Letter 987: A recommendation of Infantius that turns into praise of Tatianus' public virtue.
Infantius has left us deeds that give us material for praising him, and now he comes again to you: a fine man, saying what should be said, keeping silent where silence is needed, and acting with judgment in both directions. He shows in himself the character of his noble father Modestus. He prays to imitate his father and to seem like him; he also prays to imitate you, whose virtue the affairs of the state themselves call to their aid. Whenever we visited Infantius, many of us came admiring his character, and whoever heard his talk about you lingered gladly and left reluctantly. We are among those who rightly thank the most humane emperor, because through you he holds together the interests of his subjects and adorns both you and himself. I rejoice that you take pleasure in my letters; I would gain more if I received letters from you, but even this gives me no small ambition: everywhere in the world there is talk of me because there is talk of me with you.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Ἔργα καταλιπὼν ἡμῖν ἀφορμὰς ἐπαίνων τῶν εἰς αὑτὸν ἔρχεται πάλιν ὡς ὑμᾶς Ἰνφάντιος, καλὸς εἰπών τε ἃ χρὴ καὶ σιωπήσας ἃ δεῖ, πράξας τε καὶ μὴ πράξας ὑπὸ φρονήσεως ἐφ' ἑκάτερον ἀγούσης, οἷα δὴ καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ τοῦ γενναίου Μοδέστου. 2. ὁ δὲ εὔχεται μὲν τἀκείνου καὶ μιμεῖσθαι καὶ δοκεῖν, εὔχεται δὲ καὶ τὰ σά, δι' ἃ σὺ καὶ πρὶν εἰς τοῦτο ἥκειν δῆλος ἦσθα τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσιν ἥξων τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτῶν εἰς ἐπικουρίαν τὴν σὴν ἀρετὴν καλούντων. 3. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁπότε παρὰ τὸν Ἰνφάντιον ἔλθοιμεν, ἠρχόμεθα δὲ οὐκ ὀλίγοι θαυμάζοντές τε τὸν τρόπον, ὃς εἰσῄει τὰς περὶ σοῦ, ἡδέως δὲ ἐνδιατρίβων ἀηδῶς ἐξήει τῷ τε πάνυ σε φιλεῖν ἐκτᾶτο φίλους. 4. ἡμεῖς δὲ τῶν οὐκ ἀσεβούντων ἐσμέν, ἀλλ' ἐχόντων τῷ φιλανθρωποτάτῳ βασιλεῖ χάριν, ὅτι δι' αὐτοῦ τὰ τῶν ἀρχομένων συνέχων συνέχει καὶ διὰ σοῦ καὶ κοσμεῖσθε σύ τε οἷς ἐκεῖνος ἐψήφισται κἀκεῖνος αὐτός. 5. χαίρω τοίνυν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ διότι μου χαίρεις τοῖς γράμμασι· μεῖζον μὲν γὰρ ἂν ἐκέρδαινον, εἰ γράμματα ἐλάμβανον, φέρει δέ μοι καὶ τοῦτο φιλοτιμίαν οὐ μικράν.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch9 t259 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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