Letter 900: Libanius acknowledges Heraclitus's wisdom and supports Palladius with prayers.

LibaniusHeraclitus, correspondent of Libanius|c. 388 AD|Libanius|From Antioch|AI-assisted
prayersadvocacyPhoeniciaPalladiuscharacter
Libanius refers to certain unethical or complex legal maneuvers as things 'better left unlearned.'

For the excellent Palladius, his character is his profit, but it is also a great advantage to have such a letter from your wisdom, which holds as close to the truth as possible. I saw what was in those pages: your old age and your lack of experience in things that are better left unlearned. I haven't been able to help him through any actions, much as I wanted to, because I lacked the power; however, I haven't failed him in my prayers. I have asked all the gods to assist Palladius, and perhaps they will provide help in Phoenicia, since Lucianus has traveled there before Palladius's business could reach its conclusion.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Παλλαδίῳ τῷ χρηστῷ κέρδος μὲν ὁ τρόπος, μέγα δὲ καὶ τὸ παρὰ τῆς σῆς σοφίας κεῖσθαι τοιαύτην ἐπιστολὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ὅτι μάλιστα ἐχομένην. ἑώρων δὲ ἅπερ ἦν ἐν τοῖς γράμμασι, τό τε γῆρας τήν τε ἀπειρίαν τούτων ὧν οὐ καλὸν ἔμπειρον εἶναι. 2. βεβοήθηκα δὲ οὐδὲν αὐτῷ δι᾽ ἔργων καίτοι σφόδρα ἐθέλων διὰ τὸ μὴ παρεῖναι τὸ δύνασθαι· τὰ μέντοι δι᾽ εὐχῶν οὐκ ἐλλέλειπται. πάντων γὰρ δὴ τῶν θεῶν ἐδεήθην Παλλαδίῳ συλλαβεῖν, οἱ δ᾽ ἴσως τὰ αὑτῶν ἐν Φοινίκῃ παρέξουσιν ἐκεῖσε Λουκιανοῦ πεπορευμένου πρὶν τέλος Παλλαδίῳ τὸ πρᾶγμα λαβεῖν.

Revision history

  1. 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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