Resultados25 letters/passages
synesius_cyrene · c. 409 · score 0.02
To Simplicius. When you asked Cerialis to bring me your congratulations, you did him an unintended favor — you kept me ignorant for five days of what a contemptible man he is. Our cities had some hope for anyone Simplicius deemed worth knowing. But he quickly disgraced not you — may your reputation never depend on any …
synesius_cyrene · c. 410 · score 0.02
To my Brother. We may concede that there are worse things than women shrieking, beating their breasts, and tearing their hair when they see the enemy or hear he is coming. Still, Plato considers it scandalous that they will not stand up like hens defending their chicks — giving the human race a reputation as the most c …
synesius_cyrene · c. 405 · score 0.02
To Olympius. Just the other day — during the recent consulship of Aristaenetus [404 AD] and, I forget the name of his colleague — I received a letter bearing your seal and signed with your sacred name. But I suspect it was very old: it was worm-eaten, and the words were mostly illegible. Please do not content yourself …
synesius_cyrene · c. 408 · score 0.02
To the Philosopher [Hypatia]. "Even if there is utter forgetfulness of the dead in Hades, even there shall I remember you" [Homer, Iliad 22.389], my dear Hypatia. I am surrounded by the sufferings of my city, and I am sickened by it. Every day I see enemy forces, and men slaughtered like sacrificial animals. I breathe …
synesius_cyrene · c. 409 · score 0.02
To my Brother. "Beware the asp and the toad, the snake and the Laodiceans. Beware the mad dog too — and again the Laodiceans." After the most cultured and amiable Pentadius, it is a Laodicean — Euthalius — who has obtained the governorship of Egypt. You know the youth: if I am not mistaken, he entered service around th …
synesius_cyrene · c. 401 · score 0.02
To my Brother. How often one sees the same men who are brave in peacetime turn cowardly in battle! They prove themselves worthless everywhere. I think we should all be grateful to war, for it is an exact touchstone of the blood in a man's heart. It strips away many a braggart and returns them to us humbler. We will no …
synesius_cyrene · c. 411 · score 0.01
To Anastasius. I have not been able to do anything for the presbyter Evagrius — nor for anyone else who came to me for help during the rule of Andronicus. That man turned our province into a tyranny and made the bishop's office powerless. [This long, detailed letter describes the full extent of Andronicus's crimes and …
synesius_cyrene · c. 410 · score 0.01
To Auxentius [a childhood friend with whom Synesius was ending a quarrel]. Homer banishes the evils of contention "to the mountains or the waves of the loud-sounding sea" [Iliad 6.347]. But philosophy does better — she dissolves them entirely. I was wrong to let this quarrel between us last as long as it has. Let us pu …
synesius_cyrene · c. 394 · score 0.01
The rest were equally qualified. [Synesius goes on to describe a terrifying storm at sea, with the Jewish captain refusing to steer on the Sabbath even as the ship was being swamped, passengers praying and writing hasty wills, soldiers drawing their swords to die fighting the waves rather than drowning passively, and t …
synesius_cyrene · c. 396 · score 0.01
To my Brother. A great number of people — both private citizens and priests — keep manufacturing dreams, which they call "revelations," insisting that I will come to harm unless I immediately visit sacred Athens. Whenever you happen to meet a ship's captain sailing for the Piraeus, write to me care of that port, since …
synesius_cyrene · c. 399 · score 0.01
Against Andronicus [Letter 57]. [This is not a letter but a formal episcopal decree — the longest document in Synesius's correspondence. It is a devastating indictment of Andronicus, a corrupt governor of Pentapolis.] The malevolent forces in the universe fulfill the designs of Providence insofar as they punish the des …
synesius_cyrene · c. 410 · score 0.01
To my Brother. I hope I will benefit as much from my stay in Athens as you wish. It seems to me that I have already grown more than a palm's width in wisdom, and I can give you immediate proof of my progress. Well, it turns out that Athens no longer has anything sublime to offer a student of philosophy. The city's only …
synesius_cyrene · c. 412 · score 0.01
To Anastasius [one of Synesius's dearest friends, tutor to Emperor Arcadius's children]. It was not generous of Amasis to steel his heart against tears over the misfortunes of Polycrates — misfortunes he had foreseen. He sent a herald to break off their friendship, rather than share in the suffering. I find this hard t …
synesius_cyrene · c. 413 · score 0.01
To the Philosopher [Hypatia]. I have produced two books this year. One was inspired by God himself; the other was provoked by the slander of men. Some of those who wear the white or dark robes [perhaps monks or philosophers of different schools] have attacked my work, and I felt compelled to respond. I am sending both …
synesius_cyrene · c. 413 · score 0.01
To the Philosopher [Hypatia]. Even if Fortune cannot take everything from me, she clearly wants to take everything she can. She has "bereft me of many excellent sons" [Homer, Iliad 22.44]. But she can never take from me the choice of what is best — and the best is you, and the friendship I share with you. I am sending …
synesius_cyrene · c. 394 · score 0.01
To my Brother. We set out from Bendideum [near Alexandria] at dawn but had barely passed the Pharian Shoals by noon — our ship ran aground two or three times still inside the harbor. A bad omen from the very start, and it would have been wiser to abandon a vessel that was already unlucky. But we were too ashamed to hav …
synesius_cyrene · c. 403 · score 0.01
To my Brother. I am going to pay dearly for the bluntness of my character. You should know that my habit of speaking the truth without decoration has followed me all the way to the wilds of Libya.
synesius_cyrene · c. 410 · score 0.01
To Athanasius. Odysseus tried to persuade Polyphemus to let him out of the cave. "I am a wizard," he said. "I can help you win the heart of the sea-nymph you have been courting without success. I know enchantments and love spells that not even Galatea can resist. Just move this door — or rather this boulder, which look …
synesius_cyrene · c. 402 · score 0.01
To Anastasius [one of Synesius's closest friends and an important courtier in Constantinople, tutor to the children of Emperor Arcadius]. Some god or argument or spirit has persuaded Sosenas that certain places attract or repel divine blessings. Since things have not gone well for him in our part of the world, he has c …
synesius_cyrene · c. 395 · score 0.01
To the Philosopher [Hypatia]. I am dictating this letter from my bed. May you receive it in good health — mother, sister, teacher, and benefactress, and everything else that is honored in name and deed. Bodily weakness has followed in the wake of my mental suffering. The memory of my dead children is consuming what rem …
synesius_cyrene · c. 408 · score 0.01
To Pylaemenes. You are quite right to return to the capital. Even if good fortune had attended you in the mountains of Isauria, good fortune becomes unfortunate when it comes in the wrong place. Besides, I have a personal reason to want you prospering at court: as long as I have a friend near the throne, I have hope th …
synesius_cyrene · c. 412 · score 0.01
To Joannes [a mutual friend who, after illness left him unfit for military service, entered a monastery]. I think you are a happier man than anyone could imagine. You have escaped the world's turmoil and found a harbor of peace. The monastic life suits you — not because you are weak, but because you are wise enough to …
synesius_cyrene · c. 412 · score 0.01
To Chryso- [otherwise unknown]. For everyone else, spring is delightful because it covers the earth with flowers and turns the whole countryside into a meadow. For me, its great charm is that it permits me to write to my friends by sea. Winter shuts the ports and cuts us off. Spring opens them again. So here is my lett …
synesius_cyrene · c. 400 · score 0.01
To my Brother. I am sending you both volumes of Dionysius [probably Dionysius of Halicarnassus]. Keep one and return the other.
synesius_cyrene · c. 410 · score 0.01
To Olympius. I call as witness the divinity honored by both philosophy and friendship: I would have preferred many deaths to the bishopric. But God has imposed on me not what I desired but what He willed. I pray that He who gave me life will also protect it, so that this office may seem not a descent from philosophy bu …