Letter CXVIII.657    Placed at the end of 372 or the beginning of 373.

To Jovinus, Bishop of Perrha.658    The mss. vary between Jovinus and Jobinus.  cf. Theodoret, Ecc. Hist. iv. 13.

You owe me a good turn.  For I lent you a kindness, which I ought to get back with interest;—a kind of interest, this, which our Lord does not refuse.  Pay me, then, my friend, by paying me a visit.  So much for the capital; what of the increment?  It is the fact of the visit being paid by you, who are a man as much superior to me, as fathers are better than children.

ΙΩΒΙΝῼ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠῼ ΠΕΡΡΗΣ

[1] Ἔχω σε χρεώστην ὀφλήματος ἀγαθοῦ. Ἐδάνεισα γάρ σοι χρέος ἀγάπης, ὃ χρή με ἀπολαβεῖν σὺν τόκῳ, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν τὸ τοιοῦτον εἶδος τῶν τόκων οὐ παραιτεῖται. Ἀπόδος τοίνυν, ὦ φίλη κεφαλή, ἐπιστὰς ἡμῶν τῇ πατρίδι. Τοῦτο μὲν οὖν ἐστιν αὐτὸ τὸ κεφάλαιον. Τίς δὲ ἡ προσθήκη; Τὸ σὲ εἶναι τὸν παραγινόμενον ἄνδρα τοσοῦτον ἡμῶν διαφέροντα ὅσῳ πατέρες εἰσὶ βελτίους παίδων.