Letter 535: It would have been fine if you had been here in person to follow the custom, and it is also not bad that even in...
To Arsenius. (356/57)
That too would have been well, if you had observed the rule while you were present; and as it is, this is not bad either, that not even in your absence did you abandon the rule.
And I was pleased both that the gold came accompanied by a letter, and that you act contrary to most young men. For they flee from those set over them, but you summon the one who will be set over you, making clear that even now you pass your time in hard work, putting your father in my place; may you come to be like him, since to surpass him, at any rate, is among the impossible things.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ἀρσενίῳ. (356/57)
Κἀκεῖνο ἂν εἶχε καλῶς, εἰ παρὼν ἐχρῶ τῷ νόμῳ, καὶ τὸ
νῦν οὐ κακῶς, τὸ μηδὲ ἀπόντα τὸν νόμον ἐκλιπεῖν.
ἥσθην
δὲ τῷ τε μετ’ ἐπιστολῆς ἴν τὸ χρυσίον καὶ ὅτι τἀναντία
τοῖς πολλοῖς τῶν νέων ποιεῖς. οἱ μὲν γὰρ φεύγουσι τοὺς
ἐφεστηκότας, σὺ δὲ καλεῖς τὸν ἐπιστησόμενον δηλῶν ὡς καἰ
νῦν ἐν τῷ πονεῖν διάγεις ἀντ’ ἐμοῦ τὸν πατέρα τιθέμενος· ᾧ
γένοιο παραπλήσιος· ὡς τό γε νικῆσαι τῶν ἀμηχάνων.
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
"To one the god gave one thing, but denied another," someone said of a man who prayed for two things.
I hope to find a suitable day for the conference, after those which I intend to fix for the hill-country. I see no opportunity for our meeting (unless the Lord so order it beyond my expectation), other than at a public conference. You may imagine my position from your own experience.
As the proverb says, "You told me my own dream" [the equivalent of "Queen Anne is dead" — telling someone what they...
I am distressed to find that you are by no means indignant at the sins forbidden, and that you seem incapable of understanding, how this raptus, which has been committed, is an act of unlawfulness and tyranny against society and human nature, and an outrage on free men. I am sure that if you had all been of one mind in this matter, there would h...
You have undertaken a kindly and charitable task in getting together the captive troop of the insolent Glycerius (at present I must so write), and, so far as in you lay, covering our common shame. It is only right that your reverence should undo this dishonour with a full knowledge of the facts about him. This grave and venerable Glycerius of yo...