Letter 27: You make a joke of it; but I know the danger of an Ozizalean starving when he has taken most pains with his husbandry. There is only this praise to be given them, that even if they die of hunger they smell sweet, and have a gorgeous funeral. How so?
Gregory to Amphilochius.
You laugh about it, but I know the peril of an Ozizalean farmer who has labored his hardest over his crops. The only praise one can give these farmers is that even if they starve to death, they smell wonderful and have a gorgeous funeral -- because they are buried under heaps of wildflowers.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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