Letter CCCXXXVIII.

Libanius to Basil.

I know you will often write, “Here is another Cappadocian for you!”  I expect that you will send me many.  I am sure that you are everywhere putting pressure on both fathers and sons by all your complimentary expressions about me.  But it would not be kind on my part not to mention what happened about your good letter.  There were sitting with me not a few of our people of distinction, and among them the very excellent Alypius, Hierocles’ cousin.  The messengers gave in the letter.  I read it right through without a word; then with a smile, and evidently gratified, I exclaimed, “I am vanquished!”  “How?  When?  Where?” they asked.  “How is it that you are not distressed at being vanquished?”  “I am beaten,” I replied, “in beautiful letter writing.  Basil has won.  But I love him; and so I am delighted.”  On hearing this, they all wanted to hear of the victory from the letter itself.  It was read by Alypius, while all listened.  It was voted that what I had said was quite true.  Then the reader went out, with the letter still in his hand, to shew it, I suppose, to others.  I had some difficulty in getting it back.  Go on writing others like it; go on winning.  This is for me to win.  You are quite right in thinking that my services are not measured by money.  Enough for him who has nothing to give, that he is as wishful to receive.  If I perceive any one who is poor to be a lover of learning, he takes precedence of the rich.  True, I never found such instructors; but nothing shall stand in the way of my being, at least in that respect, an improvement on mine.  Let no one, then, hesitate to come hither because he is poor, if only he possesses the one qualification of knowing how to work.

ΛΙΒΑΝΙΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙῼ

[1] Οἶδα ὅτι τοῦτο πολλάκις γράψεις, τὸ »ἰδού σοι καὶ ἕτερος ἥκει Καππαδόκης«. Πολλοὺς γάρ, οἶμαι, πέμψεις ἀεὶ μὲν καὶ πανταχοῦ τοῖς κατ' ἐμοῦ χρώμενος ἐγκωμίοις τούτῳ τε αὐτῷ καὶ πατέρας κινῶν καὶ παῖδας. Ἀλλ' ὅγε ἐγένετο περὶ τὴν ἐπιστολήν σου τὴν καλὴν οὐ καλὸν σιωπῆσαι. Παρεκάθηντό μοι τῶν ἐν ἀρχῇ γεγενημένων ἄλλοι τε οὐκ ὀλίγοι καὶ ὁ πάντα ἄριστος Ἀλύπιος, Ἱεροκλέους ἀνεψιὸς ἐκείνου. Ὡς οὖν ἔδοσαν οἱ φέροντες τὴν ἐπιστολήν, σιγῇ διὰ πάσης ἐλθών, νενικήμεθα, ἔφην μειδιῶν ἅμα καὶ χαίρων. Καὶ τίνα σὺ νενίκησαι νίκην, ἤροντο, καὶ πῶς οὐκ ἀλγεῖς νενικημένος; Ἐν κάλλει μέν, ἔφην, ἐπιστολῶν, νενίκημαι, Βασίλειος δὲ κεκράτηκε. Φίλος δὲ ὁ ἀνὴρ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εὐφραίνομαι. Ταῦτα εἰπόντος ἐμοῦ παρ' αὐτῶν μαθεῖν ἠβουλήθησαν τῶν γραμμάτων τὴν νίκην. Καὶ ἀνεγίνωσκε μὲν ὁ Ἀλύπιος, ἤκουον δὲ οἱ παρόντες, ψῆφος δὲ ἠνέχθη μηδέν με ἐψεῦσθαι. Καὶ τὰ γράμματα ἔχων ὁ ἀναγνοὺς ἐξῄει δείξων, οἶμαι, καὶ ἄλλοις καὶ μόλις ἀπέδωκε. Γράφε τοίνυν παραπλήσια καὶ νίκα. Τουτὶ γάρ ἐστιν ἐμὲ νικᾶν. Καλῶς δὲ κἀκεῖνο εἰκάζεις ὡς οὐ χρήμασι πράττεται τὰ παρ' ἡμῶν, ἀλλ' ἀρκεῖ τῷ μὴ δυναμένῳ δοῦναι τὸ βουληθῆναι λαβεῖν. Κἂν γὰρ αἴσθωμαί τινα ἐν πενίᾳ Λόγων ἐρῶντα, πρὸ τῶν πλουτούντων οὗτος. Καίτοι οὐ τοιούτων πεπειράμεθα διδασκάλων, ἀλλ' οὐδὲν κωλύει ταύτῃ γε εἶναι βελτίονας. Μηδεὶς οὖν πένης ὀκνείτω δεῦρο βαδίζειν, εἰ ἓν ἐκεῖνο κέκτηται μόνον τὸ ἐπίστασθαι πονεῖν.