Letter 291: Even while you were still with us, I received several letters of recommendation.
To Anatolius. (361?)
While you were still with us, I received some letters. Judge, then, from this preface how many they are likely to be in all. The first of them, this Marcellus here, has made a request, being a guest-friend of Laurentius, our kinsman by marriage, but one who has reaped no fine fruits from his own fairness. For although he had the power, had he been reckless, to [...] others, yet, wishing to be an honest man, he has been driven out.
But now there is for him both some hope of return, and of obtaining justice, and of not suffering the same things again, since you, both for the sake of what is just, and we, granting some measure of pity to one who has suffered terrible things.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ἀνατολίῳ. (361?)
Ἔτι σου παρ’ ἡμῖν ὄντος ἔλαβόν τινας ἐπιστολάς. τεκ-
μαίρου δὴ τῷ προοιμίῳ, πόσας εἰκὸς ἔσεσθαι τὰς ἁπάσας.
πρῶτος δὲ οὑτοσὶ Μάρκελλος ᾔτησε Λαυρεντίῳ μὲν ὢν ξένος.
ἡμετέρῳ κηδεστῇ, τῆς δὲ ἐπιεικείας οὐ καλοὺς ἐνεγκάμενος
τοὺς καρπούς. δυνάμενος γάρ, εἴπερ ἦν θρασύς, ἄλλους ἄλλους
νεῖν χρηστὸς εἶναι ἐθέλων ἐλήλαται.
ἀλλὰ νῦν αὐτῷ καὶ
καθόδου τις ἐλπὶς καὶ τοῦ λήψεσθαι δίκας καὶ τοῦ μὴ τὰ
αὐτὰ πείσεσθαι σοῦ καὶ τῶν δικαίων εἵνεκα καὶ ἡμῶν ἔλεον
τινα νέμοντος τῷ δεινὰ πεπονθότι.
Revision history
- 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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