Letter 600: You don't know it, but we've composed another exercise — and you would certainly have asked for the second after the...

LibaniusBakchios|c. 371 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
famine plague

To Bacchius. (357)

For you do not know that we have also composed a second declamation, the one which you would surely have asked for, on top of the first. For such is your way with us: if you hear what I have said, before learning how I said it you immediately fall in love with it.

Since, then, you have asked for this one too, we will send you both at once. But "at once," with us, means two months; such is the abundance of scribes, not to call it a scarcity. So if you do not receive them, find fault; but if you should receive them slowly, then, instead of blaming us, blame together with us the cause that is the cause.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Βακχίῳ. (357)

Οὐ γὰρ οἶσθ᾿ ὅτι καὶ ἑτέραν πεποιήμεθα μελέτην, ἡ
πάντως ἂν ᾔτεις ἐπὶ τῇ προτέρᾳ τὴν δευτέραν. τοιοῦτος γὰρ
δὴ σὺ πρὸς ἡμᾶς· ἂν ὅτι εἶπον ἀκούσῃς, πρὶν ὅπως εἶπον
μαθεῖν εὐθὺς ἐρᾷς.

ὡς οὖν καὶ ταύτην ᾐτηκότι πέμψομεν
ἀμφοτέρας αὐτίκα. τὸ δ’ αὐτίκα παρ’ ἡμῖν δύο μῆνες· τοσ-
αύτη τις ἀφθονία γραφέων, ἵνα μὴ λέγω σπάνις. μὴ λαμ-
βάνων μὲν οὖν ἐγκάλει· βραδέως δὲ εἰ λάβοις, ἀνθ’ ἡμῶν
μεθ’ ἡμῶν αἴτια τὸ αἴτιον.

Revision history

  1. 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

LibaniusBakchiosc. 385 AD · libanius #749

Be such a man for me in the matter of what you are collecting from Basilicus: divide his payment so that he may put...

LibaniusBakchiosc. 370 AD · libanius #585

Will you never stop treating trifles as treasures and worthless things as priceless?

Basil of CaesareaAtarbiusc. 361 AD · basil caesarea #65

If I continue to insist on the privileges to which my superior age entitles me, and wait for you to take the initiative in communication , and if you, my friend, wish to adhere more persistently to your evil counsel of inaction, what end will there be to our silence? However, where friendship is involved, to be defeated is in my opinion to win,...

Basil of CaesareaEusebius, Archbishop of Thessalonicac. 365 AD · basil caesarea #138

1. What was my state of mind, think you, when I received your piety's letter? When I thought of the feelings which its language expressed, I was eager to fly straight to Syria; but when I thought of the bodily illness, under which I lay bound, I saw myself unequal, not only to flying, but even to turning on my bed.

Basil of CaesareaLibaniusc. 378 AD · basil caesarea #359

You, who have included all the art of the ancients in your own mind, are so silent, that you do not even let me get any gain in a letter. I, if the art of Dædalus had only been safe, would have made me Icarus' wings and come to you. But wax cannot be entrusted to the sun, and so, instead of Icarus' wings, I send you words to prove my affection.