Letter 1034: A note on wine, letters, and the education of a young Libanius under noble expectations.

Here is another wine arriving in quantity, and the previous one was in quantity too. Yet you call each one small. So anything that comes for the sake of letters, even if it is great, seems small to you. May the gods preserve you and make you write often, doing that very thing so well. I urged Libanius to be familiar with the letters of the ancients, and also with these, to be nourished by those and by these as well, since these have grown out of those. What moves me is not that, but the honor paid to him by this. Both what he is and what he is not make me more eager for him, since I often imagine excellent Antiochus sitting beside me and speaking about the boy as a father would speak on behalf of a son.

«δ΄. ΜΝ 904 Ζηνοδότῳ. (892) 5 ΠΥ εῦος: οὐδὸν οἵδον - τὰν εν ἜΣ . Ἕτερος οὗτος οἶνος ἥκει πολύς" ἦν δὲ καὶ ὃ πρότερος πολύς. σὺ δὲ καλεῖς ὀλίγον ἑκάτερον᾽ οὕτω πᾶν τὸ ὑπὲρ 1. ἢ κα ρρν γ 5 Ξ Ξ λόγων ἐρχόμενον, κἂν ἢ μέγα, μικρὸν εἶναί σοι δοκεῖ. 2. σὲ μὲν οὖν καὶ σώξοιεν οἵ ϑεοὶ καὶ ποιοῖεν πολλάκις ἐπιστέλλειν οὕτως αὐτὸ ποιοῦντα καλῶς" «Διβανίῳ δὲ παρήνεσα συνεῖναι τὸ μὲν ταῖς τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐπιστολαῖς, συνεῖναι δὲ καὶ ταύταις, καὶ τρέφεσϑαι μὲν ἐκείναις, τρέφεσϑαι δὲ {καὶ ταύταις, ἃ γεγόνα-ἱ σιν ἐξ ἐκείνου. 8. ἐμὲ δὲ κινεῖ μὲν οὐ τοῦτο, ἀλλὰ τὸ τετι- μῆσϑαι τούτῳ, ποιεῖ δὲ προϑυμότερον περὶ αὐτὸν ὅ τὲ ὧν ὅ τε οὐκ ὥν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸν ἄριστον ᾿Αἀντίοχον πολλάκις ἡγοῦμαι τ5 καὶ παρακαϑῆσϑαί μοι καὶ λέγειν περὶ τοῦ παιδὸς ἃ πατὴρ ἂν ὑπὲρ υἱέος εἴποι.