Letter 281: I am mindful of the great honour I received in the encouragement you gave me, along with others, to address your excellency. I avail myself of the privilege and the enjoyment of your gracious favour. I congratulate myself upon having such a correspondent, as also upon the opportunity afforded your excellency of conferring an honour on me by your...

Basil of CaesareaModestus|c. 373 AD|Basil of Caesarea
imperial politicsproperty economics

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA

To Modestus the Prefect.

I am mindful of the great honour I received in the encouragement you gave me, along with others, to address your excellency. I avail myself of the privilege and the enjoyment of your gracious favour.

I congratulate myself upon having such a correspondent, as also upon the opportunity afforded your excellency of conferring an honour on me by your reply.

I claim your clemency on behalf of Helladius my special friend. I pray that he may be relieved from the anxieties of Tax-assessor, and so be enabled to work in the interests of our country.

You have already so far given a gracious consent, that I now repeat my request, and pray you to send instructions to the governor of the Province, that Helladius may be released from this infliction.

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Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202281.htm>.

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Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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