Letter 426: Every possible pressure and strategy has been brought against Daphnus -- Clematius has done everything, Apodemius no...

LibaniusAcacius Presbyter|c. 354 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
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To Acacius. (355)

Against Daphnus every kind of compulsion and trial has been brought to bear, Clematius having done everything, and Apodemius not a little, and perhaps we too somewhat. And indeed Strategius too, on hearing that you had a lawsuit, at once believed that he [Daphnus] was in the wrong, and was the sort to leave nothing undone.

But Daphnus laughs at us and at the laws and at the magistrates alike; such an advocate has he in his poverty, by which, if he goes to bed not hungry, he thinks himself rich, yet even so he has not been released. Having furnished a surety, he waits for you. For this is what, on our consideration, appeared to remain.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Ἀκακίῳ. (355)

Τῷ Δάφνῳ πᾶσα ἀνάγκη καὶ πείρα προσενήνεκται πάντα
μὲν Κληματίου πεποιηκότος, οὐκ ὀλίγα δὲ Ἀποδημίου, τάχα
δέ τι καὶ ἡμῶν. καὶ μὴν καὶ Σrρατήγιος ἀκούσας εἶναί σοι
δίκην εὐθύς τε ἐπίστευσεν ὡς ἀδικεῖ, καὶ οἷος ἦν μηδὲν ἐλλεί-
πειν.

ἀλλ’ ὁ Δάφνος καὶ ἡμῶν καὶ νόμων καὶ ἀρχόντων
καταγελᾷ· τοιοῦτον ἔχει συνήγορον τὴν πενίαν, ὑφ’ ἧς ἂν μὴ
πεινῶν κοιμηθῇ, πλουτεῖν οἴεται, ὅμως δὲ οὐδ’ οὕτω λέλυται.
καταστήσας δὲ ἐγγυητὴν σὲ περιμένει. τουτὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν σκο-
πουμένοις ἐφάνη λοιπόν.

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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