Letter 86: I know that a first and foremost object of your excellency is in every way to support the right; and after that to benefit your friends, and to exert yourself in behalf of those who have fled to your lordship's protection. Both these pleas are combined in the matter before us. The cause is right for which we are pleading; it is dear to me who am...

To the Governor of Neocaesarea [a city in Pontus, modern northern Turkey], I know your top priorities are upholding justice and helping your friends — and this case involves both. I'm writing on behalf of my dear brother Dorotheus, who has come to you for protection. Here's what happened: some officials at Berisi [a nearby town] seized all the grain Dorotheus had for his household's basic needs. Whether they acted on their own initiative or someone else put them up to it, it doesn't matter — it's wrong either way. A man who commits injustice on his own is no less guilty than one who does it on someone else's orders. Either way, Dorotheus lost his food. I'm asking you to order these men to return his grain, and not to let them shift the blame onto others. If you grant this, I'll value your kindness in proportion to how essential food is to staying alive — which is to say, enormously.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To the Governor. I know that a first and foremost object of your excellency is in every way to support the right; and after that to benefit your friends, and to exert yourself in behalf of those who have fled to your lordship's protection. Both these pleas are combined in the matter before us. The cause is right for which we are pleading; it is dear to me who am numbered among your friends; it is due to those who are invoking the aid of your constancy in their sufferings. The grain, which was all my very dear brother Dorotheus had for the necessaries of life, has been carried off by some of the authorities at Berisi, entrusted with the management of affairs, driven to this violence of their own accord or by others' instigation. Either way it is an indictable offense. For how does the man whose wickedness is his own do less wrong than he who is the mere minister of other men's wickedness? To the sufferers the loss is the same. I implore you, therefore, that Dorotheus may have his grain returned by the men by whom he has been robbed, and that they may not be allowed to lay the guilt of their outrage on other men's shoulders. If you grant me my request I shall reckon the value of the boon conferred by your excellency in proportion to the necessity of providing one's self with food.

[Πρός: Τῷ ἡγεμόνι] Οἶδα μεγίστην καὶ πρώτην σπουδὴν οὖσαν τῇ τιμιότητί σου πάντα τρόπον χαρίζεσθαι τῷ δικαίῳ, δευτέραν δὲ τὸ καὶ τοὺς φίλους εὖ ποιεῖν καὶ τῶν προσφευγόντων τῇ προστασίᾳ τῆς σῆς μεγαλονοίας ἀντιποιεῖσθαι. πάντα τοίνυν εἰς ταὐτὸν συνέδραμεν ἐπὶ τῆς παρούσης ὑποθέσεως. καὶ γὰρ δίκαιόν ἐστι τὸ πρᾶγμα, ὑπὲρ οὗ τὴν πρεσβείαν ποιούμεθα, καὶ ἡμῖν κεχαρισμένον, οὓς ἐν τοῖς φίλοις ἀριθμεῖν τοῖς σεαυτοῦ κατηξίωσας, καὶ ὀφειλόμενον τοῖς τὴν στερρότητά σου εἰς τὴν ὑπὲρ ὧν πεπόνθασι βοήθειαν ἐπικαλουμένοις. Σῖτον γάρ, ὃν μόνον εἶχε πρὸς τὴν ἀναγκαίαν τοῦ βίου διαγωγὴν ὁ ποθεινότατος ἀδελφὸς Δωρόθεος, διήρπασάν τινες ἐν Βηρίσοις τῶν τὰ δημόσια διοικεῖν πεπιστευμένων, εἴτε ἀφʼ ἑαυτῶν ἐλθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν βίαν, εἴτε καὶ ἑτέρων αὐτοῖς ὑποθεμένων. πλὴν οὐδαμόθεν αὐτοῖς τὸ πρᾶγμα ἀνέγκλητον, τί γὰρ ἧττον ἀδικεῖ ὁ οἴκοθεν πονηρὸς ἢ ὁ ἑτέρων κακίᾳ ὑπηρετούμενος ; καὶ τοῖς πεπονθόσιν ἡ ζημία ὁμοία. τοῦτον ἀξιοῦμεν, δι’ ὧν ἀφῃρέθη μὲν ἀπολαβεῖν, καὶ μὴ ἐξεῖναι αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ ἑτέροις τὴν αἰτίαν τῶν τετολμημένων ἀναφέρειν· ὅσου δὲ ἄξιον τὸ τὴν ἐκ τῆς σιτοδείας διαφυγεῖν ἀνάγκην, τοσούτου τὴν χάριν τιμησόμεθα τὴν παρὰ τῆς σῆς μεγαλοφυΐας, ἐὰν ἄρα δοῦναι καταξιώσῃς.