Resultados25 letters/passages
synesius_cyrene · c. 411 · score 0.02
To Anysius. Nothing could benefit Pentapolis more than honoring the Unnigardae [a barbarian military unit], who are excellent both as men and as soldiers, above all the other troops — not just the so-called native forces, but every auxiliary unit that has ever been stationed in our region. The proof of their quality is …
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. 411 · score 0.02
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. 412 · score 0.02
To the Bishops. "It is better to trust in God than to trust in man" [Psalm 97:8]. Even so, I hear that the followers of the godless heresy of Eunomius [an extreme Arian theologian who denied any similarity between Father and Son] are putting forward a certain Quintianus and boasting about their influence at court, with …
synesius_cyrene · c. 400 · score 0.02
To Troilus. You are both a philosopher and a compassionate man. So I can lament with you the misfortunes of my homeland. You will honor Cyrene because of her citizen the philosopher, and you will pity her because your nature is gentle. You have a double reason to lift her up from her ruin — and you have the power to do …
synesius_cyrene · c. 410 · score 0.02
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. 406 · score 0.01
To my Brother. You remember Chilas, I suppose — the one who ran a disorderly house. He was quite famous in his profession. Andromache, the actress — one of the prettiest women of our time — was part of his company. After all that, the man has turned devout, applied to our bishop, and been received into the Church. [The …
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. 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. 411 · score 0.01
To Theotimus. Consider Peter as well: the scourge of Pentapolis, a man who breaks its laws without method. God knows this, and so does Dioscurides. But Peter is far more shameless — he simply seizes whatever property he wants and makes it his own. Then when the case comes to court, he buys a favorable verdict by spendi …
synesius_cyrene · c. 405 · score 0.01
To my Brother. You must be joking when you say you want to stop us from manufacturing weapons — while the enemy holds our country, plunders everything, and slaughters entire populations every day, and we have no soldiers to be seen anywhere. Are we supposed to wait patiently to be killed? If a man may not forge a sword …
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. 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. 401 · score 0.01
To Pylaemenes. I had a large Egyptian rug — not the kind you put under a bedspread, but one fine enough to use as a bedspread itself. Asterius, the shorthand writer, saw it and asked me for it, back when I was forced to sleep in front of the Record Office. I promised to leave it for him as a gift when I departed, but n …
synesius_cyrene · c. 413 · score 0.01
To Proclus. For the past year, no letter has come from your sacred hand, and I count that among the many calamities that have fallen on me. I have suffered many griefs in many ways this past year, and now this winter has snatched from me the child who was the last joy remaining to me. No doubt it was my fate to be happ …
synesius_cyrene · c. 398 · score 0.01
To my Brother. A long letter to you would suggest that the messenger is a stranger to us. But my good friend Acacius is as well informed as I am, and he will tell you even more than he knows — because he is very fond of you and has a tongue that tends to outrun the facts. So I am keeping this letter short, less out of …
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. 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 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. 406 · score 0.01
To Anastasius [one of Synesius's closest friends, an important courtier in Constantinople and tutor to the children of Emperor Arcadius]. I am overjoyed — and for what reason, do you think? From the bottom of my heart I rejoice to hear that those golden children have by imperial decree become legally your own. This is …
synesius_cyrene · c. 401 · score 0.01
To Pylaemenes. Some letters dated last spring have just arrived from Thrace. I turned the whole bundle upside down looking for one that might bear the famous name of Pylaemenes. It would have been unworthy of me to read any other first — but there were none. Not one. You have forgotten me. Or perhaps the world has swal …
synesius_cyrene · c. 409 · score 0.01
To Pylaemenes. A letter arrives from you once a year, as though the seasons themselves deliver it. And this fruit is perhaps sweeter to me than anything the circling months and the farmers bring forth. But once a year is not enough. Write more often. If you knew how much your letters mean to a man stranded in Libya wit …