Letter 520
Libanius→Spectatus|libanius
To Spectatus.
What you most desired -- and what you desired, I believe, was a letter from me -- here it is. It comes by the hand of Severus, a man who has two good reasons to ask for your patronage: he is a close associate of mine, and he is a fellow citizen of us both.
I have made it my business to inform you of this. The eagerness to help, I am sure, will be your business. After all, both things would be absurd: for him to fail in his errand, and for a man in your presence to leave without gaining some good through you.
Σπεκτάτῳ. (356)
Οὗ μάλιστα ἐπεθύμεις, ἐπεθύμεις δέ, οἶμαι, γραμμάτων
ἐμῶν, τοῦτο ἤκει σοι. κομίζει δὲ Σευῆρος, ἀνὴρ ᾧ ποιεῖ σε
προστάτην δικαιώματα δύο, τό τε πρὸς ἡμᾶς αὐτὸν ἔχειν οἰ-
κείως καὶ τὸ πολίτην ἀμφοῖν εἶναι τὸν ἄνδρα.
τοῦ μὲν
οὖν μαθεῖν σε ταῦτα ἐμέλησεν ἐμοί, τῆς δὲ εἰς τὸ βοηθεῖ,
προθυμίας σοὶ δήπου μελήσει· ὡς ἑκάτερόν γε ἄτοπον, καὶ τὸ
πὲρ ὧν ἥκει μὴ πρᾶξαι καὶ τὸ σοῦ παρόντος μὴ διὸ σοῦ
τινος ἀγαθοῦ τυχεῖν.
◆
To Spectatus.
What you most desired -- and what you desired, I believe, was a letter from me -- here it is. It comes by the hand of Severus, a man who has two good reasons to ask for your patronage: he is a close associate of mine, and he is a fellow citizen of us both.
I have made it my business to inform you of this. The eagerness to help, I am sure, will be your business. After all, both things would be absurd: for him to fail in his errand, and for a man in your presence to leave without gaining some good through you.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.