Letter 808
Libanius→Nicocles|libanius
To Nicocles. (363 AD)
A poet, a companion of the Muses — to whom else was I going to send him but to a friend of the Muses? You yourself will judge his poems, and I expect you will admire them. But see to it that he too admires your generosity. For it seems to me this is a trick of the Muses: they do not make eloquent men rich, so that by going around collecting money they may have occasion to speak.
So give, yourself, remembering how pleasantly you used to tell me of your earlier gifts, and make the others more generous too.
Νικοκλεῖ. (363)
Ποιητὴν δὲ ἄνδρα καὶ Μουσῶν ἑταῖρον παρὰ τίνα πέμ-
ψειν ἔμελλον ἢ παρὰ τὸν ταῖς Μούσαις φίλον; τὰ μὲν οὑν
ποιήματα αὐτὸς κρινεῖς καὶ οἶμαι ὅτι θαυμάσῃ· σκόπει 81
ὅπως καὶ οὗτος ὑμῶν τὸ εἰδέναι διδόναι θαυμάσῃ δοκεῖ γάρ
μοι σόφισμά τι τοῦτο εἶναι τῶν Μουσῶν τὸ μὴ πλουτεῖν τοὺς
δυναμένους εἰπεῖν, ὅπως ἀγείροντες ἀργύριον λέγωσι.
σὺ
οὖν αὐτός τε δίδου μεμνημένος, ὡς ἡδέως μοι διηγοῦ προτί
ῥᾶς δόσεις, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἐργάζου φιλοτιμοτέρους.
◆
To Nicocles. (363 AD)
A poet, a companion of the Muses — to whom else was I going to send him but to a friend of the Muses? You yourself will judge his poems, and I expect you will admire them. But see to it that he too admires your generosity. For it seems to me this is a trick of the Muses: they do not make eloquent men rich, so that by going around collecting money they may have occasion to speak.
So give, yourself, remembering how pleasantly you used to tell me of your earlier gifts, and make the others more generous too.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.