Letter 461: You inherited very little from your father, and what you earned by pleading cases you spent as a judge — so instead...
To Hierocles. (355/56)
You inherited very little from your father, and what you earned by pleading cases you spent as a judge — so instead of gold, you have reputation.
Where, then, did you get the gold you sent me? If you stumbled on a treasure, say so and I will accept it. If you have not, I will accept it when you do.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ἱεροκλεῖ. (355/56)
Σὺ πατρῴων μὲν πάνυ μικρῶν ἐκληρονόμησας χρημα΄-
των, ἃ δὲ δίκας λέγων εἰργάσω, δικάζων ἀνήλωκας καί σοι
σύνεστιν ἀντὶ χρυσίου δόξα.
πόθεν οὖν μοι πέπομφας τὸ
χρυσίον; εἰ μὲν ἐντυχὼν θησαυρῷ, φράζε καὶ δεξόμεθα· εἰ δ
οὐκ ἐντυχών, ἐπειδὰν ἐντύχῃς, δεξόμεθα.
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
While you have leisure, attend to your land and to a builder, so that when you return to public service you may have...
If doing less than one's ability permits while willing counts as laziness, then I am far from that charge.
You gave good counsel to a good man — you found what was right, and he did not reject it.
I had supposed your silence was due to some other preoccupation — and so it should have been.
On my way to the school I ran into Julianus, who was urging Calykion toward the labors of rhetoric.