Letter 655: "Now let Earth know this, and the broad sky above" — and I will add, if you like, the Styx and all the other gods —...
Φουρτουνατιανῷ. (361)
ἴστω νῦν τόδε γαῖς καὶ οὐρανὸς εὐρὺς ὕπερθεν,
προστίθημι δέ, εἰ βούλει, καὶ Στύγα καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους θεούς,
ἡ μὴν τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἐκείνην τοῦ προσήκοντος τετυχηκέναι
χρόνου καὶ μηδὲν πεπρᾶχθαι τέχνῃ.
σοὶ δὲ ἴσως οὐ καλῶς
ἴχνει φείδεσθαι τῶν οἰκετῶν κατὰ τῶν φίλων καὶ ὅπως ἐκεί-
νους ἐξέλοιο μέμψεως, τούτοις περιάπτειν αἰτίας.
ἀλλ’
ὑπὲρ μὲν τούτων ὀλίγον ὕστερον διαδικασόμεθα Κέλσου τὴν
ψῆφον τιθεμένου, τῆς Βακχείας δὲ ἡμῖν ἴσθι τὸ πλέον ἀμ-
βλύνας ὑπὸ τῆς ἀπουσίας. οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ὅτῳ ἂν τἀπὸ καρδίας
λέγοιμεν, ἀλλ’ ἢ δεῖ σιγᾶν ἢ εἰπόντα μετεγνωκέναι καὶ ἐπιτι-
μᾶν τῇ γλώττῃ, ὅτι ἐξελάλησεν ὅπερ τ᾿ ἄρρητον ἄμεινον.
οἶμαι δὲ καὶ σὲ ταὐτὸν περιεστηκέναι, σιγὴν ἢ φόβον.
ὅπως
οὖν ἡμεῖς τε σοῦ σύ τε ἡμῶν ἀπολαύοις ἑκάτεροί τε δι’ ἀλ-
λήλων ἐλευθερίας, τοῖς στόμασιν ἄνοιγε τὰς θύρας φανείς.
Related Letters
We are truly in a desert with you gone — or rather, in something worse than a desert.
To Φουρτουνατιανῷ. (361)
Would that it were possible for me to write to your reverence every day! For ever since I have had experience of your affection I have had great desire to converse with you, or, if this be impossible, at least to communicate with you by letter, that I may tell you my own news and learn in what state you are. Yet we have not what we wish but what...
Your difficulties have been resolved — resolved by the labors of Mariades.
An explanation of the ten names given to God in the Hebrew Scriptures. The ten names are El, Elohim, Sabaôth, Eliôn, Asher yeheyeh Exodus 3:14, Adonai, Jah, the tetragram JHVH, and Shaddai. Written at Rome 384 A.D.