Letter 175

Nilus of AncyraAmphiktyon|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted

To Amphiktyon the Rhetor.

Having obtained much gain, and a sumptuous table, and enjoying honors beyond your desert, do not be carried away in too great a frenzy [korybantia: the wild ecstatic frenzy of the Corybantes, priests of Cybele], but look forward to a reversal, and quench your arrogance. For nothing is more unsound than the prosperity that is found among men, nothing more feeble, nothing more wretched.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Κέρδους πολλοῦ τετυχηκώς, καὶ λιπαρᾶς τραπέζης,
τιμῶν τε ἀπολαύων τῶν ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀξίαν, μὴ ἄγαν
κορυβαντία, μεταβολὴν δὲ προσδέχου, καὶ σβέσον τὸ
φρύαγμα. Οὐδὲν γὰρ τῆς παρὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις εὐ-
δαιμονίας σαθρώτερον, οὐδὲν ἀδρανέστερον, οὐδὲν
ἀθλιώτερον.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import

Related Letters