Resultados17 letters/passages
synesius_cyrene · c. 411 · score 0.02
To Theophilus. I act on your instructions because it is my desire — and a divine necessity compels me — to treat as law whatever your sacred throne ordains. For that reason, I forced my sick body into action, traveled through hostile territory as though it were safe, and arrived at Palaebisca and Hydrax — two villages …
synesius_cyrene · c. 411 · score 0.02
To Theophilus. Since I am about to put a question to you, let me first explain the background. A man from Cyrene named Alexander, of senatorial rank, entered monastic life while still quite young. As his vocation matured, he received holy orders — first as deacon, then as priest. Then certain business called him to cou …
synesius_cyrene · c. 401 · score 0.02
… ian by birth, dark-skinned, hook-nosed, and of medium height. He lives near the imperial palace — not the official state palace, but the one behind it.
synesius_cyrene · c. 402 · score 0.02
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. 412 · score 0.02
To Theophilus. You care for Pentapolis — you truly do. You will therefore read the official correspondence. But beyond what those letters contain, the messenger will tell you that the disasters that have already occurred are greater and more numerous than those the letters threaten. He was sent to request military rein …
synesius_cyrene · c. 411 · score 0.02
To Troilus. In the old days, when I wrote to friends, our exchanges were carefree. I lived among my books, almost completely disconnected from civic and political life. But now God has assigned me a fixed place and a specific rank in the city, and I live among a limited number of people. I want to be useful to my colle …
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. 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. 405 · score 0.01
… way, nothing reaches me fresh — everything arrives stale. Follow my example: no imperial courier leaves our city without my adding to his bag some letter addressed to you. Whether all or only some of them actually deliver my letters to you — may those who do be blessed. If they do not, you will be the wiser for not tru …
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. 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. 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. 396 · score 0.01
To my Brother. The man I foolishly bought as a gymnastics instructor from the heirs of Theodorus was a slave in both name and nature. He was worthless from the start — badly born, badly raised, and trained in vices that matched his character perfectly. From childhood he wallowed in cockfighting, gambling, and tavern dr …
synesius_cyrene · c. 395 · score 0.01
To my Brother. At the very moment you weighed anchor, I pulled up my mules on the western shore. I jumped out of my carriage, but you had already set sail, and the wind was filling your stern. Still, I followed you with my eyes as long as I could. I said many things to the winds on behalf of a soul so beloved to me, an …
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 Pylaemenes. In Plato, we see Socrates, already advanced in years, still pursuing his intellectual passions. "Do not be surprised," he says, "if, having given myself up to love with difficulty, I also give it up with difficulty." I have experienced the same thing in my relations with you and must ask the same forgive …
synesius_cyrene · c. 394 · score 0.01
To my Brother. Starting from Physcus [in Caria] at dawn, we reached the Gulf of Erythra late in the evening. We stopped only long enough to drink water and fill our supplies — springs of pure, sweet water gush right out of the shore. Our Carpathian sailors [from the island of Carpathos] were in a hurry, so we put back …