Letter 414
Libanius→Eupator|libanius
From: Libanius, rhetorician in Antioch
To: Eupator
Date: ~355 AD
Context: Libanius defends his students' summer retreat to Daphne and commends Olympius as a guardian of Eupator's sons.
Your sons are enduring the labors that summer demands at Daphne [the famous pleasure suburb of Antioch], and I have allowed this so that trees, water, and breezes might ease their hard work. If anyone slanders them on account of the location, let him be recognized for the sycophant he is.
My opinion on both matters will be conveyed by the man carrying this letter -- on whose account I consider both you and your sons fortunate. For Olympius, the finest man on earth, has your household in his care.
Εὐπάτορι. (355)
Οἱ παῖδές σου τοὺς πόνους οὓς ὁρίζει τὸ θέρος ἐν τῇ
Δάφνῃ διαντλοῦσιν ἡμῶν τοῦτο ἐφιέντων, ὅπως ᾖ τῷ πονεῖν
παραμύθιον δένδρα καὶ ὕδατα καὶ αὖραι. ἢν οὖν τις αὐτοὺς
διαβάλλῃ τῷ τόπῳ, συκοφάντης δοκείτω τῷ ἔργῳ.
τὴν δ’
ἐφ’ ἑκατέρῳ γνώμην ἐμὴν ὁ φέρων σοι τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἐρεῖ,
δι᾿ ὃν εὐδαίμονα σέ τε ἡγοῦμαι καἰ τοὺς υἱεῖς. τῷ γὰρ ἀρίστῳ
τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς Ὀλυμπίῳ τῆς σῆς οἰκίας μέλει.
◆
From: Libanius, rhetorician in Antioch
To: Eupator
Date: ~355 AD
Context: Libanius defends his students' summer retreat to Daphne and commends Olympius as a guardian of Eupator's sons.
Your sons are enduring the labors that summer demands at Daphne [the famous pleasure suburb of Antioch], and I have allowed this so that trees, water, and breezes might ease their hard work. If anyone slanders them on account of the location, let him be recognized for the sycophant he is.
My opinion on both matters will be conveyed by the man carrying this letter -- on whose account I consider both you and your sons fortunate. For Olympius, the finest man on earth, has your household in his care.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.