Letter 964: Libanius asks Hierophantes to write often and pray to the gods for him.

May many good things come both to the man who wrote and to the man who brought the letter. I have great hope that the time after this will be better than the time before it, now that your voice and your hand are breaking the winter. By winter I mean the grief gathered from many sources: the outrage against the statues, the trampling of imperial authority over our speeches, power passing elsewhere, illnesses lodged in different parts of my body that make the nights hard and the days even more unpleasant, and many people who have benefited from us refusing to admit that they have been benefited. That alone would bite the heart. Friends dearer than brothers have died, and to more than a few officials we seem to be dead, which deprives those who need help of the help they need. Nor do we ourselves have the power to give them the larger forms of help, as you know. I believe that all this, and other troubles besides, will come to an end now that your letter has reached us. For that reason, write to me often, so that our troubles may suffer many defeats. And if you add to your letters a word with the gods on our behalf, you will have made your help still brighter.