Letter 164: Neither of these things is new -- neither your constant traveling nor your sending of gifts.

LibaniusModestus|c. 329 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
illnesstravel mobility

To Modestus.

Neither thing is new, neither the great frequency of your running about nor the sending of gifts of hospitality. For you have long indeed been both a traveler all around and a lover of giving; but as for me, how could I requite you, if you should be unwilling to receive my discourses [literary compositions], which are the only thing I have?

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Μοδέστῳ.

Οὐδέτερον καινόν, οὔθ’ ὁ πολύς σου δρόμος οὔθ᾿ ἡ
ξενίων πομπή. πάλαι γὰρ δὴ σὺ καὶ περίπολος καὶ φιλόδωρος,
ἀλλ’ ἐγὼ σὲ πῶς ἂν ἀμειψαίμην, εἰ τοὺς λόγους, ὃ μόνον ἐστί
μοι, μὴ βούλοιο λαμβάνειν;

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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