To Sebastianus. (357)
I shared your grief at losing your wife, but I also shared your pride in bearing the misfortune nobly. The first was an insult of Fortune; the second shows virtue. You will also find in Rhetorius here no small consolation -- a man who has traveled through the works of many orators and no fewer poets, and who is accomplished in both.
My letter makes him your friend, and his having studied alongside your relatives strengthens the bond. Two great things make me well-disposed to him in turn: he is my student and the son of my teacher. You surely know Didymus, unless you are ignorant of the Great City [Alexandria] itself, where he shared his learning day and night, flowing like a river.
But see to it that Rhetorius gains possession of the properties for which he has come. They are small, but they are a comfort to a poor man, and Rhetorius is not wealthy. You have power in Egypt, through which others have made money but you have earned a good reputation through your alliance with justice.
I shared your grief at losing your wife, but I also shared your pride in bearing the misfortune nobly. The first was an insult of Fortune; the second shows virtue. You will also find in Rhetorius here no small consolation -- a man who has traveled through the works of many orators and no fewer poets, and who is accomplished in both.
My letter makes him your friend, and his having studied alongside your relatives strengthens the bond. Two great things make me well-disposed to him in turn: he is my student and the son of my teacher. You surely know Didymus, unless you are ignorant of the Great City [Alexandria] itself, where he shared his learning day and night, flowing like a river.
But see to it that Rhetorius gains possession of the properties for which he has come. They are small, but they are a comfort to a poor man, and Rhetorius is not wealthy. You have power in Egypt, through which others have made money but you have earned a good reputation through your alliance with justice.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.