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it is difficult for me to do this to one who saves our souls. And Peter answered: I would have agreed with you, since our Lord, who came for the salvation of the whole world, being alone noble above all, endured servitude, that he might persuade us not to be ashamed to perform the services of slaves for our brothers, even if we happen to be very noble. And I said: If I think that you have prevailed by reason, I am a fool; but I give thanks to the providence of God that I have been deemed worthy to have you in the place of parents. And Peter asked: Do you truly have no one related to you? And I answered: There are indeed many great men, who are related to Caesar. Wherefore Caesar himself joined to my father, as to his foster-brother, a kinswoman as wife, from whom we were born as three sons, two indeed before me, who, being twins, happened to be very much like one another, as my father himself told me. For I do not know either them or my mother at all, but as through dreams I bring back a dim image of them. Now my mother was called Mattidia, and my father Faustus, and of my brothers themselves, one was called Faustinus, and the other was called Faustinianus. So when I, a third, was born to them, my mother had seen a dream (as my father related) that unless she took her twin sons at once and departed from the city of the Romans to go abroad for ten years, she was to die along with them by a most miserable fate. Therefore my father, being fond of his children, having supplied them sufficiently with male and female slaves and having put them on a ship, sent them away to Athens to be educated together, but kept me, his only son, with him for comfort. And for this I give many thanks, that the dream had not commanded me also to leave the city of the Romans with my mother. When a year had passed, therefore, my father sent money to Athens for his own and also to learn how they were doing. But those who went did not return. In the third year, my father, being disheartened, sent others likewise with provisions, who came in the fourth year reporting that they had seen neither my mother nor my brothers, nor indeed had they sojourned in Athens, nor had they found even a trace of any of the others who had gone away with them. My father, therefore, on hearing these things, and becoming dumbfounded by much grief, and not knowing where to set out to search for them, took me and went down to Portus, and asked very many people where each of them had seen or heard of a shipwreck that had happened in the last four years. And one said one place, another another. And he would ask in turn if they had seen the body of a woman with infants cast ashore. When many said, therefore, that they had seen corpses in many places, my father would groan upon hearing it; but, troubled in his heart, he asked irrationally, because he was trying to search so great an expanse of sea. Yet he was pardonable, because by his affection for those he sought he was deluded by empty hopes. And so one day, having placed me under guardians and leaving me in Rome at the age of twelve, he himself, weeping, went down to Portus and embarked on a ship, and having set sail, he went on the search. And from then until this present day I have neither received letters from him nor do I know for sure if he is alive or dead. Rather, I suspect that he too has died somewhere, either overcome by grief—

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ἡμετέρας σσζοντι ψυχὰς χαλεπὸν τοῦτο ποιεῖν ἐμοί. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος ἀπε- κρίνατο· Συνεθέμην ἄν σοι, ἐπεὶ ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν ὁ ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου ἐληλυθώς, μόνος ὑπὲρ πάντας εὐγενὴς ὤν, δουλείαν ὑπέμεινεν, ἵνα ἡμᾶς πείσῃ μὴ αἰδεῖσθαι τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ἡμῶν τὰς δούλων ποιεῖν ὑπηρεσίας, κἂν πάνυ εὐγενεῖς τυγχάνωμεν. κἀγὼ ἔφην· Eἰ μὲν νομίζω σε νικῆσαι λόγῳ, ἀνόητός εἰμι· πλὴν χάριν ἔχω τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ προνοίᾳ ὅτι σε εἰς γο- νέων τόπον ἔχειν κατηξιώθην. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος ἐπυνθάνετο· Oὐδεὶς δέ σου ἀληθῶς πρὸς γένους ὑπάρχει; κἀγὼ ἀπεκρινάμην· Eἰσὶν μὲν πολλοὶ καὶ μεγάλοι ἄνδρες, Καίσαρος πρὸς γένους ὄντες. ὅθεν τῷ ἐμῷ πατρὶ ὡς καὶ συντρόφῳ αὐτὸς Καῖσαρ συγγενίδα συνηρμόσατο γυναῖκα, ἀφ' ἧς τρεῖς ἐγενό- μεθα υἱοί, δύο μὲν πρὸ ἐμοῦ, οἳ καὶ δίδυμοι ὄντες πάνυ ὅμοιοι ἀλλήλοις ἐτύγχανον, ὡς αὐτὸς ὁ πατὴρ ἔλεγέν μοι. ἐγὼ γὰρ οὔτε αὐτοὺς οὔτε τὴν τεκοῦσαν πάνυ ἐπίσταμαι, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ δι' ὀνείρων ἀμαυρὸν αὐτῶν τὸ εἶδος ἀναφέρω. ἡ μὲν οὖν μήτηρ μου Ματτιδία ἐλέγετο, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ Φαῦστος, τῶν δὲ ἀδελφῶν καὶ αὐτῶν ὁ μὲν Φαυστῖνος ἐκαλεῖτο, ὁ δὲ Φαυστινιανὸς ἐλέγετο. ἐμοῦ οὖν τρίτου ἐπιγεννηθέντος αὐτοῖς ἡ μήτηρ ὄνειρον ἑωράκει (ὥσπερ ὁ πατήρ μου ὑφηγεῖτο) ὅτι, ἐὰν μὴ τοὺς διδύμους υἱοὺς αὐτῆς ἐξαυτῆς παραλαβοῦσα τὴν Ῥωμαίων πρὸς ἀποδημίαν ἐξέλθῃ πόλιν ἐπ' ἔτη δέκα, πανολεθρίῳ μόρῳ ἅμα αὐτοῖς ἀποθανεῖν ἔχει. ὁ μὲν οὖν πατὴρ φιλότεκνος ὢν σύν τε δούλοις καὶ δούλαις ἐφοδιάσας ἱκανῶς καὶ εἰς πλοῖον ἐνβαλόμενος εἰς τὰς Ἀθήνας ἅμα παιδευθησομένους ἐξέπεμ- ψεν, ἐμὲ δὲ μόνον υἱὸν εἰς παραμυθίαν ἔσχεν μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ. καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ εὐχαριστῶ πολλά, ὅτι κἀμὲ ὁ ὄνειρος μὴ κεκελεύκει ἅμα τῇ μητρὶ τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἐκβῆναι πόλιν. περαιωθέντος οὖν ἐνιαυτοῦ ὁ πατὴρ ἔπεμ- ψεν εἰς Ἀθήνας χρήματα τοῖς αὑτοῦ ἅμα τε καὶ μαθεῖν τὸ πῶς διά- γουσιν. οἱ δὲ ἀπελθόντες οὐχ ὑπέστρεψαν. τρίτῳ δὲ ἐνιαυτῷ ὁ πατὴρ ἀθυμῶν ἑτέρους ἔπεμψεν ὁμοίως μετὰ ἐφοδίων, οἵτινες τετάρτῳ ἐνιαυτῷ ἦλθον ἀγγέλλοντες μήτε μου τὴν τεκοῦσαν ἢ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ἑωρακέναι, μήτε μὴν αὐτοὺς ταῖς Ἀθήναις ἐπιδεδημηκέναι μηδὲ ἄλλου τινὸς τῶν σὺν αὐτοῖς ἀπεληλυθότων κἂν ἴχνος εὑρηκέναι. ὁ μὲν οὖν πατὴρ ταῦτα ἀκού- σας καὶ ὑπὸ πολλῆς λύπης ἔκθαμβος γενόμενος καὶ οὐκ εἰδὼς ποῦ ὁρ μήσας ἐπὶ ζήτησιν αὐτῶν γένηται, ἐμέ τε παραλαβὼν καὶ εἰς Πόρτον καταβὰς πολλῶν πυκνότερον ἐπυνθάνετο ποῦ ἕκαστος αὐτῶν εἶδεν ἢ ἤκουσεν ἀπὸ τεσσάρων ἐτῶν γενόμενον ναυφράγιον. καὶ ἄλλος ἀλλαχῆ ἔλεγεν. ὁ δὲ ἀντεπυνθάνετο εἰ ἑωράκασιν σῶμα γυναικὸς μετὰ βρεφῶν ἐκβεβρασμένον. τῶν οὖν πολλὰ λεγόντων ἑωρακέναι πτώματα κατὰ πολλοὺς τόπους, ὁ πατὴρ ἀκούων ἐστέναζεν· πλὴν ὑπὸ σπλάγχνων θορυβούμενος ἀλόγιστα ἐπυνθάνετο, ὅτι τοσοῦτον μέγεθος θαλάττης ἐρευνᾶν ἐπειρᾶτο. πλὴν συνγνωστὸς ἦν, ὅτι τῇ πρὸς τοὺς ζητουμένους στοργῇ ἐλπίσιν ἐβου- κολεῖτο κεναῖς. καὶ δή ποτε ὑπὸ φροντιστὰς ποιήσας με καὶ εἰς Ῥώμην καταλείψας δωδεκαετῆ, αὐτὸς δακρύων εἰς Πόρτον κατελθὼν καὶ εἰς πλοῖον ἐνβάς, ἀναχθεὶς ἐπὶ τὴν ζήτησιν ἐπορεύθη. καὶ ἔκτοτε εἰς τὴν σήμερον ἡμέραν οὔτε γράμματα ἐδεξάμην παρ' αὐτοῦ οὔτε εἰ ζῇ ἢ τέθνηκεν σαφῶς ἐπίσταμαι. μᾶλλον δὲ ὑπονοῶ ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς τέθνηκέν που, ἢ ὑπὸ λύπης νικη-