Letter 952: Libanius petitions Proclus to help the son of the deceased Domninus avoid a burdensome municipal liturgy.

LibaniusProclus, correspondent of Libanius|c. 390 AD|Libanius|From Antioch|AI-assisted
liturgiesorphansintercessionLarissa
This letter highlights the financial and social pressure of liturgies on local elites.

Domninus of Larissa, a good man in law and office, died before performing his liturgy among you, leaving this son to us so he might learn to speak. While alive, he should have either performed the liturgy or convinced you he couldn't due to lack of funds. Now that Domninus is dead and the boy is being dragged into what his father wasn't—for this is clear—all of Domninus's friends beg your great mind to provide some words to help the youth. For it would be fitting for you to persuade, and for the council to be persuaded.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Δομνῖνος ὁ Λαρισσαῖος ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς γενόμενος ἔν τε δίκαις καὶ ἀρχῇ πρὸ λειτουργίας τῆς παρ' ὑμῖν ἀπῆλθε τὸν παῖδα τοῦτον ἡμῖν παραδούς, ὅπως δύναιτο λέγειν. 2. ἔδει μὲν οὖν ζῶντα ἐκεῖνον ἢ λειτουργεῖν ἢ πείθειν ὑμᾶς ὡς οὐκ ἂν δύναιτο χρημάτων οὐκ ὄντων αὐτῷ· τετελευτηκότος δὲ Δομνίνου, τοῦ παιδὸς δὲ εἰς ἃ μὴ ἐκεῖνος ἑλκομένου, σαφὲς γὰρ δὴ τοῦτό γε, δεόμεθα πάντες οἱ Δομνίνου φίλοι δέξασθαι τὴν μεγάλην βουλὴν παρὰ τῆς σῆς διανοίας τῆς καὶ αὐτῆς μεγάλης λόγους τινὰς τῷ νέῳ βοηθοῦντας. πρέποι γὰρ ἂν τά γε τοιαῦτα σοὶ μὲν πείθειν, ἐκείνῃ δὲ πείθεσθαι.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch6 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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