Letter 148: Theodotus and Charisius are brothers, and their profession is the same.

LibaniusPriscianus|c. 328 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
grief death

To Priscianus. (359/60?)

Theodotus and Charisius are brothers, and their profession is one and the same; I will add, too, that so is their disposition: to write for people the documents concerning contracts without prizing gain over the truth.

Theodotus, then, you have long known and loved, since he is among our own; but Charisius, who dwelt in the city, someone has surely by now commended to you in some way. He, however, has passed away, and his children must be helped. Their uncle, through us, entreats the man who knows how to bring deliverance.

And the noble Priscianus will grant us this favor, both yielding to us and holding Theodotus in account. So you will lighten the orphanhood of those children, and you will deem worthy of your care the kinsmen of this man who are in Cyrrhus.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Πρισκιανῷ. (359/60?)

Θεόδοτος καὶ Χαρίσιος ἀδελφοί, τέχνη δὲ αὐτοῖν ἡ αὐ-
τή, προσθήσω δέ, ὅτι καὶ γνώμη, τὰ περὶ τῶν συνθηκῶν
γράμματα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γράφειν ἄνευ τοῦ κέρδος κατὰ τῆς
ἀληθείας τιμᾶν.

τὸν μὲν οὖν Θεόδοτον πάλαι μεθ’ ἡμῶν
καὶ γινώσκεις καὶ φιλεῖς, Χαρίσιον δὲ τὴν πόλιν οἰκοῦντα
πάντως πού τις ἐπῄνεσε πρὸς σὲ νῦν, ἀλλ’ ὁ μὲν οἴχεται, δεῖ
δὲ βοηθῶν τοῖς ἐκείνου παιδίοις. ὁ θεῖος δὲ δι’ ἡμῶν ἱκε-
τεύει τὸν εἰδότα σώζειν.

δώσει δὲ ὁ γενναῖος Πρισκιανὸς
τὴν χάριν ἡμῖν τε πειθόμενος καὶ Θεόδοτον ἐν λόγῳ ποιού-
μενος. ἐκείνοις τε οὖν τὴν ὀρφανίαν κουφιεῖς καὶ φροντίδος
ἀξιώσεις τοὺς ἐν Κύρῳ τούτου συγγενεῖς.

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

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