Letter 515
Libanius→Sebastianus|libanius
To Sebastianus.
It has not escaped us how much good you are doing for Egypt, nor how much the Egyptians love you in return. May both continue to the end.
Add to the list of people who have benefited from your kindness this man Dulcitius. He would not otherwise have come to Egypt, but since you are the one guarding things there, he has come -- expecting perhaps some other advantage, but counting the greatest of all, above everything else, simply to see you.
So treat him as a friend of mine and an admirer of yours, and make him the most fortunate of men.
Σεβαστιανῷ. (356)
Οὐ λέληθεν ἡμᾶς οὔθ’ ὅπως σὺ τὴν Αἴγυπτον ὠφελεῖς
οὔθ’ ὅπως Αἰγύπτιοι σὲ φιλοῦσι καὶ χωροίη γε ταῦτα ἄμφω
διὰ τέλους.
πρόσθες δὴ τοῖς εὖ πεπονθόσιν ὑπὸ σοῦ καὶ
τουτονὶ Δουλκίτιον, ὃς ἄλλως οὐκ ἂν ἐλθὼν εἰς Αἴγυπτον,
ἐπειδὴ σὺ τἀκεῖ φυλάττεις, ἥκει νομίζων ἴσως μέν τι καὶ ἄλλο
κερδανεῖν, μέγιστον δὲ καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων εὐθὺς τὸ σὲ προσ-
ἰδεῖν.
ὡς οὑν ἡμῖν τε ἐπιτήδειον καὶ σὸν ἐραστὴν ποίει
τῶν ἄλλων εὐδαιμονέστερον.
◆
To Sebastianus.
It has not escaped us how much good you are doing for Egypt, nor how much the Egyptians love you in return. May both continue to the end.
Add to the list of people who have benefited from your kindness this man Dulcitius. He would not otherwise have come to Egypt, but since you are the one guarding things there, he has come -- expecting perhaps some other advantage, but counting the greatest of all, above everything else, simply to see you.
So treat him as a friend of mine and an admirer of yours, and make him the most fortunate of men.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.