Letter 994: A protest against violence toward city councillors and its effect on civic service.
I am not ashamed to care for all the members of the councils, to consider them all my fellow citizens, to rejoice in their honors, and to groan when they are insulted. I find that this is good for those who honor them too, for such governors win approval. Wanting you to be one of these rather than the other kind, I was struck in the soul when I heard that Apollonides' brother had received blows, both because of my goodwill toward him and because of my goodwill toward you. How is it not terrible for Cyrus, a man formed by education, to seem to have become a harm to the councils, advising them by blows to look elsewhere and to seek refuge by fleeing council service? If it were possible to undo what has been done, that is what we should do. Since it is not possible, let the time that remains become gentler, and let us give rumor better material.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. Οὐκ αἰσχύνομαι τῶν βουλευόντων ἁπάντων κηδόμενος καὶ πάντας ἐμαυτοῦ πολίτας ἡγούμενος καὶ χαίρων τε ἐν ταῖς ἐκείνων τιμαῖς καὶ στένων ὑβριζομένων. εὑρίσκω δὲ τοῦτο καὶ τοῖς τιμῶσιν ἀγαθόν· εὑρίσκω γὰρ τοὺς τοιούτους ἄρχοντας εὐδοκιμοῦντας. 2. εἶναι δὲ σὲ τούτων μᾶλλον ἢ 'κείνων βουλόμενος, τὸν ἀδελφὸν τὸν Ἀπολλωνίδου πληγὰς ἀκούων λαβεῖν ἐπλήγην τὴν ψυχὴν εὐνοίᾳ τε τῇ ἐκείνου καὶ σῇ. πῶς γὰρ οὐ δεινὸν Κῦρον τὸν ἐν παιδείᾳ γεγενημένον δοκεῖν βλάβην γεγονέναι ταῖς βουλαῖς, παραινοῦντα ταῖς πληγαῖς ἄλλοσέ ποι βλέπειν καὶ ζητεῖν καταφυγὴν τὸ βουλεύειν φυγόντας; 3. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἦν λῦσαι τὰ πεπραγμένα, τοῦθ' ἡμᾶς ἔδει ποιεῖν· ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦτο οὐκ ἔστιν, ἡμερώτερος ὁ λοιπὸς γιγνέσθω χρόνος καὶ παρέχωμεν ἀφορμὰς τῇ φήμῃ βελτίονας.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius foerster vol11 batch9 t259 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
Related Letters
This entry contains only a manuscript reference number and no letter text.
We're planning to retrace our route and finally return to your sight, even though my son is still weak and I've been...
Since the gods have given you the power to be useful to my friends, I'm confident that Romanus — an excellent man...
Against Andronicus [Letter 57].
Wretched Zosimus, it is the last hour.