Letter CCCXLVII.

Libanius to Basil.

Every bishop is a thing out of which it is very hard to get anything.1543    πρᾶγμα δυσγρίπιστον.  γριπίζω=I catch fish, from γρῖφος, a creel.  The further you have advanced beyond other people in learning, the more you make me afraid that you will refuse what I ask.  I want some rafters.1544    στρωτήρ.  Any other sophist would have called them stakes, or poles, not because he wanted stakes or poles, but rather for shewing off his wordlets than out of any real need.  If you do not supply them, I shall have to winter in the open air.

ΛΙΒΑΝΙΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙῼ

[1] Πᾶς μὲν ἐπίσκοπος πρᾶγμα δυσγρίπιστον: σὺ δὲ ὅσῳ τοὺς ἄλλους παρελήλυθας λογιότητι, τοσούτῳ μοι καὶ φόβον παρέχεις μή πως ἔξαρνος στῇς πρὸς τὴν αἴτησιν, κἀπειδὴ στρωτήρων δέομαι, κάμακας δ' ἂν ἢ χάρακας ἄλλος εἶπε σοφιστὴς οὐ χρῄζων, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ῥηματίοις ἐγκαλλωπιζόμενος ἢ τῆς χρείας γινόμενος. Ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ μὴ σὺ παράσχοιο, ὕπαιθρος διαχειμάσω.