Letter 721
Libanius→Pancratius, of a student|libanius
To Pancratius, father of a student. (362)
As far as oratory goes, you have sent your companion from one Eleusis to another -- for these are the same mysteries, I think, and he will encounter nothing new in the way of rhetoric. What brought him on this journey was a certain reputation about the Syrians, not the power of any particular sophist. People believe that association with our nation can sharpen souls and make them fit for practical affairs.
So if the young man returns sharper, credit the city rather than the man who gave him abroad what he was already getting at home.
Παγκρατίῳ. (362)
Ἕνεκα μὲν λόγων ἐξ Ἐλευσῖνος εἰς Ἐλευσῖνα πέπομφας
τὸν ἔταφον, ταὐτὰ γὰρ οἴμαι μυστήρια, καὶ λόγοις οὐ καινοῖς
ἐντεύξεται, τὴν δ’ ἀποδημίαν αὐτῷ πεποίηκε δόξα τις περὶ
Σύρων, οὐ σοφιστοῦ δύναμις. δοκεῖ γάρ πως ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἔθνος
ὁμιλία δύνασθαι ψυχὰς ἀκονᾶν καὶ ποιεῖν ἐπιτηδείους χρῆ-
σθαι πράγμασιν.
ἢν οὖν ὀξύτερος ὁ νέος ἐπανέλθῃ, τὴν
πόλιν αἰτιάσασθε μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν ὧν ἀπέλαυεν οἴκοι τούτων
ἐν ξένῃ μεταδόντα.
◆
To Pancratius, father of a student. (362)
As far as oratory goes, you have sent your companion from one Eleusis to another -- for these are the same mysteries, I think, and he will encounter nothing new in the way of rhetoric. What brought him on this journey was a certain reputation about the Syrians, not the power of any particular sophist. People believe that association with our nation can sharpen souls and make them fit for practical affairs.
So if the young man returns sharper, credit the city rather than the man who gave him abroad what he was already getting at home.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.