Letter 642
To Cyrillus. (361)
I care for Ulpianus as a fellow citizen, as a companion, and as a man of genuine worth. Caring for him, I cannot be indifferent to his father-in-law. The man says you have done him many favors — he doesn't deny it — but he now fears some harm may come to him, not through any wrongdoing on his part, but because he has somehow left room for complaint.
You are praised everywhere, but above all for knowing how to grant forgiveness. Even if this were not your natural inclination, you would know how to master your anger — and in doing so, you would rise above your own nature. I look to that quality of yours on behalf of this man.
Do what you would want done if the roles were reversed.
[Ulpianus was a prominent sophist and friend of Libanius in Antioch.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.