Letter 21: The excellent Julianus seems to get some good for his private affairs out of the general condition of things. Everything nowadays is full of taxes demanded and called in, and he too is vehemently dunned and indicted. Only it is a question not of arrears of rates and taxes, but of letters.

Our excellent friend Julianus seems to be getting some private advantage from the general state of chaos. Everything these days is about taxes demanded and collected, and he too is being aggressively dunned — but not for back taxes. For letters. How he's become a defaulter I have no idea. He's always given a letter and received one in return — as he has this one. But perhaps you prefer the famous "four times as much." Not even the Pythagoreans were as devoted to their sacred Tetractys as today's tax collectors are to their fourfold penalties. Though really, the fairer arrangement would be the reverse: a Sophist like you, so abundantly supplied with words, should be the one owing me four times as much. But don't imagine I'm writing any of this out of annoyance. I'm genuinely delighted to get even a scolding from you. As the saying goes, the good and beautiful do everything with an added measure of goodness and beauty — even their anger and grief have a kind of charm. I'd certainly rather have my friend angry with me than a stranger flattering me. So don't stop making accusations. Each accusation means a letter, and nothing could be more welcome to me.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To Leontius the Sophist. The excellent Julianus seems to get some good for his private affairs out of the general condition of things. Everything nowadays is full of taxes demanded and called in, and he too is vehemently dunned and indicted. Only it is a question not of arrears of rates and taxes, but of letters. But how he comes to be a defaulter I do not know. He has always paid a letter, and received a letter — as he has this. But possibly you have a preference for the famous four-times-as-much. For even the Pythagoreans were not so fond of their Tetractys, as these modern tax-collectors of their four-times-as-much. Yet perhaps the fairer thing would have been just the opposite, that a Sophist like you, so very well furnished with words, should be bound in pledge to me for four-times-as-much. But do not suppose for a moment that I am writing all this out of ill-humour. I am only too pleased to get even a scolding from you. The good and beautiful do everything, it is said, with the addition of goodness and beauty. Even grief and anger in them are becoming. At all events any one would rather see his friend angry with him than any one else flattering him. Do not then cease preferring charges like the last! The very charge will mean a letter; and nothing can be more precious or delightful to me.

[Πρός: Λεοντίῳ σοφιστῇ] Ἔοικέ τι τῆς κοινῆς καταστάσεως καὶ εἰς τὰ ἑαυτοῦ πράγματα ὁ χρηστὸς Ἰουλιανὸς ἀπολαύειν. ἀπαιτεῖται γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ ἐγκαλεῖται σφοδρῶς, ἐπειδὴ πάντα νῦν ἀπαιτουμένων καὶ ἐγκαλουμένων γέμει. πλὴν ὅσον οὐχὶ εἰσφορῶν ἐλλείμματα, ἀλλʼ ἐπιστολῶν. καίτοι πόθεν αὐτῷ ἐλλέλειπται ἀγνοῶ· ἔδωκε γὰρ ἀεὶ ἐπιστολήν, τὴν δὲ ἐκομίσατο. εἰ μή τί που καὶ παρὰ σοὶ ἡ πολυθρύλλητος αὐτὴ τετραπλῆ προτετίμηται. οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ Πυθαγόριοι τοσοῦτον προετίμησαν τὴν τετρακτύν, ὅσον οἱ νῦν ἐκλέγοντες τὰ δημόσια τὴν τετραπλῆν. καίτοιγε ἴσως τὸ ἐναντίον εἰκὸς ἦν, σοφιστὴν ὄντα καὶ εὐποροῦντα λόγων τοσούτων, αὐτὸν ἡμῖν εἰς τὴν τῶν τετραπλασίων ἔκτισιν ὑποκεῖσθαι. καὶ μὴ οἴου ταῦτα δυσχεραίνοντας ἡμᾶς γράφειν. χαίρω γάρ σου καὶ ταῖς μέμψεσιν, ἐπειδὴ τοῖς καλοῖς φασὶ πάντα μετὰ τῆς τοῦ καλοῦ προσθήκης γίνεσθαι· ὥστε καὶ λύπας αὐτοῖς καὶ ὀργὰς ἐπιπρέπειν. ἥδιον γοῦν ἄν τις ἴδοι ὀργιζόμενον τὸν ἀγαπώμενον, ἢ θεραπεύοντα ἕτερον. μήποτε οὖν ἀνῇς ἐγκαλῶν τοιαῦτα. γράμματα γάρ που ἔσται αὐτὰ τὰ ἐγκλήματα, ὧν ἐμοὶ οὐδὲν ἄκουσμα τιμιώτερον, οὐδὲ πλείονα φέρον τὴν ἡδονήν.