Letter 888: Libanius urges Eupsychius to stop a doctor from breaking a marriage agreement and displacing another suitor.
No one would blame you for showing favor to a doctor, especially one who is a man of letters and who wins praise for bringing his work to the public stage. Nor do we blame a doctor for wanting to marry, or anyone who helps him in that goal. It would be fine for him and his associates to arrange a marriage, provided they weren't hurting anyone else in the process. But in this case, someone is being wronged: the man who is being deprived of his bride. Existing agreements are being set aside as one suitor is pushed out by another. A man of the medical profession [a follower of Asclepius] ought to loathe such behavior and work to prevent it, rather than being the one to do it. If he has little regard for what is proper, you at least should have a great deal. Indeed, since you show such integrity in everything else, show it here as well, so that only good things are said about your administration.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
1. Οὐδεὶς μὲν ἂν αἰτιάσαιτό σε περὶ ἰατρὸν ἐσπουδακότα καὶ ταῦτα καὶ λόγων πατέρα γιγνομένον, εἶτ' εἰς θέατρα τούτους εἰσάγοντά τε καὶ ἐπαινούμενον· ἀλλ' οὐδὲ γαμεῖν βουλόμενον τὸν ἰατρὸν αἰτιώμεθα οὐδ' ὅστις ἐκείνῳ πρὸς τοῦτο συλλαμβάνει. 2. καλῶς δ' ἂν ἔχοι κἀκείνῳ καὶ τοῖς μετ' ἐκείνου γαμεῖν αὐτῶν ἀδικοῦντων οὐδένα· νῦν δ' ἔστιν ὁ ἀδικούμενος ὁ τῆς κόρης ἀποστερούμενος συνθηκῶν κινουμένων καὶ μνηστῆρι μνηστῆρος ἐπεισιόντος. 3. ἄνδρα τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἀσκληπιὸν ἕνα καὶ μισεῖν τὰ τοιαῦτα δίκαιον καὶ κωλύειν <καὶ> τοσαῦτ' ἀπέχειν τοῦ ποιεῖν. εἰ δ' ἐκείνῳ βραχὺς τοῦ προσήκοντος λόγος, ἀλλὰ σοί γ' ἔστω πολύς. μᾶλλον δ', ἐπειδὴ πολὺς ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐστί σοι, κἀνταῦθα ἔστω πολύς, ὅπως τὰ βελτίω μόνα περὶ τῆς σῆς ἀρχῆς λέγηται.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch3 gemini flash v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/download/foerster-libanii-opera/Foerster%20%281922%29%2C%20Libanii%20opera%2011_djvu.xml
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