Letter 49: Domnus -- the man whose penalty you deferred by advising him to appeal to the emperor's mercy for relief -- has done...

LibaniusModestus|c. 318 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
imperial politics

To Modestus. (359)

That well-known Domnus, for whom you deferred the penalty when you bade him take refuge in the emperor's clemency to secure his release, has indeed done so and has obtained mercy; but he needs you to confirm this very mercy for him.

So then, keeping your own law -- or, if you prefer, the law of Zeus, which is to keep deceit away from promises -- preserve for Domnus the farm from which come his hopes of sustenance.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Μοδέστῳ. (359)

Δόμνος ἐκεῖνος, ᾧ τὴν ζημίαν ἀνεβάλου κελεύσας εἰς
τὴν βασιλέως πρᾳότητα καταφεύγειν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀπαλλαγῆς, τὸ
μὲν πεποίηκε καὶ τετύχηκεν ἐλέου, δεῖται δέ σου τοῦτον αὐτῶ
βεβαιῶσαι τὸν ἔλεον.

φυλάττων δὴ τὸν σαυτοῦ νόμον, εἰ
δὲ βούλει, τὸν τοῦ Διός, ὁ δέ ἐστιν ἀπεῖναι τῶν ὑποσχέσεων
ἀπάτην, τήρησον Δόμνῳ τὸν ἀγρόν, ὅθεν αἱ τῆς τροφῆς
ἐλπίδες.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern libanius retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/blob/master/volume_xml/libanius_10.xml

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