Letter CCLXXIII.1493    Written in the last years of Basil’s life.

Without address.  Concerning Hera.

I am sure that your excellency loves me well enough to regard all that concerns me as concerning you.  Therefore I commend to your great kindness and high consideration my very reverend brother Hera, whom I do not merely call brother by any conventional phrase, but because of his boundless affection.  I beseech you to regard him as though he were nearly connected with yourself, and, so far as you can, to give him your protection in the matters in which he requires your generous and thoughtful aid.  I shall then have this one more kindness to reckon in addition to the many which I have already received at your hands.

ΑΝΕΠΙΓΡΑΦΟΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΗΡΑ

[1] Ἀκριβῶς πεπεισμένος οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἀγαπᾶν τὴν σὴν τιμιότητα ὥστε τὰ ἡμῖν διαφέροντα οἰκεῖα λογίζεσθαι, τὸν αἰδεσιμώτατον ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν Ἥραν ὃν οὐ κατὰ συνήθειάν τινα ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν προσαγορεύομεν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ ἀκριβεστάτην (καὶ οὐδεμίαν ὑπερβολὴν) καὶ τῆς φιλίας διάθεσιν ὑπερεχόμενον, συνιστῶ σου τῇ ὑπερφυεῖ καλοκἀγαθίᾳ καὶ παρακαλῶ 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 συναριθμεῖν.