Letter 59
Synesius of Cyrene→Anysius|c. 412 AD|synesius cyrene
friendshipproperty economics
To Anysius.
The man carrying this letter is a philosopher at heart but a lawyer by profession. As long as you were with us, and as long as Pentapolis still existed as a functioning society, he practiced law in our country. But since your departure, the times have betrayed us to our enemies and brought a strange tranquility to the law courts — the silence of devastation rather than the peace of justice. He is seeking a new start. Please help him if you can.
Letter 59: A Recommendation
[1] To Anysius
The man to whom I have entrusted this letter is at heart a philosopher, but by profession a pleader at the bar. As long as Anysius was with us, and as long as Pentapolis existed, he continued to practice this profession in our country. The times since your departure have betrayed us to our enemies, and have brought a spell of tranquility in the law courts; so he has made up his mind to sail to another law court where a venal tongue, the pleader's stock-in-trade, makes the pleader known. [2] Try to win for him the friendliness of a provincial governor . I call to witness the divinity who presides over our friendship, that anyone to whom your recommend him will be grateful to you, when he returns after making trial of him.
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To Anysius.
The man carrying this letter is a philosopher at heart but a lawyer by profession. As long as you were with us, and as long as Pentapolis still existed as a functioning society, he practiced law in our country. But since your departure, the times have betrayed us to our enemies and brought a strange tranquility to the law courts — the silence of devastation rather than the peace of justice. He is seeking a new start. Please help him if you can.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.