Letter 102: I ask your friendship and protection for my dear Sosenas — born and raised amid learning, yet not meeting with the...
Letter 102: A Recommendation
[1] To Pylaemenes
I ask your friendship and protection for my dear Sosenas, born and brought up in learning, who is not meeting with the rewards from fortune which should follow learning. He throws the blame on his city's unfortunate condition, and some line of reasoning is persuading him that it is possible to change one's fortune with one's domicile. He is going to the Imperial city , persuaded as he is that where a king is, there Fortune is also, and will perchance discover him. [2] Accomplish for him whatever he desires, if it is in your power, for you are worthy to have power, and to assist to good fortune those that are in need. If Sosenas has any need of your friends, you will introduce him to them yourself.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
In Plato, we see Socrates, already advanced in years, still pursuing his intellectual passions.
Know that the definitions of geometry are infallibly true.
You are quite right to return to the capital.
Believe me when I say that I embrace Pylaemenes — soul to soul.
Some letters dated last spring have just arrived from Thrace.