21 (375). To Leontius, the Sophist
SAINT BASIL
ingenious even with slight resources. And if any statement appears to you to be insufficiently strong, do not hesitate to criticize. For, in this point especially the friend differs from the flatterer, in that the latter talks to please, but the former does not refrain even from words that pain. 3
21. To Leontius, the Sophist 1 The good Julian seems to be deriving some personal advantage from the general state of affairs. For, at present, when all the world is full of men demanding payment and bringing charges, he also is clamoring for payment and vehemently making accusations. Only, in his case, it is not arrears in taxes but in letters. Yet, I fail to understand how it is possible that anything has been left unpaid to him. For whenever he gave a letter he received one in return. Unless you have a preference, too, for that well-known 'fourfold';2 for even the Pythagoreans esteemed the' tetractys'3 less than the present tax collectors do the 'fourfold.' Yet, the reasonable view would rather be that, since you are a sophist and so abound in words, you should yourself be liable to us for the payment
3 For the maxim, see Plutarch: 'How one should distinguish a Hatterer from a friend:
I Leontius himself must be the 'good Julian' whom St. Basil playfully chides for claiming that answers to his letters are due to him. Otherwise, this letter is unintelligible. It was written in 364.
2 The Benedictine editors explain this 'fourfold' as a penalty of four times the regular amount, which was demanded for unpaid taxes. Cf.
Ammianus Marcellinus, 26.6.
11 The term applied by the Pythagoreans to the sum of the first four numbers, one, two, three, and four-the numbers applied respectively to the point, the line, the surface, and the solid, and considered by them to be the root of all creation.