Synesius, Letter 074

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.

This letter, written in 402, was sent to a close friend of Synesius, living in Constantinople. Pylaemenes also was the recipient of letters 61, 88, 152, 100, 101, 103, 102, 129, 131, 134, 71, 150, 151, 48, and 153. It deals with the Eulogy of Baldness; compare Letter 1.

Letter 74 is offered here in the translation by A. Fitzgerald.

Letter 74: The "Eulogy of Baldness"

[1] To Pylaemenes

I have just sent you the treatise, written in Attic style and of finished workmanship.^note[A Eulogy of Baldness.] If it obtains the approbation of Pylaemenes, the most critical of our audience, this very fact will be quite sufficient to recommend it to posterity.

[2] But if my book seems to you a frivolous production, remember that it is always permissible to treat light subjects lightly.