Letter LXXXIV.553    Placed in the year 372.

To the President.554    Probably Elias.  cf. Letters xciv. and xcvi.  The orphan grandson of the aged man in whose behalf Basil writes had been placed on the Senatorial roll, and the old man in consequence was compelled to serve again.

1.  You will hardly believe what I am about to write, but it must be written for truth’s sake.  I have been very anxious to communicate as often as possible with your excellency, but when I got this opportunity of writing a letter I did not at once seize the lucky chance.  I hesitated and hung back.  What is astonishing is, that when I got what I had been praying for, I did not take it.  The reason of this is that I am really ashamed to write to you every time, not out of pure friendship, but with the object of getting something.  But then I bethought me (and when you consider it, I do hope you will not think that I communicate with you more for the sake of a bargain than of friendship) that there must be a difference between the way in which one approaches a magistrate and a private man.  We do not accost a physician as we do any mere nobody; nor a magistrate as we do a private individual.  We try to get some advantage from the skill of the one and the position of the other.  Walk in the sun, and your shadow will follow you, whether you will or not.  Just so intercourse with the great is followed by an inevitable gain, the succour of the distressed.  The first object of my letter is fulfilled in my being able to greet your excellency.  Really, if I had no other cause for writing at all, this must be regarded as an excellent topic.  Be greeted then, my dear Sir; may you be preserved by all the world while you fill office after office, and succour now some now others by your authority.  Such greeting I am wont to make; such greeting is only due to you from all who have had the least experience of your goodness in your administration.

2.  Now, after this prayer, hear my supplication on behalf of the poor old man whom the imperial order had exempted from serving in any public capacity; though really I might say that old age anticipated the Emperor in giving him his discharge.  You have yourself satisfied the boon conferred on him by the higher authority, at once from respect to natural infirmity, and, I think, from regard to the public interest, lest any harm should come to the state from a man growing imbecile through age.  But how, my dear Sir, have you unwittingly dragged him into public life, by ordering his grandson, a child not yet four years old, to be on the roll of the senate?  You have done the very same thing as to drag the old man, through his descendant, again into public business.  But now, I do implore you, have mercy on both ages, and free both on the ground of what in each case is pitiable.  The one never saw father or mother, never knew them, but from his very cradle was deprived of both, and has entered into life by the help of strangers:  the other has been preserved so long as to have suffered every kind of calamity.  He saw a son’s untimely death; he saw a house without successors; now, unless you devise some remedy commensurate with your kindness, he will see the very consolation of his bereavement made an occasion of innumerable troubles, for, I suppose, the little lad will never act as senator, collect tribute, or pay troops; but once again the old man’s white hairs must be shamed.  Concede a favour in accordance with the law and agreeable to nature; order the boy to be allowed to wait till he come to man’s estate, and the old man to await death quietly on his bed.  Let others, if they will, urge the pretext of press of business and inevitable necessity.  But, even if you are under a press of business, it would not be like you to despise the distressed, to slight the law, or to refuse to yield to the prayers of your friends.

ΗΓΕΜΟΝΙ

[1] Σχεδὸν μὲν ἄπιστόν ἐστιν ὃ μέλλω γράφειν, γεγράψεται δὲ τῆς ἀληθείας ἕνεκεν ὅτι, πᾶσαν ἔχων ἐπιθυμίαν, ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν, πυκνότατα διαλέγεσθαί σου τῇ καλοκαγαθίᾳ, ἐπειδὴ εὗρον ταύτην τῶν γραμμάτων τὴν ἀφορμήν, οὐκ ἐπέδραμον τῷ ἑρμαίῳ, ἀλλ' ἀπώκνησα καὶ ἀνεδύην. Τὸ οὖν παράδοξον ἐν τούτῳ ὅτι, ἅπερ ηὐχόμην ὑπάρξαι, ταῦτα γενόμενα οὐκ ἐδεχόμην. Αἴτιον δὲ ὅτι αἰσχύνομαι δοκεῖν μὴ φιλίας ἕνεκεν καθαρῶς, ἀλλὰ χρείαν τινὰ θεραπεύων ἑκάστοτε γράφειν. Ἀλλά με εἰσῆλθεν ἐκεῖνο (ὃ καὶ σὲ βούλομαι διανοηθέντα μή τοι νομίζειν ἡμᾶς ἐμπορικῶς μᾶλλον ἢ φιλικῶς ποιεῖσθαι τὰς διαλέξεις), ὅτι χρή τι διάφορον ἔχειν τὰς τῶν ἀρχόντων προσρήσεις παρὰ τοὺς ἰδιώτας. Οὐ γὰρ ὁμοίως ἐντευκτέον ἡμῖν ἰατρῷ τε ἀνδρὶ καὶ τῷ τυχόντι, οὔτε ἄρχοντι, δηλονότι, καὶ ἰδιώτῃ, ἀλλὰ πειρατέον τοῦ μὲν ἐκ τῆς τέχνης, τοῦ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐξουσίας ἀπολαύειν εἰς τὰ ἡμέτερα. Ὥσπερ οὖν τοῖς ἐν ἡλίῳ βαδίζουσιν ἕπεται πάντως ἡ σκιά, κἂν αὐτοὶ μὴ προέλωνται, οὕτω καὶ ταῖς πρὸς τοὺς ἄρχοντας ὁμιλίαις ἀκολουθεῖ τι καὶ παρεμπόρευμα, ἡ τῶν καμνόντων βοήθεια. Τὴν μὲν οὖν πρώτην αἰτίαν τῆς ἐπιστολῆς πληρούτω αὐτὸ τὸ προσειπεῖν σου τὴν μεγαλόνοιαν: ὅ, κἂν μηδεμία πρόφασις τῷ γράφειν προσῇ, ἀγαθὸν κεφάλαιον αὐτὸ χρὴ νομίζεσθαι. Προσείρησο τοίνυν ἡμῖν, ὦ ἄριστε, καὶ φυλάττοιο τῷ βίῳ παντί, ἀρχὰς ἐξ ἀρχῶν ἀμείβων καὶ ἄλλοτε ἄλλους ταῖς ἐπιστασίαις εὐεργετῶν. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἐμοί τε ποιεῖν σύνηθες καὶ σοὶ ὀφειλόμενον παρὰ τῶν καὶ κατὰ μικρὸν πεπειραμένων τῆς περὶ τὸ ἄρχειν σου ἀρετῆς.

[2] Μετὰ δὲ τὴν εὐχὴν δέξαι καὶ τὴν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἀθλίου γέροντος ἱκεσίαν, ὃν ἀφῆκε μὲν τῶν δημοσίων γράμμα βασιλικόν, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ Βασιλέως αὐτὸ τὸ γῆρας ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ τὴν ἀναγκαίαν ἀτέλειαν. Ἐβεβαίωσας δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς τὴν ἄνωθεν χάριν αἰδοῖ τῆς φύσεως καὶ προμηθείᾳ τῶν δημοσίων, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἀνθρώπῳ παρανοοῦντι διὰ τὸν χρόνον κινδυνεύοι τι τῶν κοινῶν. Δι' ἑτέρας δὲ ὁδοῦ πάλιν πῶς αὐτὸν ἔλαθες, ὦ θαυμάσιε, παραγαγὼν εἰς τὸ μέσον; Τὸν γὰρ ὑϊδοῦν αὐτοῦ, οὔπω τέταρτον ἔτος ἀπὸ γενέσεως ἄγοντα, κελεύσας τοῦ βουλευτηρίου μετέχειν, τί ἄλλο καὶ οὐχὶ τὸν πρεσβύτην διὰ τοῦ ἐκγόνου πάλιν ἐξ ἀρχῆς παράγεις εἰς τὰ δημόσια; Ἀλλὰ νῦν ἱκετεύομεν ἀμφοτέρων σε λαβεῖν τῶν ἡλικιῶν οἶκτον καὶ ἀμφοτέρους ἀνεῖναι διὰ τὰ προσόντα ἑκατέρῳ ἐλεεινά. Ὃ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ εἶδε γονέας οὐδ' ἐγνώρισεν, ἀλλὰ δι' ἀλλοτρίων χειρῶν εἰς τὸν βίον τοῦτον εἰσῆλθεν, εὐθὺς ἐκ σπαργάνων ἀμφοτέρων ὀρφανισθείς. Ὃ δὲ τοσοῦτον ἐταμιεύθη τῷ βίῳ ὡς μηδὲν αὐτὸν εἶδος συμφορᾶς παρελθεῖν. Ἐπεῖδε μὲν γὰρ υἱοῦ τελευτὴν ἄωρον, εἶδε δὲ οἶκον ἔρημον διαδόχων, ὄψεται δὲ νῦν, ἐὰν μή τι αὐτὸς ἄξιον τῆς σεαυτοῦ φιλανθρωπίας διανοηθῇς, τὴν παραμυθίαν τῆς ἀπαιδίας ταύτην ἀφορμὴν αὐτῷ μυρίων γενησομένην κακῶν. Οὐ γὰρ δή που τὸ παιδίον εἰς βουλευτὰς συντελέσει ἢ ἐκλέξει τὰς εἰσφορὰς ἢ στρατιώταις χορηγήσει τὸ σιτηρέσιον, ἀλλ' ἀνάγκη πάλιν τοῦ ἀθλίου γέροντος τὴν πολιὰν καταισχύνεσθαι. Δὸς οὖν χάριν καὶ τοῖς νόμοις ἀκόλουθον καὶ τῇ φύσει συμβαίνουσαν, τῷ μὲν προστάξας μέχρι τῆς τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἡλικίας συγχωρηθῆναι, τὸν δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς κλίνης ἀναμένειν τὸν θάνατον: πραγμάτων δὲ συνέχειαν καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀνάγκης ἀπαραίτητον ἄλλοι προβαλλέσθωσαν. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ τοῦ σοῦ τρόπου ἢ κακῶς πράττοντας περιιδεῖν ἢ νόμων ὀλιγωρῆσαι ἢ φίλοις μὴ εἶξαι καθικετεύουσι, κἂν τὰ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων σε περιεστήκει πράγματα.