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 64 was written in 407 and it is offered on this page in the translation by A. Fitzgerald.

Letter 64: A Warning

To Joannes

Do not ask great things, for you run two dangers; if successful you wound, and if unsuccessful you are wounded.

Online 2007
Revision: 17 August 2007