Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To Libanius.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Letter XI.—To Libanius.
It was
a custom with the Romans2196
| 2196 The
custom of New Year’s gifts (strenarum commercium) had been
discontinued by Tiberius, because of the trouble it involved to
himself, and abolished by Claudius: but in these times it had been
revived. We find mention of it in the reigns of Theodosius, and of
Arcadius; Auson. Ep. xviii. 4; Symmach. Ep. x. 28. | to celebrate a
feast in winter-time, after the custom of their fathers, when the length
of the days begins to draw out, as the sun climbs to the upper regions
of the sky. Now the beginning of the month is esteemed holy, and by
this day auguring the character of the whole year, they devote
themselves to forecasting lucky accidents, gladness, and wealth2197
| 2197 Or,
not improbably, “they contrive lucky meetings, festivities, and
contributions.” | . What is my object in beginning my letter in
this way? Why, I do so because I too kept this feast, having got my
present of gold as well as any of them; for then there came into my
hands as well as theirs gold, not like that vulgar gold, which
potentates treasure and which those that have it give,—that
heavy, vile, and soulless possession,—but that which is loftier
than all wealth, as Pindar says2198
| 2198 Pindar, Ol. i. 1: ὁ δὲ
χρυσὸς,
αἰθόμενον
πῦρ ἅτε
διαπρέπει
νυκτὸς,
μεγαλάνορος
ἔξοχα
πλούτου. | , in the eyes
of those that have sense, being the fairest presentation, I mean your
letter, and the vast wealth which it contained. For thus it happened;
that on that day, as I was going to the metropolis of the Cappadocians,
I met an acquaintance, who handed me this present, your letter, as a
new year’s gift. And I, being overjoyed at the occurrence, threw
open my treasure to all who were present; and all shared in it, each
getting the whole of it, without any rivalry, and I was none the worse
off. For the letter by passing through the hands of all, like a ticket
for a feast, is the private wealth of each, some by steady continuous
reading engraving the words upon their memory, and others taking an
impression2199
of them upon tablets; and it was again
in my hands, giving me more pleasure than the hard2200
metal does to the eyes of the rich. Since,
then, even to husbandmen—to use a homely
comparison—approbation of the labours which they have already
accomplished is a strong stimulus to those which follow, bear with us
if we treat what you have yourself given as so much seed, and if we
write that we may provoke you to write back. But I beg of you a public
and general boon for our life; that you will no longer entertain the
purpose which you expressed to us in a dark hint at the end of your
letter. For I do not think that it is at all a fair decision to come
to, that,—because there are some who disgrace themselves by
deserting from the Greek language to the barbarian, becoming mercenary
soldiers and choosing a soldier’s rations instead of the renown
of eloquence,—you should therefore condemn oratory altogether,
and sentence human life to be as voiceless as that of beasts. For who
is he who will open his lips, if you carry into effect this severe
sentence against oratory? But perhaps it will be well to remind you of
a passage in our Scriptures. For our Word bids those that can to do
good, not looking at the tempers of those who receive the benefit, so
as to be eager to benefit only those who are sensible of kindness,
while we close our beneficence to the unthankful, but rather to imitate
the Disposer of all, Who distributes the good things of His creation
alike to all, to the good and to the evil. Having regard to this,
admirable Sir, show yourself in your way of life such an one as the
time past has displayed you. For those who do not see the sun do not
thereby hinder the sun’s existence. Even so neither is it right
that the beams of your eloquence should be dimmed, because of those who
are purblind as to the perceptions of the soul. But as for Cynegius, I
pray that he may be as far as possible from the common malady, which
now has seized upon young men; and that he will devote himself of his
own accord to the study of rhetoric. But if he is otherwise disposed,
it is only right, even if he be unwilling, he should be forced to it;
so as to avoid the unhappy and discreditable plight in which they now
are, who have previously abandoned the pursuit of oratory.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
