Letter CCCLVII.

Libanius to Basil.

What has made Basil object to the letter, the proof of philosophy?  I have learned to make fun from you, but nevertheless your fun is venerable and, so to say, hoary with age.  But, by our very friendship, by our common pastimes, do away, I charge you, with the distress caused by your letter…in nothing differing.1551    Incomplete in original.

ΛΙΒΑΝΙΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙῼ

[1] Τί παθὼν Βασίλειος ἐδυσχέρανεν τὸ γράμμα, τῆς φιλοσοφίας τὸ γνώρισμα; Παίζειν παρ' ὑμῶν ἐδιδάχθημεν, ἀλλ' ὅμως τὰ παίγνια σεμνὰ καὶ οἱονεὶ πολιᾷ πρέποντα. Ἀλλὰ πρὸς τῆς φιλίας αὐτῆς καὶ τῶν κοινῶν διατριβῶν λῦσόν μοι τὴν ἀθυμίαν ἥν μοι ἔτεκεν ἡ ἐπιστολὴ ... οὐδὲν διαφέρουσα.