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 48, written in 408, is offered here in the translation by A. Fitzgerald.

Letter 48: On Pylaemenes' Return to Constantinople

To Pylaemenes

You are quite right to come back to the city where the Emperor dwells. For even if good fortune had attended you in the mountains of Isauria, nevertheless good fortune becomes unfortunate because of the place where one is. Moreover I have a personal reason to desire that you should prosper in the palace itself. As long as you are there, you can receive and send letters, the most precious to me of all the exports of Thrace.

Online 2007
Revision: 17 August 2007