Letter 1000: A recommendation built through Priscion's dual reputation as advocate and sophist.
I am grateful to Priscion for both earlier and later services: first contests in the courts, then contests in the theaters; the first belonged to an advocate, the second to a sophist. Since he is great in both, he has made my affairs greater too. I therefore have a partner in my labors for young men, as the law of such things gives a shared name to shared teaching. A good man, his friend, asks for two letters, one from Priscion to me and one from me to you. I have the first, and I give the second, asking you to make this friend's brother, who serves as your soldier, a happy man. That should be easy; a glance from you could do it. I ask you, a father speaking for a son, to send Harrabius back to 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Πρισκίωνι χάριν οἶδα καὶ τῶν προτέρων καὶ τῶν δευτέρων. ἦν δὲ τὰ πρότερα μὲν ἀγῶνες ἐν δικαστηρίοις, τὰ δεύτερα δὲ ἐν θεάτροις ἀγῶνες, καὶ τὰ μὲν συνηγόρου, τὰ δὲ σοφιστοῦ. μέγας δὲ ὧν ἐν ἀμφοτέροις ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ ἐμὰ μείζω καὶ ἐποίει καὶ ποιεῖ. 2. κοινωνὸν τοίνυν ἔχω τῶν περὶ τοὺς νέους πόνων κατὰ τὸν περὶ ταῦτα νόμον ὄντα διδασκαλιῶν κοινῶν ὄνομα τῷ κοινωνῷ. τούτῳ φίλος χρηστὸς ἀνὴρ καὶ πλέον οὐδὲν ὧν ἔξεστιν ἀξιῶν ἔχειν αἰτεῖ δὴ τὸν σοφιστὴν οὗτος ὁ χρηστὸς ἐπιστολὰς δύο, τὴν μὲν Πρισκίωνος πρὸς ἐμέ, τὴν δὲ ἐμὴν πρὸς σέ. καὶ τὴν μὲν ἔχω, τὴν δὲ δίδωμι δεομένην σου τοῦ φίλου τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὄντα σὸν στρατιώτην ποιῆσαι μακάριον. ῥᾴδιον δέ· καὶ γὰρ ἀπὸ βλέμματος τοῦτο γένοιτ' ἄν. 3. δέομαι δή σου, πατὴρ ὑπὲρ υἱέος, ἀποπέμψαι τὸν Ἡρράβιον ἡμῖν.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch9 t259 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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