Letter 143: A former student goes to the emperor's city for legal study and rhetorical advancement.
The bearer of this letter to you is the son of Agathus, a father who honors good things and is known for justice in everything. After studying with me, the young man showed strength of nature and tireless eagerness. Now he has gone up to the emperor's city, wanting to take on the laws so that he may come forward as a rhetor: carrying civic life in his body and setting speeches before him with his tongue. It would not be right to let his arrival before you pass in silence, since you treat those finished under my hand almost as children and will show him no ordinary goodwill.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ζαχαρίαι καὶ Φιλίππωι ἀδελφοῖσ Ὁ ταύτην πρὸς ὑμᾶς λαβὼν τὴν ἐπιστολὴν πατρὸς Ἀγαθοῦ πέφυκε, τοῦ τὰ χρηστὰ τιμῶντος καὶ ἐν πᾶσι δικαίοις γνωριζομένου. εἰς ἐμοῦ δὲ φοιτήσας ὁ νέος φύσεώς τε ῥώμην ἐπεδείξατο καὶ προθυμίαν ἀοκνοτάτην. καὶ νῦν πρὸς βασιλέως ἀνήχθη, προσλαβεῖν τοὺς νόμους βουλόμενος, ὅπως προέλθῃ ῥήτωρ, τὴν πολιτείαν φέρων τῷ σώματι καὶ τῇ γλώττῃ τοὺς λόγους προβεβλημένος. οὐ δὴ δίκαιον τὴν τούτου πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἄφιξιν παραδοῦναι σιγῇ, οἳ τοὺς παρ' ἐμοῦ τετελεσμένους ἴσα ποῦ καὶ παῖδας νομίζοντες καὶ εἰς τοῦτον εὔνοιαν οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν ἐνδείξεσθε.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch9 matia greek v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf
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