From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk
To: Besaion the Deacon
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore responds carefully to someone who, having lost a case decisively in court, is now asking for a favor — apparently hoping to undo the verdict under another name.
If, having failed to obtain what you contested — having been decisively defeated — you now appear to be asking a favor, it is clear that you are attempting to undo the verdict under the name of a favor. And if you say you were also wronged by the judge himself, I will pass over whether you were rightly defeated and speak to the verdict itself: it would not have been rendered that way, given that the judge is a man of integrity, unless justice was truly present in it.
Nevertheless, even after the loss, I grant you the grace — for I would not have argued the case at all at the outset, had you simply acknowledged your fault and asked for pardon. The man who admits he was wrong before the verdict is asking for mercy; the man who asks for it afterward, having denied the wrong, is asking for something else. Let him be careful which one he is actually requesting.
Context:Isidore responds carefully to someone who, having lost a case decisively in court, is now asking for a favor — apparently hoping to undo the verdict under another name.
If, having failed to obtain what you contested — having been decisively defeated — you now appear to be asking a favor, it is clear that you are attempting to undo the verdict under the name of a favor. And if you say you were also wronged by the judge himself, I will pass over whether you were rightly defeated and speak to the verdict itself: it would not have been rendered that way, given that the judge is a man of integrity, unless justice was truly present in it.
Nevertheless, even after the loss, I grant you the grace — for I would not have argued the case at all at the outset, had you simply acknowledged your fault and asked for pardon. The man who admits he was wrong before the verdict is asking for mercy; the man who asks for it afterward, having denied the wrong, is asking for something else. Let him be careful which one he is actually requesting.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.