Letter 47: It was good of you to acquit me of blame in the very act of accusing me.
To Olympius. (359)
It was good of you to acquit me of blame in the very act of accusing me. For by saying you would not be surprised if a man so disloyal to his friends failed to write to them, you gave yourself grounds to attack my character, but you can no longer complain about not receiving letters. After all, being wicked is Eurybatus's specialty [a proverbially treacherous man], thieving is Autolycus's, foolishness is Melitides', and being disloyal to friends is apparently mine.
So when you have cured me of my wickedness -- for you have a craft that works on souls no less than on bodies -- then you may blame me for my silence. It would truly be outrageous if I were a good man and behaved this way. But as long as you tolerate me wallowing in wickedness, put up with its consequences too.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ὀλυμπίῳ. (359)
Καλῶς ἐποίησας ἀπολύσας ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἐγκλή-
μασι τῆς αἰτίας. εἰπὼν γάρ, ὡς οὐ θαυμάζοις, εἰ κακὸς ὢν
περὶ τοὺς φίλους μὴ γράφοιμι τοῖς φίλοις, ὡς μὲν πονηρὸν
ἔχεις διώκειν, μέμφεσθαι δὲ τῷ μὴ γράμματα λαβεῖν οὐκέτ
ἂν ἔχοις. τοῦ τε γὰρ Εὐρυβάτου τὸ πονηρεύεσθαι τοῦ τε
Αὐτολύκου τὸ κλέπτειν Μελιτίδου τε τὸ μωραίνειν ἐμόν τε,
εἰ κακὸς ἐγώ, τὸ τοὺς φίλους ἀδικεῖν.
ὅταν οὖν με καθή-
ρῃς τῆς πονηρίας, ἔστι γάρ σοι καὶ περὶ ψυχὴν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ
τὰ σώματα τέχνη, τότε μου τὴν σιγὴν αἰτιῶ· δεινὸν γὰρ ὡς
ἀληθῶς ἀγαθὸν ὄντα με τοιαῦτα ποιεῖν. ἕως δέ με περιορᾷς
γέμοντα πονηρίας, ἀνέχου τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς πονηρίας
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
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