NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To Sophronius the Master.Letter LXXVI. 2268To Sophronius the Master. 2269The greatness of the calamities, which have befallen our native city, did seem likely tocompel me to travel in person to the court, and there to relate, both to your excellency andto all those who are most influential in affairs, the dejected state in which Cæsarea is lying.But I am kept here alike by ill-health and by the care of the Churches. In the meantime,therefore, I hasten to tell your lordship our troubles by letter, and to acquaint you thatnever ship, drowned in sea by furious winds, so suddenly disappeared, never city shatteredby earthquake or overwhelmed by flood, so swiftly vanished out of sight, as our city, engulfedby this new constitution, has gone utterly to ruin. Our misfortunes have passed into a tale.Our institutions are a thing of the past; and all our men of high civil rank, in despair at whathas happened to our magistrates, have left their homes in the city and are wandering aboutthe country. There is a break therefore in the necessary conduct of affairs, and the city,which ere now gloried both in men of learning and in others who abound in opulent towns,has become a most unseemly spectacle. One only consolation have we left in our troubles,and that is to groan over our misfortunes to your excellency and to implore you, if you can,to reach out the helping hand to Cæsarea who falls on her knees before you. How indeedyou may be able to aid us I am not myself able to explain; but I am sure that to you, with allyour intelligence, it will be easy to discover the means, and not difficult, through the powergiven you by God, to use them when they are found.1712268 Of the same date as the preceding.2269 i.e. magister officiorum. cf. Letters xxxii., xcvi., clxxvii., clxxx., cxciii., cclxxii.503