Letter 158: Do not grow weary in the contest.
Some call you boorish, arrogant, and surpassing the ordinary measure of human baseness. For my part, though many discordant reports are sung about you, I cannot bring myself to believe them.
To Hierax the deacon: Do not define blessedness by a table overflowing with food, a singer given over to pleasure, and wealth that flows freely, but rather by self-sufficiency and the lack of nothing truly necessary.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Σκαιόν σε φασί τινες καὶ ἀλαζόνα καὶ ὑπερβαί-
νοντα τὴν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φαυλότητι. Ἐγὼ δὲ
πολλῶν περὶ σοῦ ἀπηχῶν ἀδομένων οὐκ ἔχω τὸ πεί-
ΙΕΡΑΚΙ ΔΙΑΚΟΝΟ.
Μὴ τραπέζῃ πληθούσῃ, καὶ ὠδῷ ἀνειμένῳ, καὶ
πλούτῳ ῥέοντι τὴν μακαριότητα ὁρίζου, ἀλλ᾽ αὐταρ-
χείᾳ, καὶ τῷ μηδενὸς τῶν ἀναγκαίων λείπεσθαι -
ΡΛΕ΄. – ΕΥΑΓΡΙΩ
Σωφρόνιον εἶναι χρή.
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