Letter 496
Libanius→Βασιλείῳ|libanius
To Basileios. (356)
Oh, for those times when we were everything to each other! Now we have been bitterly separated — you still have each other, but I have no one to replace you.
I hear that Alkimos dares youthful ventures in his old age and has flown off to Rome, leaving you the labor of looking after the students. But you, being gentle in other matters, will bear this without complaint — since you were not angry with us either for not writing sooner.
Βασιλείῳ. (356)
Ὢ χρόνων νίνων, ἐν οἷς πάντα ἦμεν ἀλλήλοις. νῦν
δὲ διῳκίσμεθα πικρῶς, ὑμεῖς μὲν ἔχοντες ἀλλήλους, ἐγὼ δὲ
ἀνθ᾿ ὑμῶν οἶοί περ ὑμεῖς οὐδένα.
τὸν Ἄλκιμον ἀκούω
τὰ νέων ἐν γήρᾳ τολμᾶν καὶ πρὸς τὴν 'Pώμην πέτεσθαι περι-
θέντα σοι τὸν τοῦ συνεῖναι τοῖς παιδαρίοις πόνοι
σὺ δὲ
τί τε ἄλλα πρᾷός τις καὶ τοῦτο οἴσεις οὐ χαλεπῶς, ἐπεὶ καὶ
ἡμῖν τοῦ μὴ γράψαι πρότερον οὐκ ἔσχες χαλεπῶς.
◆
To Basileios. (356)
Oh, for those times when we were everything to each other! Now we have been bitterly separated — you still have each other, but I have no one to replace you.
I hear that Alkimos dares youthful ventures in his old age and has flown off to Rome, leaving you the labor of looking after the students. But you, being gentle in other matters, will bear this without complaint — since you were not angry with us either for not writing sooner.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.