To Acacius. (363 AD)
That famous and great city, where you both distinguished yourself and were honored, has been shaken by many evils — battling famine and thought by the emperor to be criminal. We spent our time as supplicants but could not escape the accusation.
You, it seems, were fortunate: you enjoyed the city's prosperity but did not share in its troubles — unless someone might say you shared in them insofar as what you would have accomplished when things were going well was prevented by the harshness of the times.
For wherever we turned, there was despair everywhere, and words were spent in vain. When we approached, those with power to give shut their doors so as not to hear our voice — to such a degree of powerlessness had we come. But if some god dispels the darkness, we shall have work again and perhaps not fail.
That famous and great city, where you both distinguished yourself and were honored, has been shaken by many evils — battling famine and thought by the emperor to be criminal. We spent our time as supplicants but could not escape the accusation.
You, it seems, were fortunate: you enjoyed the city's prosperity but did not share in its troubles — unless someone might say you shared in them insofar as what you would have accomplished when things were going well was prevented by the harshness of the times.
For wherever we turned, there was despair everywhere, and words were spent in vain. When we approached, those with power to give shut their doors so as not to hear our voice — to such a degree of powerlessness had we come. But if some god dispels the darkness, we shall have work again and perhaps not fail.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.