Letter 962: Libanius praises Sopolis' letter and warmly welcomes Apsines' affection.
A man who has shared in such a festival, and has seen his god brought lawfully back to his temple in the city after his stay outside the walls, deserves to be thought and called happy. He is happy again for passing, in only a few days, through so many sights and being able to say: I saw the Areopagus; I saw the Acropolis; I saw the goddesses reconciled after long anger, once the one who had helped their father had been released from blame; I saw the city won by contest, the nurse of Erechtheus. I congratulate him on what he has seen, and you not only because you enjoy these and many other things every day, but also because of the beauty of the letter you sent me. You seem to me not to have written it without Dionysus; it is full of charm. I asked the man who brought it about the boy's blows, and when I heard great things I did not disbelieve them. The poets are not surprised by Neoptolemus either: a boy born from such stock was bound to be like them, able to disturb battle-lines like his father, and, I think, his grandfather too. So let handsome Apsines love me as well. He would be right to love an old man who prays with him.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Εὐδαίμονα χρὴ καὶ νομίζειν καὶ καλεῖν τὸν τοιαύτης μὲν ἑορτῆς μετεσχηκότα καὶ τεθεαμένον θεὸν τὸν αὑτοῦ νεὼ τὸν ἐν ἄστει κομιζόμενον μετὰ τὴν ἔξω τείχους διατριβὴν τὴν κατὰ νόμον. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ εὐδαίμων ἦν δρῶν αὐτόν τε τὸν θεὸν καὶ οἷς ἐτιμᾶτο; 2. εὐδαίμων δὲ πάλιν διὰ πολλῶν τύπων ἐν ὀλίγαις ἡμέραις δραμὼν καὶ λέγειν ἔχων· εἶδον Ἄρειον πάγον, εἶδον Ἀκρόπολιν, εἶδον τὰς μετὰ πολλὴν ὀργὴν διηλλαγμένας θεὰς ἤδη τῶν αἰτιῶν ἀφειμένου τοῦ τῷ πατρὶ βεβοηθηκότος. εἶδον καὶ τὴν δι᾽ ἀγῶνος κτησαμένην τὴν πόλιν, τὴν Ἐρεχθέως τροφόν. 3. ἐκεῖνον μὲν οὖν ὧν τεθέαται μακαρίζω, σὲ δὲ οὐ μόνον τοῦ καὶ τούτων καὶ πολλῶν ἑτέρων ἀπολαύειν καθ᾽ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ κάλλους τῆς ἐπιστολῆς, ἣν μοι δοκεῖς οὐκ ἄνευ τοῦ Διονύσου γράψαι· πρὸς τοσοῦτον ἥκει χαρίτων. 4. ἠρόμην δὲ τὸν δόντα μοι τὴν ἐπιστολὴν περὶ τῶν τοῦ παιδὸς πληγῶν, καὶ μεγάλα ἀκούσας οὐκ ἠπίστησα, οὐδὲ γὰρ τοῖς ποιηταῖς θαυμάζουσι Νεοπτόλεμον. τὸν γὰρ ἐκ τοιούτων ἔδει δήπου καὶ τοιοῦτον εἶναι καὶ ταράττειν δύνασθαι φάλαγγας, ὥσπερ αὖ καὶ ὁ πατήρ, οἶμαι δὲ καὶ ὁ πάππος. 5. φιλείτω τοίνυν μὲ καὶ ὁ καλὸς Ἀψίνης. δίκαια γὰρ ἂν ποιοίη γέροντα φιλῶν καὶ συνευχόμενον αὐτῷ.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch8 t258 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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