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| To Candidianus.
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Letter III.1757
| 1757 Placed at the
beginning of the retreat in Pontus. |
To Candidianus.1758
| 1758 A
governor of Cappadocia, friendly to Basil and to Gregory of
Nazianzus. (cf. Greg., Ep.
cxciv.) |
1. When I took your
letter into my hand, I underwent an experience worth telling. I
looked at it with the awe due to a document making some state
announcement, and as I was breaking the wax, I felt a dread greater
than ever guilty Spartan felt at sight of the Laconian
scytale.1759
| 1759 i.e.
the staff or baton used at Sparta for dispatches. The strip of
leather on which the communication was to be made is said to have
been rolled slantwise round it, and the message was then written
lengthwise. The correspondent was said to have a staff of a
size exactly corresponding, and so by rewinding the strip could read
what was written. Vide Aulus Gellius xvii. 9. |
When, however, I had opened the letter, and read
it through, I could not help laughing, partly for joy at finding
nothing alarming in it; partly because I likened your state of affairs
to that of Demosthenes. Demosthenes, you remember, when he was
providing for a certain little company of chorus dancers and musicians,
requested to be styled no longer Demosthenes, but
“choragus.”1760
| 1760 Plutarch
πολ.
παραγγ xxii. ἢ
τὸ τοῦ
Δημοσθένους
ὅτι νῦν οὐκ
ἔστι
Δημοσθένης
ἀλλὰ καὶ
θεσμοθέτης
ἢ χορηγὸς ἢ
στεφανηφόρος. | You are
always the same, whether playing the “choragus” or
not. “Choragus” you are indeed to soldiers myriads
more in number than the individuals to whom Demosthenes supplied necessaries; and yet
you do not when you write to me stand on your dignity, but keep up the
old style. You do not give up the study of literature, but, as
Plato1761
| 1761 Rep.
vi. 10. οἷον
ἐν χειμῶνι
κονιορτοῦ
καὶ ζάλὴς
ὑπὸ
πνεύματος
φερομένου
ὑπὸ τειχίον
ἀποστάς. | has it, in the
midst of the storm and tempest of affairs, you stand aloof, as it
were, under some strong wall, and keep your mind clear of all
disturbance; nay, more, as far as in you lies, you do not even let
others be disturbed. Such is your life; great and wonderful
to all who have eyes to see; and yet not wonderful to any one who
judges by the whole purpose of your life.
Now let me tell my own story, extraordinary indeed, but
only what might have been expected.
2. One of the hinds who live with us here at
Annesi,1762
on the death of my
servant, without alleging any breach of contract with him, without
approaching me, without making any complaint, without asking me to make
him any voluntary payment, without any threat of violence should he
fail to get it, all on a sudden, with certain mad fellows like himself,
attacked my house, brutally assaulted the women who were in charge of
it, broke in the doors, and after appropriating some of the contents
himself, and promising the rest to any one who liked, carried off
everything. I do not wish to be regarded as the ne plus
ultra of helplessness, and a suitable object for the violence of
any one who likes to attack me. Shew me, then, now, I beg you,
that kindly interest which you have always shewn in my affairs.
Only on one condition can my tranquillity be secured,—that I be
assured of having your energy on my side. It would be quite
punishment enough, from my point of view, if the man were apprehended
by the district magistrate and locked up for a short period in the
gaol. It is not only that I am indignant at the treatment I have
suffered, but I want security for the future.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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