Letter 861: Libanius commends Domnion to Panhellenius as a valuable Antiochene citizen and official in Asia.

LibaniusPanhellenius, correspondent of Libanius|c. 388 AD|Libanius|From Antioch|AI-assisted
PanhelleniusDomnionAsiaAntiochusimperial financesrhetoricmarriagepatronageAntioch
Panhellenius' mouth is said to contain Athens, a compact compliment to his eloquence and cultural authority.

You hold no small part of our city in your keeping, since you have Domnion, that excellent man. In his youth he shared in the studies that make orators; later, in his work on behalf of the imperial finances, he won the admiration of governors; and everyone praised the judgment he showed about his daughter, when he set Antiochus' virtue above every kind of wealth.

I expect him to persuade Asia too, the province to which he has been sent with the honor of office, to say often that no one in such circumstances has ever enjoyed such a man. The business he handles will give occasion for those words, and so will your own mouth, in which Athens herself lives: praising those who can recognize Domnion and instructing those who cannot.

Since he is no less a citizen of ours than of the place where you were born, join your prayers and your efforts to his. Pay attention to the man, and you will find him devoted both to you and to those connected with you.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

1. Ἔχεις οὐ μικρὸν μέρος τῆς πόλεως ἡμῶν ἔχων Δομνίωνα τὸν καλόν, τὸν μετεσχηκότα μὲν ἐν νεότητι διατριβῶν, αἳ ποιοῦσι ῥήτορας, θαυμασθέντα δὲ ὑπ’ ἀρχόντων ὕστερον ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ τῶν βασιλικῶν χρημάτων πόνοις, ἐπαινεθέντα δὲ ὑπὸ πάντων ἀνθρώπων οἷς περὶ τῆς θυγατρὸς ἐβουλεύσατο παντὸς πλούτου τὴν Ἀντιόχου προθεὶς ἀρετήν. 2. πείσειν δὲ αὐτὸν ἡγοῦμαι καὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν, εἰς ἣν ἀρχῇ τιμηθεὶς ἀπεστάλη, πολλάκις εἰπεῖν μηδενὸς πώποτε ἐν τοιούτοις ἀπολελαυκέναι τοιούτου τῶν τε πραττομένων ἐπὶ ταῦτα ἀγόντων τὰ ῥήματα καὶ τοῦ σοῦ στόματος, ἐν ᾧ τὰ Ἀθηναίων ἐστί, τοὺς μὲν γνῶναι τὸν Δομνίωνα δυνηθέντας ἐπαινοῦντος, τοὺς δὲ μὴ διδάσκοντος. 3. ὡς οὖν πολίτης ὢν οὐχ ἧττον ἡμέτερος ἢ οὗπερ ἔφυς καὶ συνεύχου τῷδε καὶ συναγωνίζου· προσέχοντα δὲ τὸν ἄνδρα εὑρήσεις σοί τε καὶ τοῖς παρὰ σοῦ.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch2 gemini flash v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/download/foerster-libanii-opera/Foerster%20%281922%29%2C%20Libanii%20opera%2011_djvu.xml

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