Letter 100: An Introduction
[1] To Pylaemenes
Here at last is that Anastasius note [One of Synesius' dearest friends and an important courtier in Constantinople ; he was the tutor of the children of the emperor Arcadius . Adressee of letters 43 , 22 , 79 , and 46 .] about whom I have so often spoken. If I had been introducing you to him, I should have praised you as I am praising him at this moment. You are both of you neighbors in my heart, and have been so for a long time past. Let your meeting, therefore, be an act of recognition. Embrace each other, and see in this, both of you, a means of doing me a little good. [2] Now leisure is the greatest good, a good of which one might say that, like a country bearing in abundance, it brings all noble things to the soul of the philosopher. This leisure I shall enjoy when I succeed in freeing myself from entanglement in the political life of the Romans; and that will be when I am released from these accursed curial functions. [3] So far as the Emperor is concerned, I am free of them, but I should justly blame myself and feel ashamed, if I were to take any profit from my personal activity. I shall accordingly make my defense to myself. For I shall appear to be fulfilling the duty of ambassador again, since my tongue is again an ambassador; nor will any one who praises Pythagoras contradict me, since he defined a friend as a second self. note [In fact, Aristotle : Nicomachaean Ethics 9.4.]
Letter 100: An Introduction
[1] To Pylaemenes
Here at last is that Anastasius note [One of Synesius' dearest friends and an important courtier in Constantinople ; he was the tutor of the children of the emperor Arcadius . Adressee of letters 43 , 22 , 79 , and 46 .] about whom I have so often spoken. If I had been introducing you to him, I should have praised you as I am praising him at this moment. You are both of you neighbors in my heart, and have been so for a long time past. Let your meeting, therefore, be an act of recognition. Embrace each other, and see in this, both of you, a means of doing me a little good. [2] Now leisure is the greatest good, a good of which one might say that, like a country bearing in abundance, it brings all noble things to the soul of the philosopher. This leisure I shall enjoy when I succeed in freeing myself from entanglement in the political life of the Romans; and that will be when I am released from these accursed curial functions. [3] So far as the Emperor is concerned, I am free of them, but I should justly blame myself and feel ashamed, if I were to take any profit from my personal activity. I shall accordingly make my defense to myself. For I shall appear to be fulfilling the duty of ambassador again, since my tongue is again an ambassador; nor will any one who praises Pythagoras contradict me, since he defined a friend as a second self. note [In fact, Aristotle : Nicomachaean Ethics 9.4.]
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Letter 100: An Introduction
[1] To Pylaemenes
Here at last is that Anastasius note [One of Synesius' dearest friends and an important courtier in Constantinople ; he was the tutor of the children of the emperor Arcadius . Adressee of letters 43 , 22 , 79 , and 46 .] about whom I have so often spoken. If I had been introducing you to him, I should have praised you as I am praising him at this moment. You are both of you neighbors in my heart, and have been so for a long time past. Let your meeting, therefore, be an act of recognition. Embrace each other, and see in this, both of you, a means of doing me a little good. [2] Now leisure is the greatest good, a good of which one might say that, like a country bearing in abundance, it brings all noble things to the soul of the philosopher. This leisure I shall enjoy when I succeed in freeing myself from entanglement in the political life of the Romans; and that will be when I am released from these accursed curial functions. [3] So far as the Emperor is concerned, I am free of them, but I should justly blame myself and feel ashamed, if I were to take any profit from my personal activity. I shall accordingly make my defense to myself. For I shall appear to be fulfilling the duty of ambassador again, since my tongue is again an ambassador; nor will any one who praises Pythagoras contradict me, since he defined a friend as a second self. note [In fact, Aristotle : Nicomachaean Ethics 9.4.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.