Letter 585
Libanius→Βακχίῳ|libanius
To Bacchios. (357)
Will you never stop treating trifles as treasures and worthless things as priceless? The moment I utter anything, you instantly deem it magnificent — you seek it, you crave it, and you reproach me for not yet sending it.
You have always seemed to me a lover of poor things in being a lover of my work, and never more so than now in your eagerness over something so slight. You will see, when you receive it — and you will before long — that what you say has reached you as a great reputation is more the shadow of a speech than a speech.
Βακχίῳ. (357)
Οὐ παύσῃ ποτὲ τὰ μικρὰ μεγάλα νομίζων καὶ πολλοῦ
τινος ἄξια τὰ μηδενός; ἀλλ’ ἂν φθέγξωμαί τι, σεμνὸν εὐθὺς
τοῦτο παρὰ σοὶ καὶ ζητεῖς καὶ ποθεῖς καὶ τὸ μήπω λαβεῖν
ἐγκαλεῖς.
ἀεὶ μὲν οὖν μοι φαύλων ἐρᾶν ἐφαίνου τῶν ἡμε-
τέρων ἐρῶν, νῦν δ’ οὐχ ἥκιστα σπουδάζειν περὶ μικρά. γνώσῃ
δέ, ἢν λάβῃς, λήψῃ δὲ οὐκ εἰς μακράν, ὡς οὗ κλέος εἰς ὑμᾶς
ἀφῖχθαι λέγεις, σκιὰ λόγου μᾶλλόν ἐστιν ἢ λόγος.
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To Bacchios. (357)
Will you never stop treating trifles as treasures and worthless things as priceless? The moment I utter anything, you instantly deem it magnificent — you seek it, you crave it, and you reproach me for not yet sending it.
You have always seemed to me a lover of poor things in being a lover of my work, and never more so than now in your eagerness over something so slight. You will see, when you receive it — and you will before long — that what you say has reached you as a great reputation is more the shadow of a speech than a speech.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.