Synesius of Cyrene

Mosaic depicting an angel. Museum of Ptolemais

Synesius of Cyrene (c.370-c.413) was a Neo-Platonic philosopher who became bishop of Ptolemais in the Cyrenaica. He left behind a small corpus of texts that offer much information about daily life in Late Antiquity, and about the christianization of the Roman world.

Letter 35, written in 402, is offered here in the translation by A. Fitzgerald.

Letter 35: Legacy Hunting

To his Brother

Athanasius has found the shortest road to fortune. He has recognized the necessity of going right to the beds of the dying, and attaining all his own ends with them either by persuasion or by force. The moment a notary is called in to draw up a will, he romps in with him.

Online 2007
Revision: 14 August 2007