Letter 970: Libanius seeks help for Argyrius as he funds civic spectacles.
Argyrius wants to follow his fathers in public service. By means of splendid public duties, wild-beast shows, and contests between men, he is making our city glad. It would be a fine thing for him to receive from you what his father received from the man who then occupied the office now held by your son. That help was not merely money and resources. The added support carried no small part of the expense and labor, and it gave as much pleasure to those who gave as to those who received. They thought that helping in such matters was a gain. So through you we ask fortunate Tatianus, fortunate both in himself and in showing such things through such a son, for equal help, or rather greater help from one far better. Even if no examples existed, he himself would reasonably have laid down this rule for us.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Ἕπεσθαι τοῖς πατράσιν ἀξιῶν Ἀργύριος ὁ πολιτευόμενος τὸ ἐπὶ ταῖς καλαῖς λειτουργίαις διά τε θηρίων καὶ τῶν πρὸς ταῦτα μαχομένων ἀνθρώπων εὐφραίνει τὴν πόλιν ἡμῖν. 2. καλὸν δὲ αὐτῷ τοῦτο γενέσθαι παρ᾽ ὑμῶν, ὃ καὶ τῷ πατρὶ τῷ τοῦδε παρὰ τοῦ τότε ἐν ᾧπερ νῦν ὁ σὸς κάθηται καθημένου. τουτὶ δὲ ἦν πόροι καὶ χρήματα, μέρος τῆς δαπάνης οὐ μικρὸν συνδιαφέρον τὸν περὶ ταῦτα πόνον, ἐπικουρία τις τοῖς ἔνδοθεν ῥέουσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ προστιθέντος, ἡδονὴ δὲ οὐ μείζων τοῖς λαμβάνουσιν ἢ τοῖς διδοῦσιν. οὕτως ἐν τῷ τὰ τοιαῦτα βοηθεῖν κερδαίνειν ἐνόμιζον. 3. ἀπαιτοῦμεν δὴ διὰ σοῦ τὸν εὐδαίμονα Τατιανόν, πῶς γὰρ οὐκ εὐδαίμων τοιοῦτος μὲν αὐτὸς ὤν, διὰ τοιούτου δὲ παιδὸς τοιαῦτα δεικνύς; ἀπαιτοῦμεν οὖν ἴσα, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ μείζω παρὰ πολὺ κρείττονος, ἐπεὶ καὶ οὐκ ὄντων παραδειγμάτων αὐτὸς ἂν τοῦτον ἡμῖν εἰκότως ἐτίθει τὸν νόμον.
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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