Letter 913: Libanius praises Epiphanius' public conduct and asks him to support Sidonius.
I remember that day when, on your way through our city to take up office, you came in to see me. You spoke about some things and listened to others, and in both you showed that you had seen the man you had wanted to see. So you went away having won me over. All this time I have repaid you in only one way: by taking pleasure in what people say about you. They say that you care about the laws and follow them, that you care about the cities and those who work the land, and that your actions are swift and your words are beautiful. So I may fairly ask you for payment for such pleasure. The payment is this: receive Sidonius, an excellent man and my friend, gladly when he is present, seek him out when he is absent, and improve him by your advice. And if he has made a mistake and comes back no better supplied, I will still be grateful to you for that as well.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Μέμνημαι τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης, ἐν ᾗ διὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐρχόμενος εἰσῆλθές τε ὡς ἐμὲ καὶ τὰ μὲν εἶπες, τὰ δὲ ἤκουσας, δεικνὺς ἐν ἀμφοτέροις ὡς ἑώρας ὃν ἐπεθύμεις ἰδεῖν· ὥστε με λαβὼν ἀπῆλθες. ἐγὼ δὲ σὲ πάντα τοῦτον ἠμειψάμην τὸν χρόνον ἄλλῳ μὲν οὐδενί, τῷ δὲ τοῖς περὶ σοῦ λεγομένοις ἥδεσθαι. τὰ δέ ἐστι μέλειν μέν σοι τῶν νόμων καὶ τούτοις ἀκολουθεῖν, μέλειν δὲ τῶν πόλεων καὶ τῶν τὴν γῆν ἐργαζομένων καὶ τάχους ἔργων καὶ κάλλους λόγων. ἔξεστιν οὖν μοι καὶ μισθὸν ἀπαιτεῖν σε τῆς τοιαύτης ἡδονῆς. ὃ δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἄνδρα χρηστὸν καὶ φίλον ἐμοὶ τουτονὶ Σιδώνιον ἡδέως τε ὁρᾶν παρόντα καὶ ζητεῖν ἀπόντα καὶ συμβουλαῖς ἀμείνω ποιεῖν. εἰ δὲ καὶ ἁμαρτάνων οὐδὲν εὐπορώτερος ἐπανέλθοι, καὶ τούτου σοι χάριν εἴσομαι.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch4 managed agents 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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