Letter 948: Request for assistance for a father and son in distress.
The father of this man was dragged away before him by those who take pleasure in doing so, and he is, naturally, in tears. The son, too, is being dragged away, so that the father might not weep alone. It would be fitting for you and your nature—which is swift to help—to comfort the father and to comfort the son, not with words alone, but now with deeds as well. I need not teach you what must be done, nor how you might either remove the evil entirely or diminish it. For you, excelling in intelligence, full of education, and having experienced much, would learn from yourself what actions would constitute brilliant assistance. Help them, then, and in this way please the gods and grant a favor to me. Grant it also to Gessius, who dearly loves those in distress, and who will hear from me everything that results from your aid.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Εἵλκυσται μὲν ὁ τοῦδε πατὴρ πρὸ τοῦδε παρὰ τῶν ἡδέως τοῦτο ποιούντων καὶ ἔστιν, ὡς εἰκός, ἐν δάκρυσιν· ἕλκεται δὲ καὶ ὁ παῖς, ὅπως μὴ μόνος ὁ πατὴρ κλάῃ. σὸν οὖν ἂν εἴη καὶ τῆς σῆς φύσεως τῆς ταχείας εἰς τὸ βοηθεῖν παραμυθήσασθαι μὲν ἐκεῖνον, παραμυθήσασθαι δὲ τοῦτον μὴ λόγῳ μόνον, ἀλλ᾿ ἤδη καὶ ἔργῳ. 2. διδάσκειν δὲ οὐδέν σε δεῖ, τί δεῖ ποιεῖν καὶ πῶς ἂν τὸ μὲν ὅλως ἀνέλοις κακόν, τοῦ δ᾿ ἂν ἀφέλοις. συνέσει τε γὰρ διαφέρων καὶ παιδείας γέμων καὶ διὰ πολλῶν ἀφιγμένος αὐτὸς ἂν παρὰ σαυτοῦ μανθάνοις, ἃ ποιῶν λαμπρῶς ἂν εἴης βεβοηθηκώς. 3. βοήθει δὴ καὶ τέρπε μὲν ταύτῃ τοὺς θεούς, χαρίζου δ᾿ ἐμοί· χαρίζου δὲ Γεσσίῳ τῷ πάνυ μὲν φιλοῦντι τοὺς ἐν τῇ ταραχῇ, παρ᾿ ἐμοῦ δὲ εἰσομένῳ πᾶν ὅ τι ἂν ἐν τῇ βοηθείᾳ γένηται.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch6 gemini flash ocr reviewed 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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