Letter 713
Libanius→Ammonius, official|libanius
To Ammonius, official. (362)
This man Menecrates came from home to study with me full-time, but a host of illnesses made his time with me brief. That did not, however, dull my goodwill toward him. Whatever help I can offer outside the lecture hall, I make myself ready to give. And the greatest thing I could give him is what I am doing now: this letter, which secures him your support -- the beginning of many good things.
So treat him as a man who longed for rhetoric but was prevented from gaining as much as he deserved, and support him with your own resources.
Ἀμμωνίῳ. (362)
Μενεκράτης οὗτος ἦλθε μὲν οἴκοθεν ὡς μετασχήσων
μου συνεχῶς, νοσημάτων δὲ πλῆθος ὀλίγην ἐποίησεν αὐτῷ
τὴν συνουσίαν. οὐ μὴν τήν γε παρ’ ἡμῶν εὔνοιαν εἰς αὐτὸν
τοῦτο ἤμβλυνεν, ἀλλ’ ὅ τι ἂν ἔξω τῶν λόγων ἐξῇ βοηθεῖ
ἕτοιμον ἐμαυτὸν παρέχω. μέγιστον δὲ ὧν δοίην ἂν ὃ νυνὶ
ποιῶ· ταυτὶ γὰρ αὐτῷ τὰ γράμματα πολλῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀρχὴ
τὴν σὴν προξενοῦντα ῥοπήν.
ὡς οὖν ἐπιθυμήσαντα μὲν
ῥητορικῆς, κωλυθέντα δὲ ὅσον ἄξιον λαβεῖν ἄνεχε ταῖς παρὰ
σαυτοῦ βοηθείαις.
◆
To Ammonius, official. (362)
This man Menecrates came from home to study with me full-time, but a host of illnesses made his time with me brief. That did not, however, dull my goodwill toward him. Whatever help I can offer outside the lecture hall, I make myself ready to give. And the greatest thing I could give him is what I am doing now: this letter, which secures him your support -- the beginning of many good things.
So treat him as a man who longed for rhetoric but was prevented from gaining as much as he deserved, and support him with your own resources.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.