83 (427). To an Assessor
LETTERS
Since, therefore, everything about us sound in faith is now truly hastening toward communion and union with those of the same faith, we have come confidently to request your
Patience' to write a circular letter to all of us, advising us what we must do. For, they wish you, in this way, to take the initiative in their conferences pertaining to communion.
Since, perhaps, they may appear to you subject to suspicion because of your recollection of the past, I wish, Father dearly beloved of God, you would do this: Send me the letters for the bishops, either through one of the faithful there, or through the brother Dorotheus,4 our fellow deacon. After I have received them, I shall not give them out until I have the answers from the bishops; if I should fail to do this, 'I will be guilty of sin against thee' all the days of my life.5 Assuredly, this declaration did not warrant more fear in him who was speaking of old to his father than it does in me who am now speaking to you, my spiritual father. But, if you absolutely reject this arrangement, at least free us from blame in this duty, since we have come to this embassy and mediation without deceit or artifice, only with a desire for peace and mutual harmony among us who agree in our beliefs about the Lord.
83. To an Assessorl My acquaintance and personal contact with your Nobility 3 Anexi kakias-used as a title only once by St. Basil.
4 The deacon employed so frequently by St. Basil as a messenger.
S Cf. Gen. 43.9. Judah is speaking to his father Jacob. St. Basil has added the final words.
The assessor, like the censors at Rome, evaluated property and levied taxes. These assessors, or censitores, were appointed by the emperor for each province or smaller unit of territory. The letter was written in the year 372.
SAINT BASIL
has been exceedingly brief, but my knowledge of you by repute, through which we are associated with many distinguished men, is neither slight nor unworthy of consideration. Now, whether you also have heard any chance mention of us, you yourself would know better than I. At all events, your reputation with us is as we have said. But, God has called you to an office which offers an occasion for kindness, one through which our country, completely beaten to the ground, can be restored. Therefore, I think that it is befitting for me to solicit your Excellency's attention, so that, hoping for a reward from God, you may think it worth while so to comport yourself, ameliorating the afflictions of ,the oppressed, as to merit an undying remembrance and become an heir of everlasting rest.
Now, since I have a certain piece of property around Chamanene, I beg you to guard it as your own. And do not wonder if I, having been taught friendship along with other virtues, and being mindful of him who said that a friend is another self,2 call my friends' possessions my own. Accordingly, this property which belongs to him I commend to your Honor as my own. Furthermore, I urge you, after viewing the hardships of this household, to offer some consideration for the past, and for the future to make desirable this dwelling, which they now shun and abandon because of the amount of taxes imposed upon it. I myself will be eager, when
I meet your Modesty, to discuss more fully all details.
2 Pythagoras is supposed to have been the first to give us these words.
They occur also in Aristotle, Magna Moralia 2.15 (heteros ego); and in Cicero, Laelius 21.80 (alter idem).
LETTERS
84. To an Official l What I am about to write is almost incredible, but for the sake of truth it shall be written. And this :t is-that, although
I had every desire to converse with your Honor as frequently as possible, when I found the occasion for this letter I did not rush eagerly to avail myself of the unexpected opportunity, but hesitated and shrank back. Now, the wonder in this is that when the chance for which I had prayed presented itself,
I did not welcome it. And the reason-that I am ashamed to write not purely out of friendship, but each time to seek remedy for some need. Still, this has occurred to me (and I hope that you, taking thought, will believe that we are engaging in this correspondence not more for the sake of business than out of friendship) that the manner of addressing officials should be somewhat different from that of addressing private individuals. We do not converse with a physician as we would with any chance comer, nor, assuredly, with an official as with a private individual, but we must endeavor to gain some benefit from the skill of the one and from the influence of the other. At all events, as the shadow under all circumstances follows those who walk in the sun, whether or not they themselves wish it, so also some advantage follows association with officials, namely, help for the afflicted.
Therefore, let the very act of greeting your Lordship fulfill the primary reason for our letter, and this, even if no pretext for writing were at hand, should in itself be considered a plausible justification. Accordingly, accept our salutation, most noble Sir, and may you be kept safe during all your life and pass from office to office, benefitting by your authority now one and again another. It is not only customary for 1 The official addressed here is probably Elias. Governor of Cappadocia.
The letter was written in 372. Cf., also, Letters 94 and 96.
SAINT BASIL
me to speak thus, but it is also your due from those who have had ever so little experience of your excellent administration.
Now, after this prayer, receive also our petition. It is for a poor old man whom an imperial decree freed from public duties, but to whom, even before the emperor, old age itself gave the necessary exemption. And you yourself also confirmed this favor from the higher authority through respect, I am sure, for nature, and also, as it seems to me, through forethought for the public good, precluding possible danger to the public interests from a man suffering from senility. How is it, then, 0 admirable Sir, that you have unmindfully brought him back in anoth~r manner into the midst of affairs? For, since you have commanded his grandson, not yet four years old, to take his place in the Senate, what else is this if not dragging the old man out into public service anew in the person of his grandson? We ask you now to have compassion on both, and to release them in consideration of the pitiable circumstances attending each. For, the one neither saw nor knew his parents, because he was bereaved of both from the very cradle and reared by strangers, and the other has lived so long a life that he has escaped no fonn of misfortune. He beheld the untimely death of his son; he saw his house deprived of successors; and now, unless you bethink yourself of something worthy of your gentleness, he will see this consolation of his childlessness become for him an occasion of numberless evils. Surely, the boy will not be enrolled in the Senate, or levy taxes, or furnish provision money for the soldiers, but again the gray hairs of the wretched old man necessarily will be put to shame. Therefore, grant the favor, both cons~stent with the laws and in accordance with nature, commanding the one to be withdrawn until he has reached his majority and the other to be allowed to await his death at ease. Let others allege the excuse of continuous