Letter 899: Libanius congratulates Tatianus on educating his grandson.
Blessed is the father who sent the young man, and blessed is the grandfather who receives him. Blessed, too, is the boy himself for taking this path and having the same man as both his mother's father and his own teacher. By being with you and living with you - hearing your words and witnessing your deeds, both those done by day and those managed at night; seeing your just spirit, your reasonable kindness, and your mastery over appetite and sleep - he will see the virtues with which you please the inhabitants of heaven under their very eyes. All this will educate the young Tatianus and ensure he is not inferior to his namesake, while the gods lead him to an equally venerable old age. If he is raised this way, I am certain he will be far better than those who are carried toward a city's name but carry away from it either nothing at all or very little indeed.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Μακάριος μὲν ὁ πέμπων τὸν νέον ὁ πατήρ, μακάριος δὲ ὁ δεχόμενος ὁ πάππος, μακάριος δὲ αὐτὸς ὁ τοιαύτην ὁδὸν ἐρχόμενος καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν ἔχων τῆς μητρός τε πατέρα καὶ παιδευτήν. 2. ὢν γὰρ ὑπὸ σοὶ καὶ σοὶ συζῶν καὶ λόγων τε ἀκούων καὶ ἔργα θεώμενος τὰ μὲν ἐν ἡμέραις δρώμενα, τὰ δὲ ἐν νυξὶ πραττόμενα, θυμόν τε δίκαιον καὶ φιλανθρωπίαν εὔλογον γαστέρα τε καὶ ὕπνον κρατούμενον ἄλλα τε οἷς εὐφραίνεις τοὺς τὸν οὐρανὸν οἰκοῦντας ὑπὸ τοῖς ἐκείνων ὄμμασι χρώμενος ταῖς αρεταῖς — ταῦτ᾽ οὖν ἡμῖν παιδεύσει τε τὸν νέον Τατιανὸν καὶ δώσει μὴ λείπεσθαι τοῦ ὁμωνύμου τῶν θεῶν αὐτὸν ἀγόντων εἰς τὴν ἴσην πολιάν. 3. εἰ δ᾽ οὕτω τραφείη, πάνυ μοι δοκεῖ βελτίων ἔσεσθαι τῶν ἐπ᾽ ὄνομα μὲν πόλεως φερομένων, φερόντων δὲ ἐκεῖθεν, τῶν μὲν οὐδέν, τῶν δὲ κομιδῇ μικρά.
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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