Letter 638: Even if your office and the demands pulling you from every direction have driven Plato from your hands, Plato still...

LibaniusPriscianus|c. 374 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
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To Priscianus. (361)

Even if your office and the demands pulling you from every direction have driven Plato from your hands, Plato still dwells in your soul — which is why you bring us such fine stories and speeches.

But look: you and Mikkalos have become one again, Hephaestus having wrought this upon you. And a crowd will gather around you, as is natural when two are bound as one — the hair-pluckers will come. But this is your worry; Mikkalos, for his part, presents us with no surplus of hair.

AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Πρισκιανῷ. (361)

Ἀλλ’ εἰ καὶ τῶν χειρῶν σου τὸν Πλάτωνα ἐξέβαλεν ἥ
τε ἀρχὴ καὶ τὰ πανταχόθεν ἕλκοντα, τήν γε ψυχὴν ὁ Πλατῶν
οἰκεῖ τὴν σήν, ὅθεν ἡμῖν μύθους καὶ λόγους τοιούτους φέ-
ρεις.

ἀλλ’ ἰδού, πάλιν σύ τε καὶ Μίκκαλος εἰς γεγένησθον
τοῦ Ἡφαίστου τοῦθ’ ὑμᾶς ἐργασαμένου. καὶ περιστήσεταί γε
ὑμᾶς ταῦτα, ὥσπερ εἰκός, ἴνα ὄντας· ἥξουσιν οἱ τίλλοντες.
ἀλλὰ σοὶ μὲν οὗτος ὁ φόβος, ὁ Μίκκαλος δὲ ἡμῖν οὐκ ἐν
περιουσίᾳ τριχῶν.

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