Letter 127: I saw Dositheus after a long time, and he was pale.

LibaniusPhilagrius, sophist|c. 326 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
illness

To Philagrius. (359/60)

Seeing Dositheus after a long while and looking pale, I asked whether it was illness that had made him so. Then I heard that it was not illness, but the unremitting demand of work: for he said that he writes, having shut himself away. And so I praised the young man and rejoiced together with you, that not even your servant is idle. Inquire, then, also about the sons, and he will tell no lie.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Φιλαγρίῳ. (359/60)

Χρόνιον ἰδὼν τὸν Δοσίθεον καὶ ὠχριῶντα ἠρόμην εἰ
νόσῳ γένοιτο τοιοῦτος. ἔπειτ’ ἤκουον, ὡς ἐκείνῃ μὲν οὔ, συν-

ἑλεία δὲ ἔργου. γράφειν γὰρ ἔφασκε καθείρξας αὑτόν.

ἐΜ
νόν τε οὖν ἐπῄνεσα καὶ σοὶ συνήσθην, ὅτι σοι μηδὲ ὁ οἰκέ-
της ἀργός. πυνθάνου δὴ καὶ περὶ τῶν υἱέων, ψεῦδος δ’
οὐκ ἐρέει.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern libanius retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/blob/master/volume_xml/libanius_10.xml

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