Letter 979: Libanius says Leontius honors him like a father and asks Eutropius to help those Leontius supports.

LibaniusEutropius, correspondent of Libanius|c. 390 AD|Libanius|From Antioch|AI-assisted
RecommendationLeontiusJusticeFamily SupportFriendship
The recommendation works through layers of praise: Leontius praises Eutropius, Libanius praises Leontius, and the favor follows.

You needed to know this too: the fine and noble Leontius is one of those who love me deeply, no less than you do. He thinks he ought to do this, perhaps because he has seen some fairness in me, but still more because he is convinced that it will make you more pleased with him. The whole world has accepted the report of the judgment you have toward me: what you say at dinners, what you say in courts, both ordinary courts and the one where the emperor stirs his plans and concerns on behalf of eloquence. Following you, Leontius keeps honoring me with honors such as he would give his father, and he appears so powerful in this that he drives away settled grief whenever he does it. His company is pleasant to me for many reasons, especially because he wants to hear and say nothing except praise for your character, in which justice, good sense, and the habit of carrying through whatever seems necessary all reach their end. I think excellent Leontius will enjoy these good qualities by helping a good woman and the children of a man who did great harm to his enemies. Perhaps they too will one day become such men; for now they are in the hands of the Muses and in the writings of their father, who wanted to make them better through this man. So let my friend return to me praising the road.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Ἔδει σε καὶ τοῦτο μαθεῖν, ὅτι με τῶν πάνυ φιλούντων ἐστὶν ὁ καλὸς κἀγαθὸς Λεόντιος καὶ οὐχ ἧττόν γε ἢ σύ. καὶ τοῦτο ποιεῖν οἴεται δεῖν, ἴσως μέν τι καὶ ἐν ἐμοὶ κατιδὼν ἐπιεικείας, μᾶλλον μέντοι διὰ τὸ πεπεῖσθαι σὲ ταύτῃ ποιήσειν ἡδίω. 2. δέδεκται γὰρ ἅπαν τὸ οἰκούμενον τῆς γνώμης τὸν λόγον, ἣν ἔχων περὶ ἡμᾶς τυγχάνεις, καὶ οἷα μὲν ἐν συμποσίοις λέγεις, οἷα δὲ ἐν δικαστηρίοις τοῖς τε ἄλλοις καὶ ἐν ᾧ βασιλεὺς κινεῖ τὰς ὑπὲρ τῶν λόγων καὶ βουλὰς καὶ φροντίδας. 3. ἑπόμενος δή σοι Λεόντιος τιμαῖς με τιμῶν διατελεῖ τοιαύταις οἵαις ἂν τὸν πατέρα καὶ τοσοῦτον ἰσχύει φαινόμενος ὥστε καὶ λύπας ἐγκαθημένας ἀπελαύνειν, ὁπόταν τοῦτο ποιῇ. 4. ποιεῖ δέ μοι τὰς πρὸς αὐτὸν συνουσίας ἡδείας ἄλλα τε καὶ τὸ μηδὲν ἄλλο μήτ᾽ ἀκούειν ἐθέλειν μήτε λέγειν ἢ τοὺς περὶ τῶν σῶν ἐπαίνους τρόπων, ἐν οἷς δικαιοσύνη καὶ φρόνησις καὶ τὸ ὅ τι δόξειε χρῆναι ποιεῖν, πάντως εἰς τέλος ἄγειν. 5. τούτων δὴ τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ τὸν ἄριστον Λεόντιον ἀπολαύσειν ἡγοῦμαι βοηθοῦντα μὲν ἀγαθῇ γυναικί, βοηθοῦντα δὲ παισὶν ἀνδρὸς πλεῖστα δὴ πολεμίους λελυπηκότος, οὗ ἴσως μὲν καὶ οἵδε ποτὲ γενήσονται, νῦν δέ γε εἰσιν ἐν χερσί τε Μουσῶν καὶ λόγοις τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοὺς βουληθέντος αὑτοῦ ποιῆσαι τούτῳ βελτίους. 6. ἐπανερχέσθω τοίνυν ἡμῖν ὁ φίλος ἐπαινῶν τὴν ὁδόν.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch8 t258 reviewed 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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