Letter 574
Libanius→Heortius|libanius
To Heortius.
I am still writing to you while you are away. You ought to be here with us, seeing your son's eloquence not just through letters but in every form that rhetoric takes.
I would give a great deal for you to have seen the Themistius who came to visit us. Then you would have admired both me for transforming him and him for being transformed.
Ἑορτίῳ. (357)
Ἔτι σοι γράφομεν ἀπόντι, χρῆν δέ σε εἶναι παρ’ ἡμῖν
καὶ μὴ ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς ὁρᾶν μόνον τοῦ παιδὸς τοὺς λόγους,
ἀλλὰ πᾶσιν εἴδεσιν ὁπόσα λόγων.
πολλῶν δ’ ἂν ἐπριάμην
εἰδέναι σε τὸν παρ’ ἡμᾶς ἥκοντα Θεμίστιον· οὕτω γὰρ ἆν
ἐθαύμασας ἐμέ τε τὸν μεταβαλόντα κἀκεῖνον τὸν μεταστάντα.
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To Heortius.
I am still writing to you while you are away. You ought to be here with us, seeing your son's eloquence not just through letters but in every form that rhetoric takes.
I would give a great deal for you to have seen the Themistius who came to visit us. Then you would have admired both me for transforming him and him for being transformed.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.