To Libanius.
You have repaid Aristophanes for his devotion to the gods and his loyalty to you by transforming what was once a reproach against him into something that redounds to his honor — not just today, but for the future as well. The malicious charges of Paul and the verdict of So-and-so have no force compared to words written by you. Their slanders were despised even while their authors flourished, and they perished along with them. But your speeches are prized by genuine Hellenes today and will still be prized when you are gone — so long as the Greek language endures.
To Libanius [362, Winter at Antioch]
You have requited Aristophanes3 for his piety towards the gods and his devotion to yourself by
changing and transforming what was formerly a reproach against him so that it redounds to his
honour, and not for to-day only but for the future also, since the malicious charges of Paul 4 and the verdict of So-and-so 5 have no force compared with words written by you. For their calumnies were detested even while they flourished, and perished along with their perpetrators, whereas your speeches are not only prized by genuine Hellenes to-day but will still be prized in future times, unless I am mistaken in my verdict. For the rest, you shall judge whether you have convinced, or rather converted, me on behalf of Aristophanes. I now agree not to believe that he is too weak to resist pleasure and money. What point would I not yield to the most
philosophic and truth-loving of orators? Naturally you will proceed to ask me why, in that case, I do not alter his unhappy lot for the better and blot out the disgrace that attaches to him on account of his ill fortune. "Two walking together,"1 as the proverb says, namely, you and I, must take counsel. And you have the right, not only to advise that we ought to assist a man who has honoured the gods so straightforwardly, but also as to how it ought to be done. Indeed, you did hint at this in an obscure way. But it is perhaps better not to write about such matters, but to talk it over together. Farewell, brother, most dear and most beloved!
I read yesterday almost all your speech before breakfast, and after breakfast, before resting, I gave myself up to reading the remainder. Happy man to be able to speak so well, or rather to have such ideas! Ο what a discourse! what wit! what wisdom! what analysis! what logic! what method! what openings! what diction! what symmetry! what structure! 2
3 For Aristophanes of Corinth and for the answer of
Libanius, Letter 758, Foerster, see Introduction, Aristophanes.
4 Paul, the notary nicknamed Catena, " the chain," a tool of
Constantius, was burned alive on Julian's accession, by order of the Chalcedon Commission; Ammianus 14. 5. 6; 22. 3. 11. He was a Spaniard, malevolent and inquisitorial.
5 The real name is suppressed, probably by a cautious editor when the letter was first
published.
1 Iliad 10. 224, cf. Plato, Symposium 174d.
2 Julian may have read Marcus Aurelius, To Fronto.
You have repaid Aristophanes for his devotion to the gods and his loyalty to you by transforming what was once a reproach against him into something that redounds to his honor — not just today, but for the future as well. The malicious charges of Paul and the verdict of So-and-so have no force compared to words written by you. Their slanders were despised even while their authors flourished, and they perished along with them. But your speeches are prized by genuine Hellenes today and will still be prized when you are gone — so long as the Greek language endures.