Letter 956: Libanius congratulates Priscion on his promotion but urges him to reconcile with the sophist Panegyrius.
Hearing that your position on the throne has advanced, I was pleased with what has been given and what is expected; for it is likely that something even more brilliant than the present will come with time and labor. But when someone reported that you and the sophist Panegyrius, whom you used to praise, are not at peace, I was grieved, considering that those at war must handle bows and arrows—the kind of arrows sophists use. That report did not bring us the words in which they said you had decided well by giving yourself to the education of the young. Whether you are in the wrong and have forgotten me, or are defending yourself and have thus forgotten me, stop this current trouble. Let not-fighting be sweeter than fighting. The noble Nicias will be your Helper.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Ἀκούσας ἐπιδεδωκέναι σοι τὰ περὶ τὸν θρόνον ἥσθην τοῖς τε ἤδη δεδομένοις τοῖς τε προσδοκωμένοις· εἰκὸς γὰρ ἔσεσθαί τι καὶ τῶν παρόντων λαμπρότερον χρόνου τε καὶ πόνου ταῦτα ἐχόντων ποιεῖν. 2. ἀγγείλαντος δέ τινος οὐκ ἐν εἰρήνῃ διάγειν σέ τε καὶ ὃν ἐπήνεις παρ' ἡμῖν Πανηγύριον τὸν σοφιστὴν ἠχθέσθην ἐνθυμούμενος ὡς ἀνάγκη πολεμοῦντας καὶ τόξων ἅπτεσθαι καὶ βελῶν, οἷα δὴ βέλη τὰ σοφιστῶν. 3. ἐκόμιζε δὲ οὐ ταῦτα ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἐκεῖνος, ἐν ᾧ σε καλῶς ἔλεγον βεβουλεῦσθαι τῷ παιδεύειν νέους δεδωκότα σεαυτόν. εἴτ' οὖν ἀδικεῖς αὐτός, οὐ πάνυ μου μέμνησαι, εἴτε ἀμύνῃ, καὶ οὕτως ἐπιλέλησαί μου. 4. παύσατε δὴ τὴν νῦν ταραχήν, καὶ γενέσθω τὸ μὴ πολεμεῖν τοῦ πολεμεῖν ἥδιον. Νικίας δὲ ὑμῖν ὁ γενναῖος ἔσται Βοηθός.
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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