Letter 275: You have anticipated my entreaties in your affection for my very reverend brother Hera, and you have been better to him than I could have prayed for you to be in the abundant honour which you have shown him, and the protection which you have extended to him on every occasion. But I cannot allow his affairs to go unnoticed by a word, and I must b...
You have already exceeded my requests in your kindness to my reverend brother Hera -- showing him more generous honor and broader protection than I could have dared to ask. But I cannot let his affairs pass without a word, and I beg Your Excellency to add something more, for my sake, to the interest you have already shown in him. Send him back to his own country victorious over the attacks of his enemies.
Many are trying to disturb the peacefulness of his life, and he is not beyond the reach of envy's arrows. Against his enemies there is one sure defense: your continued protection. I rely on it.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
After the letter conveyed to me by the officiales I have received one other dispatched to me later. I have not sent many myself, for I have not found any one travelling in your direction. But I have sent more than the four, among which also were those conveyed to me from Samosata after the first epistle of your holiness.
When I saw your affectionate letter, in the country bordering on Armenia, it was like a lighted torch held up at a distance to mariners at sea, especially if the sea happen to be agitated by the wind. Your reverence's letter was of itself a pleasant one, and full of comfort; but its natural charm was very much enhanced by the time of its arrival...
Humanity is the regular business of all you who practise as physicians. And, in my opinion, to put your science at the head and front of life's pursuits is to decide reasonably and rightly. This at all events seems to be the case if man's most precious possession, life, is painful and not worth living, unless it be lived in health, and if for he...
When I had read the letter of your holinesses, how did I not groan and lament that I had heard of these further troubles, of blows and insults inflicted on yourselves, of destruction of homes, devastation of the city, ruin of your whole country, persecution of the Church, banishment; of priests, invasion of wolves, and scattering of flocks. But ...