Libanius→Saturninus, friend; and Parthenius|libanius
To Saturninus, friend. (362)
An affliction has taken up residence in my head. It makes life a burden and death something I pray for. It has defeated the doctors' medicines and would yield to the god alone.
For this reason I have sent my brother to approach the sacred image. Help him along and do all you can.
[To Parthenius:] If I were free to travel, I would have come to you myself in the great city -- for the god permits it to be called that. But since I am held fast by constraints you know about, I stay where I am, trusting that I will receive an oracle, so long as my brother makes the offering on my behalf and you join him in prayer.
An affliction has taken up residence in my head. It makes life a burden and death something I pray for. It has defeated the doctors' medicines and would yield to the god alone.
For this reason I have sent my brother to approach the sacred image. Help him along and do all you can.
[To Parthenius:] If I were free to travel, I would have come to you myself in the great city -- for the god permits it to be called that. But since I am held fast by constraints you know about, I stay where I am, trusting that I will receive an oracle, so long as my brother makes the offering on my behalf and you join him in prayer.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.