From: Libanius, rhetorician in Antioch
To: Spectatus
Date: ~359 AD
Context: A bitingly ironic letter about a friend who thinks nothing of Libanius -- written with the rueful awareness that the recommendation will probably be ignored.
If people knew how you really feel about me, they wouldn't ask me to send you letters on their behalf. In fact, even if I needed them to carry my own letters, they'd beg me not to write -- since it would only hurt their cause. But many things go unnoticed in this world, including the fact that you hold me in no regard whatsoever.
I could have told Miccalus the truth and kept quiet. But I was more embarrassed on your behalf -- you, the contemptuous one -- than on my own, the discarded one. So I let Miccalus remain ignorant, thinking the time he spent in the dark would at least be a kind of profit for him. That time lasts as long as the journey. Once he arrives and delivers this letter, he'll discover how things really stand.
Still, I know this much: even if you won't pay him any attention for my sake, you'll do everything for him out of another kind of necessity. I don't mean his decency and the obligation to honor such men -- plenty of people don't much care about that sort of thing. But you know his brother: the man who's formidable in speech, formidable in action, and who knows how to repay a favor and how to settle a score.
**To Spectatus** (359/60)
If people knew what your disposition toward me truly is, they would not ask me to send letters to you on their behalf. Indeed, even if I myself needed them to carry one, they would beg me not to write, since it would only bring them harm. But as it stands, much escapes notice — including the fact that you hold me in no regard whatsoever.
Now, I could have told Miccalus the truth and left it at that. But feeling more ashamed on your behalf, the one who scorns me, than on my own, the one cast aside, I let Miccalus remain ignorant of how things stand between us, thinking that the time spent in his delusion would be a kind of profit for him — namely, the duration of his journey. For once he arrives and delivers this letter, he will discover how things really are.
Still, this much I do know: even if you will pay him no attention on my account, there is another compulsion under which you will do everything for him. By "compulsion" I do not mean his own decency and the obligation to honor such men or else be thought guilty of vice — for many people attach little weight to that sort of thing. No, I mean that you know this man's brother: formidable in speech, formidable in action, and a man who knows how both to repay a favor and to exact a punishment.
His thunderbolts, I am quite sure, you will fear — and in securing fair weather for yourself, you will think it worthwhile to become everything to Miccalus.
Context:A bitingly ironic letter about a friend who thinks nothing of Libanius -- written with the rueful awareness that the recommendation will probably be ignored.
If people knew how you really feel about me, they wouldn't ask me to send you letters on their behalf. In fact, even if I needed them to carry my own letters, they'd beg me not to write -- since it would only hurt their cause. But many things go unnoticed in this world, including the fact that you hold me in no regard whatsoever.
I could have told Miccalus the truth and kept quiet. But I was more embarrassed on your behalf -- you, the contemptuous one -- than on my own, the discarded one. So I let Miccalus remain ignorant, thinking the time he spent in the dark would at least be a kind of profit for him. That time lasts as long as the journey. Once he arrives and delivers this letter, he'll discover how things really stand.
Still, I know this much: even if you won't pay him any attention for my sake, you'll do everything for him out of another kind of necessity. I don't mean his decency and the obligation to honor such men -- plenty of people don't much care about that sort of thing. But you know his brother: the man who's formidable in speech, formidable in action, and who knows how to repay a favor and how to settle a score.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.