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273.τ UNTITLED, CONCERNING HERAS

273.1 Being precisely persuaded that you love our honor so much as to consider our interests your own, our most reverend brother Heras, whom we call our brother not according to some custom, but according to a most precise (and no exaggeration) and exceeding disposition of friendship, I commend to your extraordinary goodness and ask you both to look upon him as one of your own and to provide him protection according to your ability in whatever matters he may need your magnanimity, so that I may have this kindness to count among the many good things I have already received from you.

274.τ TO HIMERIUS THE MAGISTER

274.1 The friendship and intimacy I have for the most reverend brother Heras, that it took its beginning from when I was but a child and has remained until old age by the grace of God, you yourself also know better than anyone. For the Lord granted us the love of your great genius almost through him, from the time when he first brought about our acquaintance with one another. Since, therefore, he is in need of your protection, I ask and beseech you, showing favor to your old disposition toward us and paying heed to the necessity that now possesses him, to make his affairs so much your own that he will need no other protection, but may return to us having accomplished all things according to his wishes; so that we may have this kindness to count among the many benefits we have received from you, a kindness than which we could not find one greater for ourselves nor one more concerning us that we would make our own.

275.τ UNTITLED, CONCERNING HERAS

275.1 You have anticipated our requests in your disposition toward our most reverend brother Heras and have become better than a prayer to him, both by the excess of honors which you have shown him and by the protection given on every occasion. Nevertheless, we also, since we cannot bear his situation in silence, ask your unsurpassable honor, as a favor to us, to add to your zeal for the man and to send him back to his fatherland superior to the insolence of his enemies, since he is not now beyond the arrows of envy, with many attempting to abuse the tranquility of his life. Against whom we shall find one unbreakable security, if you yourself would be willing to hold your hand over the man.

276.τ TO ARMATIUS THE GREAT

276.1 Both the common law of all men makes the aged in years common fathers, and our own particular law of Christians places us old men in the rank of parents to those of such an age. Therefore do not consider me superfluous nor meddling in matters beyond what is necessary, if I intercede with you on behalf of your son. Of whom we deem it right that you demand obedience in other things; for he is responsible for his body both by the law of nature and by this civil law by which we are governed. The soul, however, since it has come from more divine origins, it is fitting to consider subject to another, and that debts are owed by it to God, the most ancient of all debts. Since therefore God

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273.τ ΑΝΕΠΙΓΡΑΦΟΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΗΡΑ

273.1 Ἀκριβῶς πεπεισμένος οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἀγαπᾶν τὴν σὴν τιμιό τητα ὥστε τὰ

ἡμῖν διαφέροντα οἰκεῖα λογίζεσθαι, τὸν αἰδε σιμώτατον ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν Ἥραν ὃν οὐ κατὰ συνήθειάν τινα ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν προσαγορεύομεν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ ἀκριβεστάτην (καὶ οὐδεμίαν ὑπερβολὴν) καὶ τῆς φιλίας διάθεσιν ὑπερε χόμενον, συνιστῶ σου τῇ ὑπερφυεῖ καλοκἀγαθίᾳ καὶ παρα καλῶ οἰκείως τε αὐτὸν θεάσασθαι καὶ τὴν κατὰ δύναμίν σοι παρασχέσθαι αὐτῷ προστασίαν ἐν οἷς ἂν δέηται τῆς μεγαλονοίας σου, ὥστε με τοῖς πολλοῖς οἷς ἤδη τετύχηκα παρὰ σοὶ ἀγαθοῖς καὶ ταύτην ἔχειν τὴν εὐεργεσίαν συναρι θμεῖν.

274.τ ΗΜΕΡΙΩ ΜΑΓΙΣΤΡΩ

274.1 Ἡ πρὸς τὸν αἰδεσιμώτατον ἀδελφὸν Ἥραν φιλία μοι καὶ συνήθεια ὅτι

ἐκ πάνυ παιδὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔλαβε καὶ μέχρι γήρως παρέμεινε τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ χάριτι παντὸς ἄμεινον καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπίστασαι. Σχεδὸν γὰρ καὶ τὴν τῆς σῆς μεγαλο φυΐας ἀγάπην ἐξ ἐκείνου ἡμῖν ὁ Κύριος ἐχαρίσατο ἐξ ὅτου καὶ τὴν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἡμῖν γνῶσιν προεξένησεν. Ἐπεὶ οὖν δεῖται τῆς παρὰ σοῦ προστασίας, παρακαλῶ σε καὶ καθικε τεύω τῇ τε ἀρχαίᾳ περὶ ἡμᾶς διαθέσει χαριζόμενον καὶ τῇ νῦν κατασχούσῃ ἀνάγκῃ προσσχόντα οὕτως οἰκειώσασθαι τὰ κατ' αὐτὸν πράγματα ὥστε μηδεμιᾶς αὐτὸν ἑτέρας προστα σίας δεηθῆναι, ἀλλ' ἐπανελθεῖν πρὸς ἡμᾶς πάντα καταπρα ξάμενον τὰ κατ' εὐχάς· ὥστε ταῖς πολλαῖς αἷς πεπόνθαμεν παρὰ σοῦ εὐεργεσίαις καὶ ταύτην ἡμᾶς ἔχειν συναριθμεῖν, ἧς οὐκ ἂν μείζονα ἑαυτοῖς οὐδὲ μᾶλλον ἡμῖν διαφέρουσαν εὑρίσκοντες οἰκειούμεθα.

275.τ ΑΝΕΠΙΓΡΑΦΟΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΗΡΑ

275.1 Προέλαβες τὰς παρ' ἡμῶν παρακλήσεις ἐν τῇ πρὸς τὸν αἰδεσιμώτατον

ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν Ἥραν διαθέσει καὶ γέγονας αὐτῷ εὐχῆς ἀμείνων τῶν τε τιμῶν ταῖς ὑπερβολαῖς αἷς εἰς αὐτὸν ἐπεδείξω καὶ ταῖς ἐφ' ἑκάστου καιροῦ προστασίαις. Ὅμως δὲ καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἐπειδὴ σιωπῇ φέρειν τὰ κατ' αὐτὸν οὐ δυνάμεθα, παρακαλοῦμέν σου τὴν ἀνυπέρβλητον τιμιό τητα καὶ εἰς ἡμετέραν χάριν προσθεῖναι τῇ εἰς τὸν ἄνδρα σπουδῇ καὶ ἀποπέμψαι αὐτὸν τῇ πατρίδι κρείττονα τῆς παρὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ ἐπηρείας, ἐπεὶ νῦν γε οὐκ ἔξω ἐστὶ βελῶν τοῦ φθόνου, πολλῶν αὐτοῦ ἐπηρεάζειν ἐπιχει ρούντων τῇ ἀπραγμοσύνῃ τοῦ βίου. Πρὸς οὓς μίαν εὑρή σομεν ἀσφάλειαν ἄρρηκτον, εἰ αὐτὸς ὑπερσχεῖν τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ ἀνδρὸς θελήσειας.

276.τ ΑΡΜΑΤΙΩ ΤΩ ΜΕΓΑΛΩ

276.1 Καὶ κοινὸς πάντων ἀνθρώπων νόμος κοινοὺς πατέρας ποιεῖ τοὺς ἐν

ἡλικίᾳ πρεσβύτας, καὶ ἡμέτερος δὲ τῶν χρισ τιανῶν ἴδιος τοὺς γέροντας ἡμᾶς ἐν γονέων τάξει καθίστησι τοῖς τηλικούτοις. Ὥστε μὴ περιττόν με ἡγήσῃ μηδὲ ἔξω τῶν ἀναγκαίων περιεργάζεσθαι, εἰ ὑπὲρ τοῦ παιδὸς ἐγὼ πρεσβεύω τοῦ σοῦ πρὸς σέ. Οὗ τὴν μὲν ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις ὑπακοὴν ἀξιοῦμέν σε ἀπαιτεῖν· ὑπεύθυνος γάρ ἐστιν εἰς τὸ σῶμα καὶ τῷ νόμῳ τῆς φύσεως καὶ τῷ πολιτικῷ τούτῳ καθ' ὃν οἰκονομούμεθα. Τὴν μέντοι ψυχήν, ὡς ἐκ θειοτέρων ἔχων ἧκεν, ἄλλῳ νομίζειν ὑποκεῖσθαι προσῆκον καὶ Θεῷ ὀφείλεσθαι παρ' αὐτῆς χρέα τὰ πάντων χρεῶν πρεσβύτατα. Ἐπεὶ οὖν τὸν Θεὸν