Letter 135
To Antonius.
If wealth is blind, then perhaps glory and reputation are blind as well. Consider for me the illustrious Conon [illustris, a senatorial honorific rank], who has never benefited anyone either by deed or by word, and who has no wish to know what virtue even is: vainly glorified, and idly applauded by very many illiberal and senseless men, and on account of this puffed up and lifted up beyond all reason.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Εἴ ἐστι τυφλὸς πλοῦτος, τάχα ἐστὶ καὶ τυφλὴ δόξα καὶ ὑπόληψις. Καὶ βλέπε μοι τὸν ἰλλούστριον Κόνωνα, μήτ’ ἔργῳ, μήτε λόγῳ ποτέ τινα ὠφελήσαντα, μήτ’ ἀρετὴν γινώσκειν ἐθέλοντα, τί ποτέ ἐστιν, μάτην δοξαζόμενον, καὶ εἰκῇ κροτούμενον ὑπὸ πλείστων ἀνελευθέρων, καὶ ἀνοήτων ἀνθρώπων, κἂν τούτῳ φυσώμενον, καὶ ὑπεραιρόμενον παραλόγως.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import
Related Letters
King Theodoric to Antonius, Venerable Bishop of Pola [modern Pula, on the coast of Istria].
This entry contains only a manuscript reference number and no letter text.
Whether this letter will find you still at Milan is anyone's guess.