Letter 354: Now I recognise men's description of me! Basil has praised me, and I am hailed victor over all! Now that I have received your vote, I am entitled to walk with the proud gait of a man who haughtily looks down on all the world.

LibaniusBasil of Caesarea|c. 377 AD|Basil of Caesarea|Human translated
imperial politics

Your praise has done it — now I truly believe what people say about me! With Basil's vote in my favor, I can walk around like I own the place.

I hear you've written a speech against drunkenness. I'd very much like to read it — not to try to be clever in response, but because once I've seen how you handle the subject, it will show me how to say what I mean.

Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)

Latin / Greek Original

[Πρός: Λιβάνιος Βασιλείῳ]

Νῦν ἔγνων εἶναι ὃ λέγομαι· Βασιλείου γάρ με ἐπαινέσαντος, κατὰ πάντων ἔχω τὰ νικητήρια. καὶ τὴν ψῆφον δεξαμένῳ τὴν σὴν ἔπεστί μοι βαδίζειν μετὰ σοβαροῦ τοῦ βαδίσματος, οἷά τις ἀλαζὼν τοὺς πάντας περιφρονῶν. ἐπεὶ οὖν καὶ σοὶ κατὰ μέθης λόγος πεπόνηται, βουλόμεθα τούτῳ περιτυχεῖν. ἀλλὰ κομψὸν μέν τι λέγειν οὐκ ἐθέλω. ὁ δὲ λόγος ὀφθεὶς διδάξει με τὴν τοῦ λέγειν τέχνην.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg2040/tlg004/tlg2040.tlg004.perseus-grc2.xml

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