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having learned that he was staying in Antioch in the house of the most reverend Count Saturninus, I readily gave the letter to the most beloved and reverend brother Sanctissimus the fellow-presbyter, through whom I greet your love, beseeching that wherever you may be you remember first of all God, and then us, whom you chose from the beginning to love and to hold counted among your closest friends.

133. To Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria 133.1 Of bodily friendship, the eyes become the agents and the

intimacy born of long time confirms. But true love the gift of the Spirit establishes, joining those who are far apart in place, and making loved ones known to one another, not through bodily features, but through the properties of virtue. This indeed the grace of the Lord has also done for us, granting us to see you with the eyes of the soul and to embrace you with true love and to be, as it were, grown together with you and to come to one union from the fellowship in the faith. For we are persuaded that you, being a nursling of so great a man and having from of old had your training with him, walk by the same spirit and abide by the same doctrines of piety. Wherefore we also greet your honour and beseech you to inherit, along with his other qualities, the great man's disposition towards us, and to write to us regularly of your affairs and to care for the brotherhood everywhere with the same compassion and the same providence which that most blessed man also showed towards all who love God in truth.

134. To Paeonius the presbyter

134.1 How much you gladdened us with your letters you somehow surely guess from those very things which

you wrote, so accurately was the purity of the heart from which those words proceeded revealed from the letters. For a stream of water shows its own spring, and the nature of speech characterizes the heart that produced it. So I confess to have experienced something both strange and very much at variance with what is likely. For while always being eager to read letters from your perfection, when I took the letter in my hands and read it, I was not so much pleased by what was written as I was annoyed, calculating what a great loss we suffered during the time of your silence. But since you have begun to write, do not cease doing so. For you will give more joy than those who send great sums of money to lovers of wealth. But none of the scribes were with me, neither the calligraphers nor the shorthand writers. For of those whom I happened to have trained, some have run back to their former way of life, and others have given up their labours, afflicted by long illnesses.

135. To Diodore, presbyter of Antioch

135.1 I have read the books sent by your honour. And with the

second I was exceedingly pleased, not only because of its brevity, as was likely for one who is now slow and weak in all things, but because it is at the same time dense in its thoughts and the objections of the opponents and the replies to them are clearly set forth in it, and the simple and unadorned style seemed to me fitting for the purpose of a Christian writing not for display but rather for the common good. But the former, while having the same force in its substance, but being elegantly composed with more costly diction and varied figures and the graces of dialogue, to me much

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μαθὼν ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ διάγειν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ αἰδεσιμωτάτου Σατορ νίνου τοῦ κόμητος ἔδωκα τὴν ἐπιστολὴν προθύμως τῷ ποθεινοτάτῳ καὶ εὐλαβεστάτῳ ἀδελφῷ Σαγκτησίμῳ τῷ συμπρεσβυτέρῳ, δι' οὗ προσφθέγγομαί σου τὴν ἀγάπην παρακαλῶν ὅπουπερ ἂν ᾖς μεμνῆσθαι μάλιστα μὲν τοῦ Θεοῦ, εἶτα καὶ ἡμῶν οὓς ἀγαπᾶν ἐξ ἀρχῆς προείλου καὶ ἔχειν ἐν τοῖς οἰκειοτάτοις ἀριθμουμένους.

133.τ ΠΕΤΡΩ ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΩ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΕΙΑΣ 133.1 Τῆς μὲν σωματικῆς φιλίας ὀφθαλμοὶ πρόξενοι γίνονται καὶ ἡ διὰ

μακροῦ χρόνου ἐγγινομένη συνήθεια βεβαιοῖ. Τὴν δὲ ἀληθινὴν ἀγάπην ἡ τοῦ Πνεύματος δωρεὰ συνί στησι συνάπτουσα μὲν τὰ μακρῷ διεστῶτα τῷ τόπῳ, γνωρίζουσα δὲ ἀλλήλοις τοὺς ἀγαπητούς, οὐ διὰ σωμα τικῶν χαρακτήρων, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῶν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἰδιωμάτων. Ὃ δὴ καὶ ἐφ' ἡμῶν ἡ τοῦ Κυρίου χάρις ἐποίησε παρα σχομένη ἡμᾶς ἰδεῖν σε τοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ περιπτύξασθαί σε τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῇ ἀληθινῇ καὶ οἱονεὶ συμ φυῆναί σοι καὶ πρὸς μίαν ἐλθεῖν ἕνωσιν ἐκ τῆς κατὰ τὴν πίστιν κοινωνίας. Πεπείσμεθα γάρ σε ἀνδρὸς τοσούτου θρέμμα ὑπάρχοντα καὶ τὴν ἐκ παλαιοῦ διατριβὴν μετ' αὐτοῦ λαχόντα τῷ αὐτῷ πορεύεσθαι πνεύματι καὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς στοιχεῖν τῆς εὐσεβείας δόγμασι. ∆ιὸ καὶ προσ φθεγγόμεθά σου τὴν τιμιότητα καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ τὴν περὶ ἡμᾶς διάθεσιν τοῦ μεγάλου ἀνδρὸς διαδέξασθαι, ἐπιστέλλειν τε ἡμῖν συνήθως τὰ κατὰ σαυτὸν καὶ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι τῆς πανταχοῦ ἀδελφότητος τοῖς αὐτοῖς σπλάγχνοις καὶ τῇ αὐτῇ προμηθείᾳ ᾗ καὶ ὁ μακαριώτατος ἐκεῖνος περὶ πάντας ἐχρῆτο τοὺς ἀγαπῶντας τὸν Θεὸν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ.

134.τ ΠΑΙΟΝΙΩ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΩ

134.1 Ὅσον ηὔφρανας ἡμᾶς τοῖς γράμμασιν εἰκάζεις που πάντως αὐτοῖς οἷς

ἐπέστειλας, οὕτω τὸ καθαρὸν τῆς καρδίας, ἀφ' ἧς προῆλθεν ἐκεῖνα τὰ ῥήματα, ἀκριβῶς ἐκ τῶν γραμμάτων κατεμηνύετο. Καὶ γὰρ ὁλκὸς μὲν ὕδατος δείκνυσι τὴν οἰκείαν πηγήν, λόγου δὲ φύσις τὴν προενεγ κοῦσαν αὐτὸν καρδίαν χαρακτηρίζει. Ὥστε ἄτοπόν τε καὶ πολὺ τοῦ εἰκότος παρηλλαγμένον πεπονθέναι ὁμολογῶ. Σπουδάζων γὰρ ἀεὶ γράμμασιν ἐντυγχάνειν τῆς τελειό τητός σου, ἐπειδὴ ἔλαβον εἰς χεῖρας τὴν ἐπιστολὴν καὶ ἀνέγνων αὐτήν, οὐχ ἥσθην μᾶλλον τοῖς ἐπεσταλμένοις ἢ ἠνιάθην, τὴν ζημίαν, ὁπόση γέγονεν ἡμῖν κατὰ τὸν τῆς σιωπῆς χρόνον, διαλογιζόμενος. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἤρξω γρά φειν, μὴ διαλείπῃς τοῦτο ποιῶν. Εὐφρανεῖς γὰρ πλέον ἢ οἱ τὰ πολλὰ χρήματα τοῖς φιλοπλούτοις διαπεμπόμενοι. Τῶν δὲ γραφέων οὐδείς μοι παρῆν οὔτε τῶν καλλιγρα φούντων οὔτε τῶν ταχυγράφων. Οὓς γὰρ ἔτυχον ἐξασκήσας, οἱ μὲν ἀνέδραμον ἐπὶ τὴν πρώτην τοῦ βίου συνήθειαν, οἱ δὲ ἀπειρήκασι πρὸς τοὺς πόνους χρονίαις ἀρρωστίαις κεκακωμένοι.

135.τ ∆ΙΟ∆ΩΡΩ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΩ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΙΑΣ

135.1 Ἐνέτυχον τοῖς ἀποσταλεῖσι βιβλίοις παρὰ τῆς τιμιό τητός σου. Καὶ τῷ

μὲν δευτέρῳ ὑπερήσθην, οὐ διὰ τὴν βραχύτητα μόνον, ὡς εἰκὸς ἦν τὸν ἀργῶς πρὸς πάντα καὶ ἀσθενῶς λοιπὸν διακείμενον, ἀλλ' ὅτι πυκνόν τε ἅμα ἐστὶ ταῖς ἐννοίαις καὶ εὐκρινῶς ἐν αὐτῷ ἔχουσιν αἵ τε ἀντι θέσεις τῶν ὑπεναντίων καὶ αἱ πρὸς αὐτὰς ἀπαντήσεις, καὶ τὸ τῆς λέξεως ἁπλοῦν καὶ ἀκατάσκευον πρέπον ἔδοξέ μοι εἶναι προθέσει χριστιανοῦ οὐ πρὸς ἐπίδειξιν μᾶλλον ἢ κοινὴν ὠφέλειαν γράφοντος. Τὸ δὲ πρότερον τὴν μὲν δύναμιν ἔχον τὴν αὐτὴν ἐν τοῖς πράγμασι, λέξει δὲ πολυ τελεστέρᾳ καὶ σχήμασι ποικίλοις καὶ διαλογικαῖς χάρισι κεκομψευμένον, πολλοῦ μοι