβεων ἥδι-
στα μὲν ἂν ἐπέστελλον, τολμῶ δὲ οὔπω τὰ τοιαῦτα πρὶν παρὰ
σοῦ μοι γράμματα ἐλθεῖν.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/blob/master/volume_xml/libanius_10.xml
Related Letters
Whenever someone says a letter has arrived from Andronicus, I know it means complaints have arrived.
If I were to fail to write to any one else I might possibly with justice incur the charge of carelessness or forgetfulness. But it is not possible to forget you, when your name is in all men's mouths. But I cannot be careless about one who is perhaps more distinguished than any one else in the empire.
To the same person. (358/59)
If I were to tell you who Letoius is by birth, who he is by character, and what he is to me, I would end up teaching...
'But the most holy Archbishop Athanasius, when he heard about our father Theodorus, was grieved, and sent this...