From: Libanius, rhetorician in Antioch
To: Urbanus
Date: ~359 AD
Context: A request to help Zenobius recover his stolen land -- with a practical postscript about managing the governor.
I'm calling you to do what you do best: defend those who've been wronged. This Zenobius served Elusa [a city in the Negev region] faithfully as guardian of the peace, but was driven off his land by a man who knows how to buy such things.
Don't stand by while he's cheated or while I'm made a laughingstock -- since I'm known both as his patron and as someone with influence among your circle. And once you've restored his land, do one more thing: make the governor well-disposed toward him too, whether by speaking to him in person or writing in his absence. It would be better to get nothing at all than to get it along with the governor's enmity.
To Urbanus (359/60)
I call upon you to run your own race when I call upon you to defend those who have been wronged. This man Zenobius here has been wronged: though he governed the peace at Elusa with scrupulous care, he has been driven from his land by a man who knows how to buy such things.
Do not stand by and watch either this man suffer loss or me be made a laughingstock — I who am thought both to care for him and to have influence with you. And if you restore his land to him, secure the governor's goodwill for him as well, whether by speaking to him in person or writing to him in his absence; for it is better to obtain nothing at all than to obtain it at the cost of that man's enmity.
Context:A request to help Zenobius recover his stolen land -- with a practical postscript about managing the governor.
I'm calling you to do what you do best: defend those who've been wronged. This Zenobius served Elusa [a city in the Negev region] faithfully as guardian of the peace, but was driven off his land by a man who knows how to buy such things.
Don't stand by while he's cheated or while I'm made a laughingstock -- since I'm known both as his patron and as someone with influence among your circle. And once you've restored his land, do one more thing: make the governor well-disposed toward him too, whether by speaking to him in person or writing in his absence. It would be better to get nothing at all than to get it along with the governor's enmity.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.