Letter 559: It must seem a great wonder to you that Letoius carries letters from me to everyone else but not to you alone.
To Crescens.
It must seem a great wonder to you that Letoius carries letters from me to everyone else but not to you alone. The fault lies with my slave, not with me.
I had prepared a letter to you along with the others. On my way to see Letoius, I ordered the servant to bring the letters. But in the rush of business at the moment of departure, my boy handed them to Letoius's man -- and I assumed everything had been included. Then I saw your letter lying there. I shouted and punished the servant.
Fortune immediately consoled me by providing a second envoy -- just as good as the first, and a friend to us both. I could barely say everything there was to say, but you will be able to brief others on his behalf yourself, so there is no need for me to go on at length.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Κρήσκεντι. (357)
Θαῦμά σοί που τῶν πάνυ θαυμάτων τὸ τοῖς μὲν ἄλλοις
παρ’ ἡμῶν τὸν Λητόιον φέρειν ἐπιστολάς, σοὶ δὲ μόνῳ μὴ
φέρειν. τοῦτο δὲ τῷ παιδὶ μὲν ἡμάρτηται, ἐμοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἐλλέ-
λειπται.
μετὰ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἄλλων ἣν ἐγεγράφειν πρὸς σὲ
ἐπιστολήν, ἡτοίμαστο, πορευόμενος δὲ παρὰ τὸν Λητόιον ἐκέ-
λευσα τὸν οἰκέτην κομίζειν τὰ γράμματα, πολλῶν δὲ πραγμά-
τῶν ὄντων ἐπ’ αὐτῆς τῆς ἐξόδου τῷ πρεσβευτῇ δίδωσιν οὑμὸς
παῖς τῷ ’κείνου. καὶ πάντα ᾠόμην δεδόσθαι. κειμένην δὲ
ὁρῶ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν καὶ ἀνέκραγον καὶ κολάζω τὸν οἰκέτην.
εἶτ’ εὐθὺς ἡ Τύχη με παραμυθεῖται πρεσβευτὴν ἕτερον
δοῦσα καὶ χρηστὸν ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνον καὶ φίλον ἀμφοῖν. μόλις
ἂν οἷς ἐνῆν εἰπεῖν ἤρκουν, σὺ δὲ κἂν ἄλλον ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ δι-
δάξαις, ὥστ᾿ οὐδὲν ἂν δέοι πρὸς σὲ μηκύνειν.
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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