Letter 809: Do well by the poets, for a debt of gratitude lodged with a poet is a fine treasure.
To Modestus. (363)
Treat poets well; for the gratitude owed by a poet is a fine treasure to a man. Or rather, he will begin the giving of grace with his words; but do not allow yourself to remain among the debtors, but at once repay the favor, gold in return for verses of gold.
But see that what he shall receive from us, after your own gift, may not make your own gift the lesser. For the gifts of greater men ought to be greater.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Μοδέστῳ. (363)
Τοὺς ποιητὰς εὖ ποίει· καλὸς γὰρ θησαυρὸς παρ’ ἀνδρὶ
ποιητῇ χάρις ὀφειλομένη. μᾶλλον δέ, οὗτος μὲν ἄρξει χάριτος
ἐκ λόγων· σὺ δὲ μὴ ἀνάσχῃ γενέσθαι τῶν ὀφειλόντων, ἀλλ’
εὐθὺς ἀπόδος τὴν χάριν, χρυσίον ἀντὶ χρυσῶν ἐπῶν.
ἀλλ’
ὅπως ὧν παρ’ ἡμῶν λήψεται μετὰ τὸ ὑμέτερον μὴ ἔλαττον
γένηται τὸ ὑμέτερον. δεῖ γὰρ εἶναι μείζω τὰ δῶρα τῶν μει-
ζόνων.
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
Related Letters
The young men have come to collect on your promises, and you — noble in all else and incapable of falsehood — will...
Many are those who announce that you are coming, but we do not yet see the deed.
Hear what the bearer of this letter says: he accuses the negligent servants and asks you to correct what has gone wrong.
I was right to do both things: to write and to stop writing.
I was pleased that you urge me to do the very thing I urge you to do.