Letter 79: If I could have traveled with Sabinus, I would have spoken to you in person rather than writing -- that's how badly...
**To Atarbius** (359 AD)
If I had been able to share the journey with Sabinus, I would be speaking with you in person rather than writing — so great is my eagerness to rescue the man from this storm. But since I am compelled by many circumstances to remain here, I have not neglected the second-best voyage, and so I write to you instead.
I would ask you, for the sake of both justice and our friendship, to stand firm against the harshness of the present moment and teach these people that it is not within their right to tear apart governors once they have laid down their office.
I have given Sabinus my word that he would obtain everything he needs from you. It is in your power now to prove me either a braggart in my promise — or not.
Related Letters
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,...
On arriving at Nicopolis in the double hope of settling the disturbances which had arisen, and applying a remedy, as far as possible, to measures taken in a disorderly manner and in violation of the law of the Church, I was exceedingly disappointed at failing to meet you. I heard that you had hurriedly withdrawn, and actually from the very synod...
I swear by the gods: I do not wish the Galileans [Christians] to be put to death, or beaten unjustly, or harmed in...
Andronicus the poet [a contemporary poet praised by Libanius] won over the cities as far as Ethiopia, as one might...
It is no burden for me to keep writing and pleading about the same matter, but it may not sit well with you to keep...