Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 9.3.4-5

Gellius’ introduction and his translation into Latin, as promised yesterday.

ea epistula quoniam curae diligentiaeque in liberorum disciplinas hortamentum est exscribenda visa est ad commonendos parentum animos. exponenda est igitur ad hanc ferme sententiam:

‘Philippus Aristoteli salutem dicit.

filium mihi genitum scito. quod equidem dis habeo gratiam, non proinde quia natus est quam pro eo, quod nasci contigit temporibus vitae tuae. spero enim fore ut eductus eruditusque a te, dignus existat et nobis et rerum nostrarum susceptione.’

As this letter is an encouragement to care and diligence in the teaching of children, I thought I should copy it out in full, to impress it on the minds of parents. So it should be translated in something like the following way:

‘Philip sends greeting to Aristotle.

Know that a son has been born to me. I am indeed thankful to the gods for this, not so much because he has been born as because he has happened to be born during the period of your life. For I hope that it will come about that, when he has been brought up and educated by you, he will be worthy both of us and of taking on our kingdom.’

Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 9.3.6

Gellius quotes a letter from Philip concerning the birth of his son Alexander. Gellius provides a translation into Latin, which I’ll post tomorrow.

Φίλιππος Ἀριστοτέλει χαίρειν.

ἴσθι μοι γεγονότα υἱον. πολλὴν οὖν τοῖς θεοῖς ἔχω χάριν, οὐχ οὕτως ἐπὶ τῇ γενέσει τοῦ παιδός, ὡς ἐπὶ τῷ κατὰ τὴν σὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτὸν γεγονέναι· ἐλπίζω γάρ αὐτὸν ὑπὸ σοῦ τραφέντα καὶ παιδευθέντα ἄξιον ἔσεσθαι καὶ ἡμῶν καὶ τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων διαδοχῆς.

Philip to Aristotle, greetings.

Know that a son has been born to me. Therefore I give great thanks to the gods, not so much for the birth of a son as for his having been born during your lifetime. For I hope that, being brought up and educated by you he will be worthy of us and of succeeding to our kingdom.