Letter Cxlviii
LETTER CXLVIII
no mean people, just as Odysseus was the war-chief of the Cephallenians.
Odysseus took with him great riches, but on his return was empty-handed, and Maximus has been reduced by his misfortune to such a plight that he is very likely to appear to his people at home in borrowed rags.
And all this he has suffered, perhaps because he has aroused some Laestrygones against himself, or has fallen in with a Scylla, woman in shape but dog in savagery and fierceness.
Since, then, he has barely been able to swim out of this present engulfing sea of trouble, he supplicates you through us, asking you to respect our common kind and out of compassion for his unmerited sufferings not to hide his affairs in silence, but bring them to the notice of those in authority, in order, if _ possible, that he may have some assistance to combat the malice that has been worked up against him, or, if this is not possible, that at least the intention of the man who has dealt outrageously with him may be made known to the public.
For it is satisfying comfort to a man who has suffered from injustice to have the wickedness of his persecutors brought to light.
LETTER CXLVIII
To Travan !
Ir brings great comfort to men in trouble to be able to lament their misfortunes, especially when they meet with those who by reason of the nobility of their character are able to sympathize with suffercommander-in-chief of the army under Valens ; but this is by no means certain.
COLLECTED LETTERS OF SAINT BASIL
συμπαθῆσαι τοῖς ἀλγεινοῖς. ὅθεν καὶ ὁ αἰδεσιμώτατος ἀδελφὸς Μάξιμος, ὁ τῆς πατρίδος ἡμῶν ἡγησάμενος, παθὼν οἷα οὐδέπω 1 τις ἀνθρώπων ἕτερος, καὶ πάντων μὲν γυμνωθεὶς τῶν προσόντων, ὅσα τε ἦν αὐτῷ πατρῷα καὶ ὅσα ἐκ προτέρων πόνων ὑπῆρχε 2 συνειλεγμένα, κακοπαθήσας δὲ τῷ σώματι μυρία ταῖς ἄνω καὶ κάτω πλάναις, καὶ οὐδὲ αὐτὴν τὴν ἐπιτιμίαν ἀνεπηρέαστον διασώσας, ἧς ἕνεκα πάντα πονεῖν τοῖς ἐλευθέροις σύνηθες, πολλὰ μὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὃ περὶ τῶν συμβάντων αὐτῷ ἀπωλοφύρατο, ἠξίωσε δὲ δ ἡμῶν ws ἐν κεφαλαίῳ φανερὰν γενέσθαι σοι "τὴν περιστᾶσαν αὐτῷ τῶν κακῶν Ιλιάδα. κἀγώ, ἐπειδὴ ἄλλως οὐδὲν ἀφελεῖν αὐτοῦ τῶν δεινῶν ἠδυνήθην, ἑτοίμως ταύτην ἔδωκα τὴν χάριν" τὸ ὀλίγα ἐκ πολλῶν ὧν ἤκουσα παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ διαγγεῖλαι τῇ κοσμιότητί σου, ἐπειδὴ αὐτὸς ἐρυθριᾷν μοι ἐδόκει τὰς ἑαυτοῦ συμφορὰς ἐναργῶς διηγήσασθαι.
Εν γὰρ καὶ οὐ πονηρὸν tov ἠδικηκότα συνίστησι τὰ γενόμενα," GAN οὖν γε τὸν πεπονθότα τῆς ἐλεεινοτάτης ὄντα μερίδος δείκνυσιν, ἐπειδὴ αὐτὸ τὸ περιπεσεῖν τοῖς θεηλάτοις κακοῖς ἀπόδειEiv πως ἔχειν δοκεῖ τοῦ παραδεδόσθαι τοῖς πάθεσιν. ἀλλ᾽ ἀρκεῖ αὐτῷ πρὸς παραμυθίαν τῶν συμβάντων τὸ εὐμενεῖ αὐτὸν προσβλέψαι τῷ ὄμματί σε καὶ τὴν πολυαρκῇ χάριν, ἧς πάντες ἀπολαύοντες δαπανᾷν οὐ "δύνανται, τὴν τῆς σῆς ἡμερότητος λέγω, καὶ ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἀφεθῆναι. ὅτι δὲ «καὶ ἐν δικαστηρίοις μεγάλη αὐτῷ ἀφορμὴ πρὸς τὴν νίκην ἡ παρὰ σοῦ ῥ μὰ, πάντες ἀκριβῶς 1 οὔπω Τὸ, editi antiqi.
LETTER CXLVIII
ing.
For this reason our most honourable brother - Maximus, the late governor of our country, after experiencing such misfortunes as no other man ever did, having been stripped of all his possessions, both those which he had inherited and those that had been amassed by his former labours, and having endured a thousand bodily sufferings because of his wanderings from place to place, and having been unable to keep unassailed by malice even his civil rights, in defence of which freemen are wont to endure everything—after all this he has bewailed to us at length what has happened to him, and has asked that through us there be made known to you in summary the Iliad of woes which envelops him.
And as I was unable to relieve him of his distress in any other way, I readily granted this favour—to report to your Decorum an account of a few of the many things I have heard from him, inasmuch as he seemed to me to be too modest to give you a plain account of his troubles himself.
For even if the facts of the case do not prove the author of the injustice to be a wicked man, yet they at least show the victim's lot to be the most pitiful of all, since the very fact of his having fallen into divinely inflicted distress seems somehow to be proof of his having been delivered over to his sufferings. But it suffices to console him for what has befallen if you but look upon him with a kindly eye and extend to him that abundant grace which all men draw upon but cannot exhaust—I mean the grace of your leniency.
And that the weight of your influence in the tribunal will be a great step towards victory we are
4 οὐ add. Capps.
5 γεγονότα editi antiqi.
COLLECTED LETTERS OF SAINT BASIL
πεπείσμεθα. δικαιότατος δὲ πάντων Kal αὐτὸς οὗτος, ὁ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἡμῶν, ὥς TL ὄφελος αὐτῷ ἐσομένην, ἐπιζητήσας: ὃν μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἴδοιμεν τῇ κατὰ δύναμιν αὐτοῦ φωνῇ τὴν σὴν εὐφημοῦντα σεμνότητα.
CXLIX Τραϊανῷ Καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπέβαλες ὀφθαλμῷ τὴν κακοπάθειαν τοῦ πρότερον μὲν εὐδοκίμου, νῦν δὲ ἐλεεινοτάτου πάντων Μαξίμου, τοῦ ἄρξαντος τῆς πατρίδος ἡμῶν, ὡς οὐκ ὄφελεν !" οἶμαι γὰρ ἂν πολλοῖς ἀπευκτὴν ἔσεσθαι τὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν ἀρχήν, εἰ πρὸς τοιοῦτον ὃ πέρας μέλλουσι καταστρέφειν αἱ προστασίαι. ὥστε τί δεῖ ἡμᾶς τὰ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον ἀπαγγέλλειν, ὧν τε εἴδομεν, ὧν τε ἠκούσαμεν, ἀνδρὶ διὰ πολλὴν τῆς διανοίας ὀξύτητα ἱκανῷ ἐξ ὀλίγων τῶν πραχθέντων στοχάσασθαι τὰ λειπόμενα ; πλὴν ἐκεῖνό γε εἰπών, ἴσως οὐ περιττός σοι φανήσομαι, ὅτι πολλῶν ὄντων καὶ δεινῶν τῶν εἰς αὐτὸν τολμηθέντων πρὸ τῆς σῆς παρουσίας, τοιαῦτα γέγονε τὰ μετὰ ταῦτα, ὡς φιλανθρωπίαν ποιῆσαι νομισθῆναι τὰ φθάσαντα. τοσαύτην εἶχεν ὑπερβολὴν ὕβρεως καὶ ξημίας καὶ τῆς εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ σῶμα κακοπαθείας, τὰ δὴ ὕστερον αὐτῷ παρὰ τοῦ κρατοῦντος ἐξευρεθέντα. καὶ νῦν 1 αὐτοῦ om. EH.
2 ὥφειλεν editi antiqi.
1 Written in 373.
Another appeal for Maximus.
The