Libanius→Aristainetus; and separately to Silanus|libanius
To Aristainetus. (355)
The language of your letters convinces me that you are familiar with Plato. But the fact that your grief is still at its peak, that your hair remains uncut in mourning, and that your household looks as though the death happened yesterday -- all this suggests you are not really devoted to Plato at all. It would have been far better if you had benefited your mind rather than just your tongue.
You think you are being consistent with how you treated her while she lived -- that you are pleasing her now just as you did then. But it seems to me that you, who never caused her grief while she lived, are doing exactly that to her now that she is gone. For if she could see how you are destroying yourself, she would groan deeply at being the cause of such harm.
But enough about that -- if you will not reason with yourself, words from others are useless. As for me, the illnesses I pretended to have when I fled the city I fled -- I now genuinely suffer them here. And so sweet is one's homeland that I would rather be in pain here than healthier than Croton [proverbially the healthiest city in the ancient world] among those people.
The ailment that formerly afflicted my head has now descended to my kidneys. Or rather, it presses hard on my kidneys without having entirely released my head -- it remains in both places.
The language of your letters convinces me that you are familiar with Plato. But the fact that your grief is still at its peak, that your hair remains uncut in mourning, and that your household looks as though the death happened yesterday -- all this suggests you are not really devoted to Plato at all. It would have been far better if you had benefited your mind rather than just your tongue.
You think you are being consistent with how you treated her while she lived -- that you are pleasing her now just as you did then. But it seems to me that you, who never caused her grief while she lived, are doing exactly that to her now that she is gone. For if she could see how you are destroying yourself, she would groan deeply at being the cause of such harm.
But enough about that -- if you will not reason with yourself, words from others are useless. As for me, the illnesses I pretended to have when I fled the city I fled -- I now genuinely suffer them here. And so sweet is one's homeland that I would rather be in pain here than healthier than Croton [proverbially the healthiest city in the ancient world] among those people.
The ailment that formerly afflicted my head has now descended to my kidneys. Or rather, it presses hard on my kidneys without having entirely released my head -- it remains in both places.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.