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

To Trajan.Letter CXLVIII. 2486To Trajan. 2487Even the ability to bewail their own calamities brings much comfort to the distressed;and this is specially the case when they meet with others capable, from their lofty character,of sympathizing with their sorrows. So my right honourable brother Maximus, after beingprefect of my country, and then suffering what no other man ever yet suffered, stripped ofall his belongings both inherited from his forefathers and collected by his own labours, afflictedin body in many and various ways, by his wanderings up and down the world, andnot having been able to keep even his civil status free from attack, to preserve which freemenare wont to leave no labour undone, has made many complaints to me about all that hashappened to him, and has begged me to give you a short description of the Iliad of woes inwhich he is involved. And I, being quite unable to relieve him in any other way in histroubles, have readily done him the favour shortly to relate to your excellency a part of whatI have heard from him. He, indeed, seemed to me to blush at the idea of making a plaintale of his own calamity. If what has happened shews that the inflicter of the wrong is avillain, at all events it proves the sufferer to be deserving of great pity; since the very fact ofhaving fallen into troubles inflicted by Divine Providence, seems in a manner to shew thata man has been devoted to suffering. But it would be a sufficient comfort to him if you willonly look at him kindly, and extend also to him that abundant favour which all the recipientsof it cannot exhaust,—I mean your clemency. We are all of us convinced that before thetribunal your protection will be an immense step towards victory. He who has asked formy letter as likely to be of service is of all men most upright. May it be granted me to seehim, with the rest, proclaiming aloud the praises of your lordship with all his power.2072486 Placed in 373.2487 A Trajan was commander-in-chief under Valens. cf. Theod. iv. 30 and Amm. Marcellinus xxxi. He waskilled at the battle of Adrianople in 378. This may have been the same officer.599