Letter 711: You send people to greet me by word of mouth, but you have abandoned the greeting that comes in a letter -- and this...

LibaniusAcacius, friend|c. 381 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
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To Acacius. (362)

You send me those who greet me by word of mouth, but you have neglected the greetings that come in letters, and that too when you are able to charm by means of letters. If, then, you have become another man, tell me in exchange for what; but if you have remained the same, do not begrudge me the greater thing.

As for Titianus, I know that he will be ours rather than one of those who drink from Callirrhoe; but I should like to learn whether this is your verdict or his own. For indeed he wept as he was setting out from here; and it is likely that he did so because he had made mention of me in your presence as well.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Ἀκακίῳ. (362)

Τοὺς μὲν ἀπὸ γλώττης με προσεροῦντας πέμπεις, τὰς
δ’ ἐν ἐπιστολαῖς προσρήσεις ἐκλέλοιπας καὶ ταῦτα θέλγειν
δυνάμενος ἐξ ἐπιστολῶν εἰ μὲν οὖν ἕτερος γέγονας, ἀνθ’
ὅτου, φράσον· εἰ δ’ ὁ αὐτὸς μεμένηκας, μὴ φθόνει τοῦ
μείζονος.

Τιτιανὸς δὲ ὅτι μὲν ἡμῶν ἔσται μᾶλλον ἢ τῶν
ἐκ τῆς Καλλιρρόης πινόντων, οἶδα· βουλοίμην δ’ ἂν μαθεῖν,
εἴτε σὴ τοῦτο ψῆφος εἴτε ἐκείνου. καὶ γὰρ ἐδάκρυσεν ἐνθένδε
ἀπαίρων· εἰκὸς δέ, ὅτι καὶ παρὰ σοὶ μνημονεύσας ἐμοῦ.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern libanius retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/blob/master/volume_xml/libanius_10.xml

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