Letter 400: We are faring as you would pray — and as some people here would not.
To Rhetorios. (355 AD)
We are faring as you would pray — and as some people here would not. But your pleasure would be greater if you were present to see it than absent and merely hearing of it.
So why not reap the greater joy? Why not come here while we are here — something you often did when we were not? You think you can sit there and eventually get me back; you even predict a date and laugh, as though you had me in hand. But know this: we too have the power to draft a decree and submit a petition, and the emperor is ready to grant the favor — he simply does not yet know to whom to offer it.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ῥητορίῳ. (355)
Πράττομεν, ὡς ἂν εὔξαιο καὶ ὡς οὐκ ἂν ἔνιοι τῶν παρ’
ἡμῖν εὔξαιντο. σοὶ δὲ μείζων ἂν ἦν ἡδονὴ παρόντι ὁρᾶν 20
ἢ ἀπόντι ἀκούειν.
τί δὴ μαθὼν οὐ καρποῖ τὴν μείζονα
εὐφροσύνην; τί δὲ οὐ δεῦρο βαδίζεις ἡμῶν ὄντων ἐνθάδε; ὅ
πολλάκις ἔδρασας ἡμῶν οὐκ ὄντων ἐνθάδε· οἴει καθήμενος
ἀπολήψεσθαί με καί που καὶ χρόνον προλέγεις καὶ γελᾷς ὃς
ἔχων. 3, ἀλλ’ ἴσθι καὶ ἡμῖν ὑπάρχον ψήφισμα γράψαι καὶ
δεηθῆναι, δοῦναι δὲ χάριν ἕτοιμος βασιλεὺς καὶ προσάγει
ἀωάγλην οὐκ οἶδεν.
Related Letters
It is good and beneficial to communicate every day, and to partake of the holy body and blood of Christ. For He distinctly says, He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. John 6:54 And who doubts that to share frequently in life, is the same thing as to have manifold life.
We are gaping in expectation -- not for Aeschylus [i.
Accept, then, letters from both of us on behalf of a single matter -- the one asking, the other demanding.
For 331. Easter-day xvi Pharmuthi; iii Id.
Just as I would certainly have informed you if I saw any fault in Diophantus, so that you might correct him and...