Nilus of Ancyra→Bacchus|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To Bacchus the Prefect.
Do you not see the thorn yoked together with the rose? Therefore do not trouble yourself overmuch in studying the flowers, [seeing] also that upon the splendor of worldly eminence there follow countless calamities, and dangers, and pains, and griefs, and manifold plots both from within and from without; and the nearer one draws to the royal halls, the more I, for my part, suspect critical turns of fortune and thunderbolts of misfortune. For "he who stands near heaven is near the thunderbolt," as the popular proverb has proclaimed.
Do you not see the thorn yoked together with the rose? Therefore do not trouble yourself overmuch in studying the flowers, [seeing] also that upon the splendor of worldly eminence there follow countless calamities, and dangers, and pains, and griefs, and manifold plots both from within and from without; and the nearer one draws to the royal halls, the more I, for my part, suspect critical turns of fortune and thunderbolts of misfortune. For "he who stands near heaven is near the thunderbolt," as the popular proverb has proclaimed.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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.