Letter 474: If I had to fall ill with a kidney disease, I ought to have suffered it while near you — not that there is any...
To Hyginus. (356)
As for me, if indeed my kidneys had to fall sick, I ought to have suffered this affliction among you [in your company]-not because being ill in the past holds any pleasure for me, but because, with the skill that resides in you coming to my aid from close at hand, the disease would have been dissolved. As it is, when I had the finest physician in my hands I had no need of a physician, but now, in the lack of those who go by that name, I am ill.
Yet it is in your power, even when absent, to ward off the trouble by letter. So make clear some one great remedy, and rescue your comrade from the evil.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ὑγίνῳ. (356)
Ἐμὲ δέ, εἴπερ ἔδει νοσῆσαι τοὺς νεφρούς, ἔδει παρ᾿ ὑμῖν
τοῦτο παθεῖν, οὐχ ὅτι μοι τὸ πάλαι νοσεῖν ἔχει τινὰ ἡδονήν,
ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι τῆς ἐν σοὶ τέχνης ἐγγύθεν βοηθούσης ἐλέλυτο ἂν ἡ
νόσος. νῦν δὲ ἐν χεροῖν μὲν ἔχων τὸν ἄριστον ἰατρὸν οὐκ
ἔχρῃζον ἰατροῦ, ἐν δὲ ἀπορίᾳ τῶν τοῦτο καλουμένων νοσῶ.
σοὶ δὲ ἔνεστι καὶ ἀπόντι δι᾿ ἐπιστολῆς ἀμῦναι. μέγα οὖν
ἕν τι δηλώσας ῥῦσαι τὸν ἑταῖρον τοῦ κακοῦ.
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
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