Letter 113: Paeonius has decided to take up the study of law as well.

LibaniusDomninus, law teacher|c. 324 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
education books

To Domninus. (359/60)

Paeonius decided to take up the study of the laws as well; and I, for my part, neither prevented him nor failed to show him from whom it is possible to obtain that learning. For indeed it was right that I should give him a reward for the fair conduct by which he caused me no grief, neither small nor great, but gave me much pleasure, both in small matters and in greater ones.

And I consider that I have been honored by this too: that, after sharing my judgment, he then departs. For those who attempt to act in secret commit an impiety, in that they fear some hindrance from us if they should announce their intention beforehand; but this young man, wishing to be worthy both of his father and of his grandfather, and having come to know our character, has both revealed it in his composition and adorned himself with letters.

And you must regard the young man not only as a pupil but also as a friend, and show this to all those about you: that there is something more accorded by you to Paeonius.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Δομνίνῳ. (359/60)

Ἔδοξε Παιονίῳ καὶ νόμους προσλαβεῖν ἐγὼ δὲ οὔτε
ἐκώλυσα παρ’ οὐ τε ἔστι τοὺς νόμους λαβεῖν ἔδειξα. καὶ γὰρ
ἴδει με μισθὸν αὐτῷ τῆς ἐπιεικείας δοῦναι, δι’ ἣν ἐλύπησε
μὲν οὔτε μικρὸν οὔτε μεῖζον ἐμέ, πολλὰ δὲ εὔφρανε κοὶ μικρὰ
καὶ μείζω.

νομίζω δὲ καὶ τούτῳ τετιμῆσθαι τῷ κοινωνή-
σαντά μοι τῆς γνώμης εἶτα ἀπαίρειν· ὡς οἴ γε λαθεῖν ἐπι-
χειρήσαντες ἠσέβουν ἐν τῷ φοβηθῆναι κώλυμα παρ’ ἡμῶν, εἰ
προείποιεν, ἀλλ’ οὗτός γε ἄξιος εἶναι βουλόμενος τοῦ τε πα-
τρὸς καὶ τοῦ πάππου φύσιν τε τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐπιγνοὺς ἐξέφηνέ
τε ποιήσει καὶ κεκόσμηται τοῖς γράμμασι.

δεῖ δὲ σὲ οὐ
μαθητὴν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ φίλον νομίσαι τὸν νεανίσκον καὶ
τοῦτο δεῖξαι τοῖς ἀμφὶ σὲ πᾶσιν, ὅτι ἔστι τι παρὰ σοῦ Παιο-
νίω πλέον.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern libanius retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/blob/master/volume_xml/libanius_10.xml

Related Letters