Letter 876: Libanius explains to Antiochus how his student, Marianus's son, is leaving his school early to join the imperial service.
While this boy was still learning his alphabet, his father Marianus already intended him for service at the imperial court. He placed the boy in my care, and though I didn't know his ultimate destination at first, his father was so focused on making him a powerful speaker that I assumed he wanted the boy to become a teacher of rhetoric. Later, he approached me and revealed his secret plan, blushing as he admitted it was time for the boy to head to court and begin the career for which he was originally destined. I would usually be annoyed with anyone else for such a change, but Marianus was so gentle with me that he even convinced me to write this letter of recommendation. I am doing so now, and I ask you to make things even more pleasant for the boy at court than they are here.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
1. Ἔτι μὲν ἐν συλλαβαῖς τὸν νέον ὄντα τοῦτον ὁ πατὴρ Μαριανὸς τῆς ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις ἀγέλης ποιεῖ· παραδοὺς δέ μοι τοῦτο οὐκ εἰδότι τὸν υἱὸν οὕτως ἐπεμελεῖτο τοῦ δεινὸν γενέσθαι λέγειν, ὥστε μοι παρεῖχεν εἰκάζειν ὡς αἰτοίη παρὰ τῶν θεῶν παιδεύοντα παῖδας αὐτὸν ἐπιδεῖν. 2. ἔπειτα προσελθών μοι τὸ κεκρυμμένον ἦγεν εἰς φῶς ἐρυθριῶν μέν, μὴ λέγειν δὲ οὐκ ἔχων ὅτι τῷ παιδὶ καιρὸς ὡς ὑμᾶς τε βαδίζειν καὶ πράττειν, ἐφ' ὅτῳ τὸ πρώην ἐτάχθη. 3. πρὸς μὲν οὖν ἄλλον ἐπὶ τούτοις χαλεπὸς ἂν ἦν, Μαριανὸς δέ με οὕτως ἑώρα πρᾶον, ὥστε καὶ προσέθηκεν ὅτι δεῖ με καὶ ἐπιστεῖλαι. δίδωμι δὴ καὶ τοῦτο καὶ σοῦ δέομαι τῶν τῇδε τἀκεῖ ποιῆσαι τῷ Μαριανοῦ γλυκύτερα.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch3 gemini flash v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/download/foerster-libanii-opera/Foerster%20%281922%29%2C%20Libanii%20opera%2011_djvu.xml
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