Letter 456: The loss in not having such a listener was mine, the speaker's.

LibaniusHellespontius|c. 357 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
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The loss in not having such a listener was mine, the speaker's. You will have no trouble finding a more skillful orator, but I will not find a more sympathetic judge.

We have been expecting your son for some time and still have not seen him -- though he is a young man and we are his father's old friends. There is a place here ready to receive him, one that would welcome even his father.

AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Ἑλλησποντίῳ. (355/56)

Τοῦ λέγοντος ἦν τὸ μὴ τοιοῦτον λαβεῖν ἀκροατὴν ἡ ζη-
μία. σὺ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἀπορήσεις δεξιωτέρου ῥήτορος, ἡμεῖς δὲ
κριτὴν οὐχ εὑρήσομεν εὐνούστερον.

τὸν υἱὸν δὲ πάλαι προσ-
δοκῶντες ὁρῶμεν οὔπω, καίτοι νεανίσκος μὲν ἐκεῖνος, ἡμεῖς
δὲ αὐτῷ πατρικοὶ φίλοι. τόπος δὲ αὐτόν, ὃς καὶ τὸν τοκέα
δέξαιτο.

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