Letter 221: I write to you in good health, though "good" is a relative term at my age and in these times.
To Andronicus. (360?)
Hermeias, having been well treated by you, did not conceal the benefits he received, but spoke of what he had enjoyed, and became to me a cause of honor, and to Bassiana, the best of women, a cause of gladness. See, then, that you do not slacken your eagerness, but rather that you may be better the second time and may imitate the good among runners.
In other matters you will lend your aid whenever those other matters call for it; but this one presses urgently even now. A certain Heracleitus, a Tyrian, has long labored on our behalf, and Tyre is in no way wronged by this; for Heracleitus has no money. Bid this man remain in his present condition, or we have been most grievously harmed.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Ἀνόρονίκῳ. (360?)
Ἑρμείας εὖ παθὼν ὑπὸ σοῦ τὰς εὐεργεσίας οὐκ ἔκρυψεν,
ἀλλ’ εΙπέ τε ὧν ἀπήλαυσε καὶ φιλοτιμίας μὲν ἐμοί, τῇ δὲ ἀρί-
στῇ γυναικῶν αἴτιος εὐφροσύνης κατέστη Βασσιανῇ. ὅπως οὖν
μὴ καταλύσῃς τὸ πρόθυμον, μᾶλλον δὲ ὅπως ἀμείνων ἔσῃ
τὰ δεύτερα καὶ μιμήσῃ τῶν δρομέων τοὺς ἀγαθούς.
τὰ μὲν
οὖν ἄλλα βοηθήσεις, ἡνίκα ἂν τὰ ἄλλα καλῇ· τουτὶ δὲ καὶ δὴ
κατεπείγει. Τύριός τις Ἡράκλειτος περὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα πάλαι πο-
νεῖ, Τυρὸς δὲ οὐδὲν ἐντεῦθεν ἀδικεῖται· χρήματα γὰρ οὐκ
ἔστιν Ἡρακλείτῳ.
τοῦτον κέλευε μένειν ἐπὶ τοῦ νῦν σχή-
ματος ἢ τὰ μέγιστα βεβλάμμεθα.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/blob/master/volume_xml/libanius_10.xml
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So at last you write -- though it took some prompting.
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When you took on the governorship of Egypt, I took on the obligation of writing to you about my friends.
To the same person. (359/60)