Letter 931: Libanius recommends Boethus to Africanus and praises the recipient as equal to himself in Boethus' eyes.
Excellent Boethus became my friend through the rest of his good character, and especially because he places the highest value on men who spend their lives in rhetoric. He took more pleasure in being with me than with those who shine in the bloom of youth and devote themselves to these pursuits. Now unavoidable circumstances have brought him back to you. It was clear that he counted it gain if he could hear your voice, and loss if he could not hear mine. He delighted me in both ways, for in my eyes what belongs to you is equal to what belongs to me. To the many honors he pays me every day, he added this great one: he wanted to appear before you with my letter, and asked this in the presence of many, saying that everything would go better for him if, as usual, he brought mouth to mouth and hand to hand, the hand giving a letter. If this happens, I hope a letter will soon come from him reporting these very things, and crying out to everyone that children receive no more from their fathers than I receive from you.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Φίλον ἡμῖν τὸν καλὸν ἐποίησε Βοηθὸν ἥ τε ἄλλη τῶν τρόπων ἀρετὴ καὶ μάλιστά γε δὴ τὸ περὶ πλείστου ποιεῖσθαι τοὺς ἐν λόγοις διατρίβοντας. ἡμῖν γοῦν μᾶλλον ἥδετο συνὼν ἢ τοῖς ὥρᾳ λαμπροῖς οἱ περὶ ταῦτα ἐσπουδακότες. καὶ νῦν ἀνάγκαις μέν, ἃς οὐκ ἦν διαφυγεῖν, ὡς ὑμᾶς ἐπανήγετο, δῆλος δὲ ἦν κέρδος μὲν ἡγούμενος, εἰ τῆς σῆς ἀκούοι φωνῆς, ζημίαν δὲ τὸ μὴ τῆς ἡμετέρας. ἐμὲ δὲ ἀμφοτέροις εὔφραινε. τὰ σὰ γὰρ ἴσα τοῖς ἐμοῖς παρ᾽ ἐμοί. ταῖς πολλαῖς δὲ καθημέραν τιμαῖς μεγάλην ταύτην προσέθηκε μετ᾽ ἐμῶν γραμμάτων βουληθεὶς σοι φανῆναι, καὶ ταῦτα πολλῶν παρόντων αἰτῶν λέγων ἄμεινον αὑτῷ πάντα ἕξειν, εἰ τὸ στόμα προσάγων τῷ στόματι, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ εἰωθός, καὶ τὴν χεῖρα τῇ χειρὶ προσάγοι διδοῦσαν ἐπιστολήν. ὧν γενομένων ἐλπίζω καὶ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ ταχέως ἡμῖν ἥξειν ἐπιστολὴν αὐτά τε ταῦτα μηνύουσαν καὶ τἀπὶ τούτοις βοῶσαν πρὸς ἅπαντας ὡς οὐ πλείω παρὰ τῶν παίδων τοῖς πατράσιν ἢ ἡμῖν παρὰ σοῦ.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch5 gemini flash ocr reviewed 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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