Letter 565: It suits you to be a friend of Himerius [a famous Athenian sophist], and your sons, by doing well, are imitating the...
To Maximus (357)
It was fitting both that you should be a friend to Himerius and that your sons, acting well, should imitate the example you have set. Your son shows deference to this man, while he in turn praises your son and rejoices with him, seeing that he enjoys a good reputation and also our solicitude on his behalf; yet he finds fault with one thing only, namely that, though your son offers much, he is willing to accept but little.
Do you, therefore, praise the one for his liberality, and the other for his deference.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Μαξίμῳ (357)
Σοί τε ἔπρεπεν Ἱμερίῳ φίλον εἶναι καὶ οἱ παῖδες ὑμῶν
εὖ ποιοῦντες τὰ ὑμέτερα μιμοῦνται. αἰδεῖται μὲν τοῦτον ὁ
σὸς υἱός, οὗτος δὲ ἐκεῖνον ἐπαινεῖ καὶ συγχαίρει δόξαν τε
ἀγαθὴν ὁρῶν ἔχοντα καὶ παρ’ ἡμῶν πρόνοιαν, ἓν δὲ αἰτιᾶται
μόνον, ὅτι πολλὰ τοῦδε διδόντος μικρὰ λαμβάνειν ἐθέλει.
σὺ τοίνυν ἐπαίνει τοῦ μὲν τὴν φιλοτιμίαν, τοῦ δὲ τὸ αἰ-
δεῖσθαι.
Revision history
- 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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