To Modestus. (363)
I was pleased that you urge me to do the very thing I urge you to do. Clearly I have persuaded you to help, if, taking my role, you now encourage me to help Hyperechius.
For my part, I shall neglect nothing that is possible and shall even attempt the impossible. Though it may prove futile, it befits one who cares. And something would already have been accomplished for the young man had his late arrival not hindered the effort. Yet it has not destroyed our hopes — they remain, and bright ones. I spit into my lap, obeying the proverb [a gesture to ward off the evil eye].
Some god seems to have arranged the matter well, wishing him to obtain both: what you have the power to give and what the master of all can give — since had he obtained the former first, he would have been deprived of the latter.
As things stand, you will educate him and make him a great orator and great in all else — in marriage, reputation, and the proceedings of the council — and the second gifts will come when he is ready to receive them.
But by the gods, whom you long admired and have now openly acknowledged — surpass the goodwill of Hyperechius's father and imitate mine. In doing so, you will outdo even his father's devotion.
I was pleased that you urge me to do the very thing I urge you to do. Clearly I have persuaded you to help, if, taking my role, you now encourage me to help Hyperechius.
For my part, I shall neglect nothing that is possible and shall even attempt the impossible. Though it may prove futile, it befits one who cares. And something would already have been accomplished for the young man had his late arrival not hindered the effort. Yet it has not destroyed our hopes — they remain, and bright ones. I spit into my lap, obeying the proverb [a gesture to ward off the evil eye].
Some god seems to have arranged the matter well, wishing him to obtain both: what you have the power to give and what the master of all can give — since had he obtained the former first, he would have been deprived of the latter.
As things stand, you will educate him and make him a great orator and great in all else — in marriage, reputation, and the proceedings of the council — and the second gifts will come when he is ready to receive them.
But by the gods, whom you long admired and have now openly acknowledged — surpass the goodwill of Hyperechius's father and imitate mine. In doing so, you will outdo even his father's devotion.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.