Letter XXI.176    Of about the same date as the preceding.

To Leontius the Sophist.

The excellent Julianus177    cf.Ep. ccxciii. seems to get some good for his private affairs out of the general condition of things.  Everything nowadays is full of taxes demanded and called in, and he too is vehemently dunned and indicted.  Only it is a question not of arrears of rates and taxes, but of letters.  But how he comes to be a defaulter I do not know.  He has always paid a letter, and received a letter—as he has this.  But possibly you have a preference for the famous “four-times-as-much.”178    The Ben. note quotes Ammianus Marcellinus xxvi. 6, where it is said of Petronius, father-in-law of Valens:  “ad nudandos sine discretione cunctos immaniter flagrans nocentes pariter et insontes post exquisita tormenta quadrupli nexibus vinciebat, debita jam inde a temporibus principio Aureliani perscrutans, et impendio mærens si quemquam absolvisset indemnem;” and adds:  “Est ergo quadruplum hoc loco non quadrimenstrua pensio, non superexactio, sed debitorum, quæ soluta non fuerant, crudelis inquisitio et quadrupli pœna his qui non solverant imposita.”  For even the Pythagoreans were not so fond of their Tetractys,179    τετρακτύς was the Pythagorean name for the sum of the first four numbers (1+2+3+4=10), held by them to be the root of all creation.  cf. the Pythagorean oath:   Ναὶ μὰ τὸν ἁμετέρᾳ ψύχᾳ παραδόντα τετρακτύν,   Παγὰν ἀενάου φύσεως ῥιζώματ᾽ ἔχουσαν   cf. my note on Theodoret, Ep. cxxx. for the use of τετρακτύς for the Four Gospels. as these modern tax-collectors of their “four-times-as-much.”  Yet perhaps the fairer thing would have been just the opposite, that a Sophist like you, so very well furnished with words, should be bound in pledge to me for “four-times-as-much.”  But do not suppose for a moment that I am writing all this out of ill-humour.  I am only too pleased to get even a scolding from you.  The good and beautiful do everything, it is said, with the addition of goodness and beauty.180    Τοῖς καλοῖς πάντα μετὰ τῆς τοῦ καλοῦ προσθήκης γίνεσθαι.  The pregnant sense of καλός makes translation difficult.  Even grief and anger in them are becoming.  At all events any one would rather see his friend angry with him than any one else flattering him.  Do not then cease preferring charges like the last!  The very charge will mean a letter; and nothing can be more precious or delightful to me.

ΛΕΟΝΤΙῼ ΣΟΦΙΣΤῌ

[1] Ἔοικέ τι τῆς κοινῆς καταστάσεως καὶ εἰς τὰ ἑαυτοῦ πράγματα ὁ χρηστὸς Ἰουλιανὸς ἀπολαύειν. Ἀπαιτεῖται γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ ἐγκαλεῖται σφοδρῶς, ἐπειδὴ πάντα νῦν ἀπαιτουμένων καὶ ἐγκαλουμένων γέμει. Πλὴν ὅσον οὐκ εἰσφορῶν ἐλλείμματα, ἀλλ' ἐπιστολῶν. Καίτοι πόθεν αὐτῷ ἐλλέλειπται ἀγνοῶ. Ἔδωκε γὰρ ἀεὶ ἐπιστολήν, τὴν δὲ ἐκομίσατο. Εἰ μή τί που καὶ παρὰ σοὶ ἡ πολυθρύλητος αὕτη τετραπλῆ προτετίμηται. Οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ Πυθαγόριοι τοσοῦτον προετίμησαν τὴν τετρακτὺν ὅσον οἱ νῦν ἐκλέγοντες τὰ δημόσια τὴν τετραπλῆν. Καίτοιγε ἴσως τὸ ἐναντίον εἰκὸς ἦν, σοφιστὴν ὄντα καὶ εὐποροῦντα λόγων τοσούτων, αὐτὸν ἡμῖν εἰς τὴν τῶν τετραπλασίων ἔκτισιν ὑποκεῖσθαι. Καὶ μὴ οἴου ταῦτα δυσχεραίνοντας ἡμᾶς γράφειν. Χαίρω γάρ σου καὶ ταῖς μέμψεσιν, ἐπειδὴ τοῖς καλοῖς φασι πάντα μετὰ τῆς τοῦ καλοῦ προσθήκης γίνεσθαι, ὥστε καὶ λύπας αὐτοῖς καὶ ὀργὰς ἐπιπρέπειν. Ἥδιον γοῦν ἄν τις ἴδοι ὀργιζόμενον τὸν ἀγαπώμενον ἢ θεραπεύοντα ἕτερον. Μήποτε οὖν ἀνῇς ἐγκαλῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα. Γράμματα γάρ που ἔσται αὐτὰ τὰ ἐγκλήματα, ὧν ἐμοὶ οὐδὲν ἄκουσμα τιμιώτερον οὐδὲ πλείονα φέρον τὴν ἡδονήν.