Letter CCCXL.

Libanius to Basil.

Had you been for a long time considering how best you could reply to my letter about yours, you could not in my judgment have acquitted yourself better than by writing as you have written now.  You call me a sophist, and you allege that it is a sophist’s business to make small things great and great things small.  And you maintain that the object of my letter was to prove yours a good one, when it was not a good one, and that it was no better than the one which you have sent last, and, in a word that you have no power of expression, the books which you have now in hand producing no such effect, and the eloquence which you once possessed having all disappeared.  Now, in the endeavour to prove this, you have made this epistle too, which you are reviling, so admirable, that my visitors could not refrain from leaping with admiration as it was being read.  I was astonished that after your trying to run down the former one by this, by saying that the former one was like it, you have really complimented the former by it.  To carry out your object, you ought to have made this one worse, that you might slander the former.  But it is not like you, I think, to do despite to the truth.  It would have been done despite to, if you had purposely written badly, and not put out the powers you have.  It would be characteristic of you not to find fault with what is worthy of praise, lest in your attempt to make great things insignificant, your proceedings reduce you to the rank of the sophists.  Keep to the books which you say are inferior in style, though better in sense.  No one hinders you.  But of the principles which are ever mine, and once were yours, the roots both remain and will remain, as long as you exist.  Though you water them ever so little, no length of time will ever completely destroy them.

ΛΙΒΑΝΙΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙῼ

[1] Εἰ πάνυ πολὺν χρόνον ἐσκόπεις πῶς ἂν ἄριστα συνείποις τοῖς περὶ τῶν σῶν γραμμάτων ἡμετέροις γράμμασιν, οὐκ ἂν ἄμεινον τοῦτό μοι ποιῆσαι ἐδόκεις ἢ τοιαῦτα γράφων ὁποῖα νῦν ἔγραψας. Καλεῖς μὲν γάρ με σοφιστήν, τοῦ δὲ τοιούτου εἶναι φῂς τὸ δύνασθαι τὰ μικρὰ μεγάλα ποιεῖν, τὰ δ' αὖ μεγάλα μικρά. Καὶ δὴ τὴν ἐμὴν ἐπιστολὴν βεβουλῆσθαι φῂς δεῖξαι τὴν σὴν καλὴν οὐκ οὖσαν καλήν, εἶναί τε οὐδὲν ἧς νῦν ἔπεμψας βελτίω, ὅλως τε οὐδεμίαν εἶναι παρὰ σοὶ λόγων δύναμιν, τῶν μὲν νῦν ὄντων ἐν χερσὶ βιβλίων τοῦτο οὐ ποιούντων, ὧν δὲ εἶχες πρότερον λόγων ἐξερρυηκότων. Καὶ ταῦτα πείθειν ἐπιχειρῶν οὕτω καλὴν καὶ ταύτην ἣν λέγεις κακῶς εἰργάσω τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ὥσθ' οἱ παρόντες οὐκ εἶχον μὴ πηδᾶν ἀναγινωσκομένης. Ἐθαύμασα οὖν ὅτι ταύτῃ τὴν προτέραν καθελεῖν ἐπιχειρήσας τῷ φάναι ἐοικέναι ταύτῃ τὴν προτέραν ἐκόσμησας. Ἐχρῆν δὲ ἄρα τὸν τοῦτο βουλόμενον ἀφορμὴν ποιῆσαι ταύτην ἐπὶ διαβολῇ τῆς πρόσθεν. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἦν, οἶμαι, σὸν ἀδικῆσαι τὴν ἀλήθειαν. Ἠδίκητο δ' ἂν γράφοντος ἐξεπίτηδες φαυλότερα καὶ οὐ χρωμένου τοῖς οὖσι. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ τοίνυν ἂν εἴη τὸ μήτε ψέγειν ἃ δίκαιον ἐπαινεῖν, ἵνα μή σε τὸ πρᾶγμα φέρον εἰς σοφιστὰς ἐμβάλῃ πειρώμενον ταπεινὰ τὰ μεγάλα ποιεῖν. Βιβλίων μὲν οὖν ὧν φῂς εἶναι χείρω μὲν τὴν λέξιν, ἀμείνω δὲ τὴν διάνοιαν, ἔχου καὶ οὐδεὶς κωλύοι. Τῶν δὲ ἡμετέρων μὲν ἀεί, σῶν δὲ πρότερον, αἱ ῥίζαι μένουσί τε καὶ μενοῦσιν ἕως ἂν ᾖς καὶ οὐδεὶς μήποτε αὐτὰς ἐκτέμοι χρόνος, οὐδ' ἂν ἥκιστα ἄρδοις.