Letter 933: Libanius explains a playful letter that was taken too seriously and asks Eustochius to help Antiochus.

LibaniusEustochius, correspondent of Libanius|c. 390 AD|Libanius|From Antioch|AI-assisted
misunderstandinghumorAntiochusrankpatronageAjax
Libanius compares a failed exchange of joking letters to someone unable to catch a ball.

I wrote to you as though you knew how to catch a ball. The whole thing was a game, inviting you to answer in the same spirit. But you almost imitated Ajax of Salamis, at least if I can trust the reports: wanting one thing and forced into another. And yet the second part of the letter showed the first part clearly enough. You should have honored the first part with laughter, and done so together with excellent Priscion. Since you were annoyed, however, and he was annoyed along with you, and since things that were not serious came to be treated as serious among you, I will not wrong the letter or erase it. Instead, one name will be put in place of another. That is easy enough: Eustochius goes out, Eustathius comes in. In return for this, free Antiochus from the troubles in which he has wrongly fallen from his proper rank. I hear that you have the power to secure this release.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Ἐγὼ μὲν ὡς εἰδότι δέξασθαι σφαῖραν οὕτως ἐπέστειλα, καὶ ἦν ἅπαν τοῦτο παιδιὰ προκαλουμένη σε πρὸς ὅμοια γράμματα· σὺ δὲ μικροῦ, τοῖς γὰρ ἀπηγγελκόσιν οὐκ ἀπιστῶ, τὸν Αἴαντα ἡμῖν ἐμιμήσω τὸν ἐκ τῆς Σαλαμῖνος τὸν ἄλλα μὲν βουληθέντα, ἄλλα δὲ ἀναγκασθέντα. καίτοι τὰ δεύτερα τῆς ἐπιστολῆς ἱκανῶς ἐδείκνυ τὰ πρότερα, καὶ ἔδει γέλωτι τιμῆσαι τὰ πρότερα καὶ τοῦτό γε ποιῆσαι μετὰ τοῦ καλοῦ Πρισκίωνος. ἐπεὶ δὲ σὺ μὲν ἠχθέσθης, ὁ δὲ σοὶ συνηχθέσθη καὶ τὰ μὴ δεινὰ δεινὰ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἐνομίσθη, τὴν μὲν ἐπιστολὴν οὐκ ἀδικήσομεν οὐδ᾽ ἐξαλείψομεν, ὄνομα δὲ ἀντ᾽ ὀνόματος κείσεται. πάντως δὲ τοῦτο ῥᾴδιον, ἐξελθεῖν μὲν Εὐστόχιον, εἰσελθεῖν δὲ Εὐστάθιον. σὺ δ᾽ ἡμῖν ἀντὶ τούτου τὸν οὐ καλῶς ἐκπεσόντα τῆς αὑτοῦ τάξεως Ἀντίοχον ἀπάλλαξον τῶν κακῶν ἐν οἷς ἐστιν. ἀκούω δέ σε εἶναι κύριον τῆσδε τῆς ἀπαλλαγῆς.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch5 gemini flash ocr reviewed 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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