Letter 110: In kindly condescending to come down to me you give me great honour and allow me great freedom; and these in like, aye and in greater, measure, I pray that your lordship may receive from our good Master during the whole of your life. I have long wanted to write to you and to receive honour at your hands, but respect for your great dignity has re...

To Modestus, Prefect [of the Praetorian Guard — one of the most powerful officials in the Roman Empire] Your willingness to visit me personally was a great honor, and it gave me the confidence to speak freely. I pray that God grants you the same generosity — and more — throughout your life. I've wanted to write to you for some time, but your high office made me hesitant. I didn't want to seem like I was taking advantage of your openness. Now, though, two things push me to speak: your kind permission to write, and the desperate situation of people who need help. So here is my request. The people living in the iron-producing region of Taurus [a mountain range in southeastern Asia Minor, modern Turkey] are being crushed by their iron tax. If you have any regard for the appeals of someone like me, please intervene. Adjust the tax to something these villagers can actually pay. If you don't, they'll be destroyed entirely — and then they'll be of no use to the state at all. I'm confident your good judgment will see this done.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To the prefect Modestus. In kindly condescending to come down to me you give me great honour and allow me great freedom; and these in like, aye and in greater, measure, I pray that your lordship may receive from our good Master during the whole of your life. I have long wanted to write to you and to receive honour at your hands, but respect for your great dignity has restrained me, and I have been careful lest I should ever seem to abuse the liberty conceded to me. Now, however, I am forced to take courage, not only by the fact of my having received permission from your incomparable excellency to write, but also by the necessity of the distressed. If, then, prayers of even the small are of any avail with the great, be moved, most excellent sir, of your good will to grant relief to a rural population now in pitiable case, and give orders that the tax of iron, paid by the inhabitants of iron-producing Taurus, may be made such as it is possible to pay. Grant this, lest they be crushed once for all, instead of being of lasting service to the state. I am sure that your admirable benevolence will see that this is done.

[Πρός: Μοδέστῳ ὑπάρχῳ] Ὅσης ἡμῖν τιμῆς καὶ παρρησίας μεταδίδως, τῇ ἡμερότητι τοῦ τρόπου καταβαίνειν πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀνεχόμενος, τοσαύτην σοι καὶ ἔτι πλείω ἐν παντὶ τῷ βίῳ παρὰ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἡμῶν Δεσπότου τὴν αὔξησιν γενέσθαι τῆς περιφανείας εὐχόμεθα. ἐμὲ δὲ καὶ πάλαι ἐπιθυμοῦντα γράφειν καὶ ἀπολαύειν τῆς παρὰ σοῦ τιμῆς, κατεῖχεν ἡ πρὸς τὸ ὑπερέχον αἰδώς, εὐλαβούμενον μήποτε νομισθῶ ἀμέτρως ἐμφορεῖσθαι τῆς παρρησίας. Νῦν δὲ ὁμοῦ μὲν καὶ τὸ λαβεῖν τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ ἐπιστέλλειν παρὰ τῆς ἀπαραβλήτου σου μεγαλοφυΐας, ὁμοῦ δὲ καὶ χρεία τῶν καταπονουμένων ἐξεβιάσατό με πρὸς τὸ θαρσεῖν. εἴ τις οὖν καὶ παρὰ τῶν μικρῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς μεγίστοις ἱκετηρίας ἰσχύς, παρακλήθητι, θαυμασιώτατε, φιλανθρώπῳ νεύματι ἐλεεινῇ ἀγροικίᾳ τὴν σωτηρίαν χαρίσασθαι, καὶ τοῖς τὸν Ταῦρον οἰκοῦσι τὸν σιδηροφόρον φορητὴν προστάξαι γενέσθαι τὴν τοῦ σιδήρου συντέλειαν, ὡς μὴ εἰς ἅπαξ αὐτοὺς ἐκτριβῆναι, ἀλλὰ διαρκῇ αὐτῶν εἶναι τὴν ὑπηρεσίαν τοῖς δημοσίοις· οὗ μάλιστα πάντων μέλειν τῇ ἀξιαγάστῳ σου φιλανθρωπίᾳ πεπείσμεθα.