3 (173). To Candidianus
SAINT BASIL
3. To Candidianus1 When your letter came into my hands, it aroused a feeling worthy of your hearing. I was in awe of it, thinking it was bringing some official announcement; while I was breaking the seal, I dreaded to look at it as any Spartan prisoner ever dreaded to see the Laconian Dispatch. ~ But, upon opening and examining it in every detail, I was moved to laughter, partly indeed from the pleasure of hearing no bad news, and partly because of the comparison I made of your actions with those of Demosthenes. He, when he defrayed the cost of bringing out a chorus with some few dancers and flute players, demanded that no longer should he be called Demosthenes, but chorus leader. 3 You, on the contrary, are the same whether acting as leader or not, though truly you are defraying the expenses of myriads more of soldiers than is the number of individuals whose expenditures he provided. Moreover, you do not write to us with a show of rank, but in your usual style; and you give up not at all your love for eloquence.
But, as Plato· says, 'in the storm and stress' of affairs you, 'withdrawing,' as it were, 'under some strong wall,' remain untroubled amid the tumult; nay more, you do not, according to your power, even allow others to be disturbed. And indeed, such conduct on your part seems great and admirable even to casual observers, though it is not astonishing to one who judges it in comparison with the whole policy of your life. But, hear in turn our troubles, which, although they are
1 Candidianus, governor of Cappadocia, was a close friend of St. Balli!.
This letter, a plea for protection, rna\" also be dated 858.
2 For messages of state the Spartans used a staff or baton around which was rolled spiraJIy a strip of leather with a message written length. wise. When the strip was unrolled, the message was unintelligible. The recipient was supposed to have a staff of similar thkkness on which he rolled the strip so as to read the message.