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having trampled, as he thought, on ecclesiastical rules; he laid bare his own purpose, having despised the bond of excommunication. He accepted an accusation not even suitable for those who live by their hands; and because of the animosity he had toward the renowned Philip, he proceeded against the miserable taxpayers. But I think it superfluous to list his purpose and the original choice of his life, and the magnitude of his transgressions. But this alone I beseech your highness, not to believe his false accusations; but to ratify the survey, and to spare the miserable taxpayers, and to spare the thrice-miserable curials, who are required to pay what they are unable to collect. For who is ignorant of the heaviness of the assessment of the yokes among us, because of which most of the landowners have fled, and the farmers have run away, and many of the properties have become desolate? It is not at all inappropriate when discussing land to also use geometrical proofs; for our country is forty milestones in length, and as much in width. It has many and great mountains, some completely bare, others shaded with fruitless plants. This measure of the country has fifty thousand private yokes, and in addition to these, another ten thousand fiscal ones. Let your wisdom therefore consider the excess of this injustice. For if no part of the country were unplowed, but all of it were very easy for the farmers to cultivate, they would have collapsed under the taxes, unable to bear the stringency of the assessment. And the clearest proof: For when there were fifteen thousand yokes paying gold tax under Isidore of magnificent memory, the collectors from the comitian order, unable to bear the loss, often lamented, and petitioned your high throne through reports, to relieve them of two thousand five hundred unproductive yokes; and those who were entrusted with these reins before your highness ordered that the unproductive land-tax unit be remitted for the miserable curials, and that an equal number of others be given in exchange to the Comitiani; and not even so are they able to fulfill the entire canon. But I ask for pardon for using too many words, and I beseech your magnificence to reject the false accusations made against the miserable taxpayers, to stop the calamities for the wretched country, and to raise it up as it is stooping, and to leave an ever-memorable glory for the generations to come. These things the saints among us also ask, along with me, and especially the most pious and most holy man of God, the lord Jacob; who, esteeming tranquility very highly, does not deign to write, but prays that the city may enjoy this philanthropy, which he both brightens by living near it and fences round with his prayers. 43 TO PULCHERIA AUGUSTA. Since you adorn the empire with piety and make the purple brilliant with faith, we are bold in writing, and we do not see our own lowliness; for you bestow the fitting honor to the priesthood. Considering these things, I beseech your power, to deem our miserable country worthy of mercy, and to command that the survey, which has often been made, be confirmed, and that the false accusations made against it by certain people not be accepted; nor that he be considered trustworthy who bears the name of bishop, but practices things foreign and belonging to servile buffoons. For this man, having become liable to accusations, and having been subjected to the bonds of excommunication, by the most God-beloved and most holy archbishop of the great city of the Antiochenes, the lord Domnus, with the episcopal council about to be convened, so as to examine the charges made against him

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ἐκκλη σιαστικούς, ὡς ἐνόμισε, πατήσας θεσμούς· ἐγύμνωσε δὲ τὸν οἰκεῖον σκοπόν, τοῦ τῆς ἀκοινωνησίας καταφρονήσας δεσμοῦ. Ἀνεδέξατο δὲ κατηγορίαν οὐδὲ τοῖς ἀποχειροβιώτοις ἁρμότ τουσαν· καὶ διὰ τὴν δυσμένειαν ἣν πρὸς τὸν περίβλεπτον ἔσχηκε Φίλιππον, κατὰ τῶν ἀθλίων ἐχώρησε συντελῶν. Ἐγὼ δὲ τὸν μὲν ἐκείνου σκοπὸν καὶ τὴν ἐξ ἀρχῆς τοῦ βίου προαίρεσιν, καὶ τῶν παρανενομημένων τὸ μέγεθος περιττὸν ἡγοῦμαι καταλέγειν. Τοῦτο δὲ μόνον τὴν ὑμετέραν μεγαλο φυΐαν ἀντιβολῶ, μὴ πιστεῦσαι ταῖς ἐκείνου ψευδηγορίαις· ἀλλὰ κυρῶσαι τὴν ἐποψίαν, καὶ φείσασθαι μὲν τῶν ἀθλίων συντελῶν, φείσασθαι δὲ τῶν τρισαθλίων πολιτευομένων, ἀπαι τουμένων ἅπερ εἰσπράττειν οὐ δύνανται. Τίς γὰρ ἀγνοεῖ τῆς ἀπογραφῆς τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν ζυγῶν τὴν βαρύτητα, δι' ἣν πεφεύγασι μὲν οἱ πλεῖστοι τῶν κεκτημένων, ἀπέδρασαν δὲ οἱ γηπόνοι, ἔρημα δὲ πολλὰ τῶν κτημάτων γεγένηται; Οὐδὲν δὲ ἀπεικὸς περὶ γῆς διαλεγόμενον καὶ γεωμετρικαῖς ἀποδείξεσι χρήσασθαι· τῆς γὰρ ἡμετέρας χώρας τεσσαράκοντα μὲν σημείων τὸ μῆκός ἐστι, τοσοῦτον δὲ τὸ εὖρος, Ἔχει δὲ ὄρη πολλά τε καὶ μεγάλα, τὰ μὲν ψιλὰ παντελῶς, τὰ δὲ ἀκάρποις φυτοῖς σκιαζόμενα. Τοῦτο τῆς χώρας τὸ μέτρον πέντε μὲν μυριάδας ἔχει ζυγῶν ἐλευθερικῶν, μύρια δὲ πρὸς τούτοις ἕτερα ταμιακά. Σκοπησάτω τοίνυν ἡ ὑμετέρα σοφία τὴν τῆς ἀδικίας ὑπερβολήν. Εἰ γὰρ μηδὲν ἦν τῆς χώρας ἀνή ροτον, ἀλλὰ πᾶσα ἦν ῥᾴστη τοῖς γηπόνοις εἰς γεωργίαν, ὤκλασαν ἂν πρὸς τὰς εἰσφοράς, οὐ φέροντες τῆς ἀπογραφῆς τὴν στενότητα. Τεκμήριον δὲ σαφέστατον. Μυρίων γὰρ καὶ πεντακισχιλίων ζυγῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ μεγαλοπρεποῦς τῆς μνήμης Ἰσιδώρου χρυσοτελῶν γενομένων, οὐκ ἐνεγκόντες τὴν ζημίαν οἱ ἐκ τῆς κομητιανῆς τάξεως πράκτορες, ἀπωδύραντο μὲν πολλάκις, ἱκέτευσαν δὲ δι' ἀναφορῶν τὸν ὑψηλὸν ὑμῶν θρόνον, δισχιλίων αὐτοὺς καὶ πεντακοσίων ἀπόρων ἀπαλλάξαι ζυγῶν· καὶ προσέταξαν οἱ πρὸ τῆς ὑμετέρας μεγαλοφυΐας ταύτας πιστευθέντες τὰς ἡνίας, ἀπολυθῆναι μὲν τοῖς ἀθλίοις πολι τευομένοις τὴν ἄπορον ἰουγατίωνα, ἀντιδοθῆναι δὲ τοῖς Κο μητιανοῖς ἰσάριθμα ἕτερα· καὶ οὐδὲ οὕτως ἰσχύουσι πάντα τὸν κανόνα πληροῦν. Ἐγὼ δὲ συγγνώμην αἰτῶ πλείοσι χρησάμενος λόγοις, καὶ τὴν ὑμετέραν ἱκετεύω μεγαλοπρέπειαν ἀπώσασθαι μὲν τὰς κατὰ τῶν ἀθλίων συντελῶν γιγνομένας ψευδηγορίας, στῆσαι δὲ τῇ ταλαιπώρῳ χώρᾳ τὰς συμφοράς, καὶ ἐγεῖραι αὐτὴν κλινομένην, καὶ κλέος ἀείμνηστον ταῖς μετὰ ταῦτα καταλιπεῖν γενεαῖς. Ταῦτα δὲ σὺν ἐμοὶ παρακαλοῦσι καὶ οἱ παρ' ἡμῖν ἅγιοι, καὶ διαφερόντως ὁ ὁσιώτατος καὶ ἁγιώτατος ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ κύριος Ἰάκωβος· ὃς τὴν ἡσυχίαν περὶ πλείστου ποιούμενος, ἐπιστέλλειν μὲν οὐκ ἀνέχεται, εὔχεται δὲ ταύτης ἀπολαῦσαι τῆς φιλανθρωπίας τὴν πόλιν, ἣν καὶ γειτονεύων λαμπρύνει καὶ ταῖς εὐχαῖς περιφράττει. 43 ΠΟΥΛΧΕΡΙΑ ΑΥΓΟΥΣΤΗ. Ἐπειδὴ τὴν βασιλείαν εὐσεβείᾳ κοσμεῖτε καὶ τὴν ἁλουργίδα τῇ πίστει λαμπρύνετε, θαρροῦμεν τὰ γράμματα, καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν οὐχ ὁρῶμεν εὐτέλειαν· τῇ γὰρ ἱερωσύνῃ τὸ πρέπον ἀπονέμετε γέρας. Ταῦτα λογιζόμενος, ἱκετεύω τὸ ὑμέτερον κράτος, φειδοῦς τὴν ἀθλίαν ἡμῶν ἀξιῶσαι χώραν, καὶ τὴν ἐποψίαν τὴν πολλάκις γεγενημένην κελεῦσαι βεβαιωθῆναι, καὶ μὴ δεχθῆναι τὰς παρά τινων κατ' αὐτῆς γενομένας ψευδηγο ρίας· μηδὲ ἀξιόχρεων νομισθῆναι τὸν ἐπισκόπου μὲν ὄνομα περιφέροντα, ἀλλότρια δὲ καὶ ἀνδραπόδων εὐτρόπων ἐπιτη δεύοντα. Οὗτος γὰρ κατηγορίαις ὑπεύθυνος γεγονώς, καὶ τοῖς τῆς ἀκοινωνησίας ὑποβληθεὶς δεσμοῖς, ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοφι λεστάτου καὶ ἁγιωτάτου ἀρχιεπισκόπου τῆς Ἀντιοχέων μεγα λοπόλεως, τοῦ κυρίου ∆όμνου, τοῦ ἀρχιερατικοῦ συνεδρίου συγκροτεῖσθαι μέλλοντος, ὥστε τὰς κατ' αὐτοῦ γεγενημένας ἐξετάσαι