Letter 895: Libanius celebrates the literary success of his protégé Leontius.
Your letters arrived again, and both I and the young men under my care raised a shout. The reason for the outburst was what I had said to them about you just the day before - that I was doing an injustice to both you and my relative, the son of Bassianus, by depriving myself of the letters coming from you along with your fine speech (or mine, if you prefer). Indeed, I hear your 'theater' [audience/school] has been saying that, and they aren't entirely wrong; it looks so much like my own work. That speech stayed in my hands for two days as I read, judged, and admired it - a great reward for everything I did for you. I wouldn't trade the sight of my 'son' [student] proving himself as the author of such work for all the gold in the world. When the time seemed right, I brought the speech to our local audience, and the reaction was just like the first: they used the same words and were moved in the same way. One person even praised the suspicions you had about the speech - that Leontius was passing off my work as his own, composed here and taught there - because there are many ways to deceive. I am delighted for both you and myself, and for the young men who have taken up the book, calling the speech a treasure and eager to possess it - as indeed they do.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
1. Ἦλθον αὖθις ἡμῖν ἐπιστολαὶ παρ᾽ ὑμῶν, καὶ ἀνεβοήσαμεν ἐγώ τε καὶ ὅσοι μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ τῶν νέων ἐπιμελοῦνται. τὴν βοὴν δὲ ἐποίησε τὰ τῇ προτεραίᾳ παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ περὶ ὑμῶν εἰρημένα πρὸς αὐτούς. 2. ἦν δὲ ταῦτα ἀδικεῖν με καὶ σὲ καὶ τὸν ἐμὸν συγγενῆ τὸν παῖδα Βασσιανοῦ γραμμάτων ἀποστεροῦντά τινων τῶν ἡκόντων ἡμῖν μετὰ τοῦ καλοῦ λόγου τοῦ σοῦ ἤ, εἰ βούλει γε, ἐμοῦ. καὶ γὰρ τοῦτο, ὡς ἔστιν ἀκούειν, εἴρηται παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεάτρου, καὶ οὐκ εἴρηται κακῶς· οὕτω λίαν ἔοικεν οἷς ἐποιήσαμεν. 3. ὁ δὲ δὴ λόγος οὗτος δύο μὲν ἡμέρας ἐν ταῖς ἐμαῖς ἔκειτο χερσὶν ὑπ᾽ ὀφθαλμοῖς τοῖς ἐμοῖς ἀναγινωσκόμενός τε καὶ δοκιμαζόμενος καὶ θαυμαζόμενος, μισθὸς μέγας τῶν περὶ σέ μοι γενομένων. οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸν ὄντα ἐν ἀνθρώποις χρυσὸν πρότερον ἂν ἐποιησάμην τοῦ τὸν παῖδα τὸν ἐμὸν τοιούτων φανῆναι πατέρα. 4. ἐπειδὴ οὖν ἐδόκει μοι καιρὸς εἶναι, παρῆγον τὸν λόγον εἰς δεύτερον θέατρον τὸ τῇδε, καὶ ἦν οἷόνπερ τὸ πρότερον, φωνάς τε τὰς αὐτὰς ἀφιέντες καὶ ταὐτὰ κινούμενοι. καί τις ἐπήνει τὰς γενομένας περὶ τοῦ λόγου παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ὑποψίας, ὡς ἄρα ἐμὸν ὄντα ὑποβάλοιτο Λεόντιος καὶ ποιηθείη μὲν ἐνταυθοῖ, διδαχθείη δὲ ἐκεῖ· πολλὰ γὰρ εἶναι τὰ ἐξαπατῶντα. 5. συνησθεὶς δὲ ἐγὼ καὶ σοὶ καὶ ἐμαυτῷ συνήσθην καὶ τοῖς νέοις ἀντιλαβομένοις τε τοῦ βιβλίου καὶ κτῆμα ὀνομάζουσι τὸν λόγον κτήσασθαί τε βουλομένοις καὶ ἔχειν καὶ ἔχουσι κτησαμένοις.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch3 gemini flash v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/download/foerster-libanii-opera/Foerster%20%281922%29%2C%20Libanii%20opera%2011_djvu.xml
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