Letter LXXVI.532    Of the same date as the preceding.

To Sophronius the Master.533    i.e.magister officiorum.  cf. Letters xxxii., xcvi., clxxvii., clxxx., cxciii., cclxxii.

The greatness of the calamities, which have befallen our native city, did seem likely to compel me to travel in person to the court, and there to relate, both to your excellency and to all those who are most influential in affairs, the dejected state in which Cæsarea is lying.  But I am kept here alike by ill-health and by the care of the Churches.  In the meantime, therefore, I hasten to tell your lordship our troubles by letter, and to acquaint you that never ship, drowned in sea by furious winds, so suddenly disappeared, never city shattered by earthquake or overwhelmed by flood, so swiftly vanished out of sight, as our city, engulfed by this new constitution, has gone utterly to ruin.  Our misfortunes have passed into a tale.  Our institutions are a thing of the past; and all our men of high civil rank, in despair at what has happened to our magistrates, have left their homes in the city and are wandering about the country.  There is a break therefore in the necessary conduct of affairs, and the city, which ere now gloried both in men of learning and in others who abound in opulent towns, has become a most unseemly spectacle.  One only consolation have we left in our troubles, and that is to groan over our misfortunes to your excellency and to implore you, if you can, to reach out the helping hand to Cæsarea who falls on her knees before you.  How indeed you may be able to aid us I am not myself able to explain; but I am sure that to you, with all your intelligence, it will be easy to discover the means, and not difficult, through the power given you by God, to use them when they are found.

ΣΩΦΡΟΝΙῼ ΜΑΓΙΣΤΡῼ

[1] Τὸ μὲν μέγεθος τῶν καταλαβουσῶν συμφορῶν τὴν πατρίδα ἡμῶν αὐτὸν ἐμὲ ἠνάγκαζε, καταλαβόντα τὸ Στρατόπεδον, τῇ τε σῇ μεγαλοφυΐᾳ διηγήσασθαι τὴν κατέχουσαν ἡμῶν τὴν πόλιν κατήφειαν καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς ὅσοι ἐπὶ μεγίστης ἐστὲ δυνάμεως τῶν πραγμάτων. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἥ τε τοῦ σώματος ἀρρωστία καὶ ἡ τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν ἐπιμέλεια κατέχει με, τέως διὰ γράμματος ἀποδύρασθαι πρὸς τὴν σὴν μεγαλόνοιαν ἠπείχθην, γνωρίζων ὅτι οὔτε σκάφος ἐν πελάγει πνεύμασι βιαίοις καταβαπτισθὲν οὕτως ἀθρόως ἠφανίσθη ποτέ, οὐ σεισμοῖς ἐκτριβεῖσα πόλις, οὐχ ὕδασιν ἐπικλυσθεῖσα εἰς ἀπώλειαν ἐχώρησε παντελῆ οὕτως ὡς ἡ ἡμετέρα, τῇ καινῇ ταύτῃ τῶν πραγμάτων οἰκονομίᾳ καταποθεῖσα, εἰς ἀθρόον ἦλθεν ἀφανισμόν. Καὶ μῦθος γέγονε τὰ ἡμέτερα. Οἴχεται μὲν γὰρ τὸ Πολίτευμα, πᾶν δὲ τὸ πολιτικὸν σύνταγμα, τῇ περὶ τοὺς κρατοῦντας ἀθυμίᾳ καταλιπὸν τὴν ἐν τῇ πόλει οἴκησιν, διὰ τῆς ἀγροικίας πλανᾶται. Ἐπιλέλοιπε δὲ λοιπὸν καὶ ἡ τῶν ἀναγκαίων διάθεσις, καὶ ὅλως ἀωρότατον θέαμα γεγένηται ἡ πρότερον ἀνδράσι τε λογίοις ἐπαγαλλομένη καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς οἷς εὐθηνοῦνται πόλεις ἀνενδεῶς διάγουσα. Μίαν δὲ ἐνομίσαμεν, ὡς ἐν δεινοῖς, παραμυθίαν εἶναι τὸ ἐπιστενάξαι τοῖς πάθεσιν ἡμῶν πρὸς τὴν σὴν ἡμερότητα καὶ παρακαλέσαι, εἴ τις δύναμις, χεῖρα ὀρέξαι τῇ πόλει ἡμῶν εἰς γόνυ κλιθείσῃ. Τὸν δὲ τρόπον δι' οὗ ἂν γένοιο ἐν καιρῷ τοῖς πράγμασιν αὐτὸς μὲν εἰσηγεῖσθαι οὐκ ἔχω. Σοὶ δὲ πάντως καὶ εὑρεῖν διὰ τὴν σύνεσιν ῥᾴδιον καὶ χρήσασθαι τοῖς εὑρεθεῖσι, διὰ τὴν παρὰ Θεοῦ δεδομένην σοι δύναμιν, οὐ χαλεπόν.