Letter 96: Well, this particular labor has ended well -- the helmsman's skill proved stronger than the wild winds.

LibaniusModestus|c. 359 AD|Libanius|AI-assisted
barbarian invasioneducation booksillnessimperial politics

To Modestus. (359/60)

This contest, then, came to a fair conclusion, since the skill of the helmsman proved stronger than the savage winds.

Come now, set upright for us also the city of Alexander [Alexandria], which is hastening toward ruin, so that the people may be saved, and that, concerning you, those who are able to speak may have lofty things to say.

For it would be fitting that you should be able to lead even the departed into the light; for assuredly you would first have raised up for us the divine man.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Μοδέστῳ. (359/60)

Οὗτος μὲν δὴ ἄεθλος εἰς καλὸν ἐτελεύτησε τῆς τοῦ
κυβερνήτου τέχνης κρείττονος γενομένης τῶν ἀγρίων πνευ-
μάτων.

ἄγε δὴ καὶ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου πόλιν ὄρθωσον ἡμῖν
ἐπειγομένην εἰς ὄλεθρον, ὅπως οἱ μὲν σώζωνται, περὶ σοῦ
δὲ ὑπάρχῃ τοῖς δυναμένοις λέγειν ὑψηλὰ λέγειν.

ὡς ἴδει
σε δύνασθαι καὶ τοὺς οἰχομένους εἰς φῶς ἄγειν· πάντως γὰρ
ἂν ἡμῖν πρῶτον τὸν θεῖον ἀνέστησας.

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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