Letter 669: I have heard of your loss, and I grieve with you.

Do not seek a finer witness to the fact that this Aetius is a man of noble character than the judgment of Anatolius [likely a provincial official known to both Libanius and Magnus]. Now, if Anatolius were still alive, this man would have dwelt in Phoenicia and been prosperous. But since he has departed, you should become the heir of his affection — not so as to persuade Aetius to relocate, nor to fulfill those grand hopes, but so as not to stand by and watch him lose what is his own.

Μάγνῳ. (361) Τοῦ καλὸν κἀγαθὸν Ἀέτιον εἶναι τουτονὶ μὴ ζήτει καλ- λίω μάρτυρα τῆς Ἀνατολίου γνώμης. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐκεῖνος περιῆν, Φοινίκην τ’ ἂν οὗτος ᾤκει καὶ ἦν εὐδαίμων· οἰχο- μένου δὲ σὺ γενοῦ τοῦ φίλτρου κληρονόμος οὐκ εἰς τὸ πεῖσαι μετοικεῖν οὐδ’ ὥστε πληρῶσαι τὰς μεγάλας ἐλπίδας, ἀλλ’ εἰς τὸ μὴ τὰ αὑτοῦ περιιδεῖν ἀποβαλόντα.