Letter 600: You don't know it, but we've composed another exercise — and you would certainly have asked for the second after the...

LibaniusBakchios|c. 371 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
famine plague

To Bacchius. (357)

For you do not know that we have also composed a second declamation, the one which you would surely have asked for, on top of the first. For such is your way with us: if you hear what I have said, before learning how I said it you immediately fall in love with it.

Since, then, you have asked for this one too, we will send you both at once. But "at once," with us, means two months; such is the abundance of scribes, not to call it a scarcity. So if you do not receive them, find fault; but if you should receive them slowly, then, instead of blaming us, blame together with us the cause that is the cause.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Βακχίῳ. (357)

Οὐ γὰρ οἶσθ᾿ ὅτι καὶ ἑτέραν πεποιήμεθα μελέτην, ἡ
πάντως ἂν ᾔτεις ἐπὶ τῇ προτέρᾳ τὴν δευτέραν. τοιοῦτος γὰρ
δὴ σὺ πρὸς ἡμᾶς· ἂν ὅτι εἶπον ἀκούσῃς, πρὶν ὅπως εἶπον
μαθεῖν εὐθὺς ἐρᾷς.

ὡς οὖν καὶ ταύτην ᾐτηκότι πέμψομεν
ἀμφοτέρας αὐτίκα. τὸ δ’ αὐτίκα παρ’ ἡμῖν δύο μῆνες· τοσ-
αύτη τις ἀφθονία γραφέων, ἵνα μὴ λέγω σπάνις. μὴ λαμ-
βάνων μὲν οὖν ἐγκάλει· βραδέως δὲ εἰ λάβοις, ἀνθ’ ἡμῶν
μεθ’ ἡμῶν αἴτια τὸ αἴτιον.

Revision history

  1. 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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