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 68, written in 411 and offered here in the translation by A. Fitzgerald, speaks for itself.

Letter 68: A Recommendation

To Theophilus

The man to whom I have given this letter is being dispatched to carry out a piece of business which piety does not allow me to specify; but that he has cultivated virtue from his youth upwards, this is just for me to say, and it is the truth itself. You will honor him therefore as a good man. In regard to the accusation he has made, let that fulfill its own destiny, for you surely would never meddle with a justifiable homicide.

Online 2007
Revision: 12 August 2007