Letter 991: A tactful but embarrassed complaint about Proclus' silence.
I wrote my letter rejoicing in what I had heard, partly from what I could see and partly from what I expected. But when friends ask whether you write to me and whether you are the same as before, I think it wrong to lie and say I receive letters; yet, because I honor truth, I blush when I say what truth reports. They ask to know the reason, and I cannot explain what I do not know. So solve this difficulty for us: tell someone able to report it what this is about. Either we will show that we have done no wrong and owe no penalty, or, lacking that defense, we will blame ourselves instead of others. This letter should be regarded not so much as mine as Palladius', for he compelled me to write; to me, it seemed better simply to imitate 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Χαίρων οἷς ἤκουσα τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἔγραφον, τὰ μὲν ὁρῶν, τὰ δὲ προσδοκῶν. ἐρωτώμενος δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν φίλων, εἴ μοι γράφοις καὶ εἴης ὁ πρότερος, ψεύδεσθαι μὲν οὐ καλῶς ἔχειν ἡγούμην καὶ λέγειν λαμβάνειν ἐπιστολάς, τὴν δ' ἀλήθειαν τιμῶν ἐρυθριῶ τὰ παρ' ἐκείνης λέγων. 2. εἶθ' οἱ μὲν ἀξιοῦσιν εἰδέναι τὴν αἰτίαν, ἐμοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἔνι τῷ γε ἀγνοοῦντι διδάσκειν. λῦσον τοίνυν ἡμῖν ταύτην τὴν ἀπορίαν εἰπὼν πρός τινα τῶν ἀπαγγεῖλαι δυναμένων, ὅ τι τοῦτο ἔστιν. 3. ἢ γὰρ οὐδὲν ἀδικοῦντες δείξομεν οὐκ ὀφείλοντες δίκην, ἢ τοῦτο οὐκ ἔχοντες ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἀντ' ἄλλων αἰτιασόμεθα. καὶ ταύτην τὴν ἐπιστολὴν οὐκ ἐμὴν μᾶλλον ἢ Παλλαδίου νομιστέον τοῦ καταναγκάσαντος, ἐπεὶ ἔμοιγε τὸ μιμεῖσθαί σε κάλλιον ἐφαίνετο.
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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