Letter 376
Libanius→Hierocles|libanius
To Hierocles. (358 AD)
I had supposed your silence was due to some other preoccupation — and so it should have been. But now that you mention illness, and your son describes how varied its forms were, I have sunk into complete despair. Thankfully, you and he did well by me: you wrote, and he reported that the crisis has passed.
In giving Calycius a wife you showed good sense, and you show it again in wanting to give him an education in rhetoric. For this is the way to both preserve and multiply what he has. I too have urged him toward this and summoned him here. And I pray to the Muses to make learning sweet to the young man.
Ἱεροκλεῖ. (358)
Ἐγὼ δὲ ᾤμην ὑπ’ ἄλλης ἀσχολίας γεγονέναι τὴν σιω-
πήν, καὶ ἔδει γε τοῦθ’ οὕτως ἔχειν· νῦν δὲ σοῦ τε μνησθέν-
τος ἀρρωστίας καὶ τοῦ παιδός, ὡς ποικίλη γένοιτο, διηγου-
μένου πρὸς πᾶν ἀθυμίας ἦλθον. ἀλλ’ εὖ ποιοῦντες σύ τε καὶ
ἐκεῖνος, σὺ μὲν ἔγραφες, ὁ δὲ ἔλεγεν ὡς λέλυται τὸ δεινόν.
Καλυκίῳ δὲ γυναῖκα δοὺς ὀρθῶς φρονεῖς καὶ λόγους ἐθέ-
λων δοῦναι. τὰ γὰρ ὄντα καὶ σώζειν καὶ πλείω ποιεῖν οὕτως
ἂν δυνηθείη. παρὰ δὲ ἡμῶν καὶ παρακέκληταί τε πρὸς τοῦτο
καὶ κέκληται δεῦρο. καὶ παρὰ τῶν Μουσῶν αἰτῶ γλυκὺ τοὺς
λόγους ἀποφῆναι τῷ νεανίσκῳ.
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To Hierocles. (358 AD)
I had supposed your silence was due to some other preoccupation — and so it should have been. But now that you mention illness, and your son describes how varied its forms were, I have sunk into complete despair. Thankfully, you and he did well by me: you wrote, and he reported that the crisis has passed.
In giving Calycius a wife you showed good sense, and you show it again in wanting to give him an education in rhetoric. For this is the way to both preserve and multiply what he has. I too have urged him toward this and summoned him here. And I pray to the Muses to make learning sweet to the young man.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.