Letter 195: If it were proper to send you something lesser, I would have sent it already.

LibaniusAristaenetus|c. 332 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
education booksillness

To Sophronius. (358-361)

What I long ago prayed for, I now have in your son-late, indeed, but I have him resembling his father in nearly everything, so to speak: in his appearance, in his fairness of character, in his gait; and indeed sluggishness too is absent from him, and he is vigorous when it comes to speeches. This, then, is your very own quality.

One thing only is still needed: Fortune. But let us pray-you and I and the young man's uncle, who is my friend. And I think that the excellent Julian too will call upon Hermes. For upon me he laid the command, but that one he will beseech as a suppliant.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Σωφρονίῳ. (358—361)

Ὃ πάλαι εὐχόμην, ἰχῶ παῖδα σόν, βραδέως μέν, ἀλλ’ ἰχῶ
πάνθ’ ὡς εἰπεῖν ἐοικότα τῷ πατρί, τὴν μορφὴν, τὴν ἐπιεί-
κειαν, τὴν βάδισιν, καὶ μὴν καὶ ὄκνος ἄπεστι καὶ πρὸς λόγους
ἔρρωται. τοῦτο δὴ τὸ σόν.

ἑνὸς δὴ δεῖ, τῆς Τύχης. ἀλλ᾿
εὐχώμεθα, σύ τε κἀγὼ καὶ ὁ τοῦ νεανίσκου μὲν θεῖος, ἐμοὶ
δὲ φίλος. οἶμαι δὲ καὶ τὸν ἄριστον Ἰουλιανὸν παρακαλέσειν
τὸν Ἑρμῆν. ἐμοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἐπέταξεν, ἐκεῖνον δ’ ἱκετεύσει.

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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