Letter 164: On the text: "He stands in every way that is not good" [Psalm 36:1], and on "His soul shall be blessed in his life"...
To Theodore the Scholastic. There is a law established from of old and well confirmed, an unwritten law looking toward compassion: that the mighty in arms should yield to the suppliant, and that those who conquer in war should give way to pity. But you, as they say, respecting neither the innate laws nor the unwritten customs, have dishonored those who undertook to advocate on behalf of the servants. Know, therefore, that you are likely to find yourself in the very situation which, when you saw others in it, you felt nothing human but appeared merciless, violating nature itself.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
ΡΕΔ'. – ΘΕΟΔΩΡΟ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΟ.
Θεσμός ἐστιν ἄνωθεν καλῶς κεκυρωμένος, καὶ
νόμος ἄγραφος πρὸς φιλανθρωπίαν βλέπων, τοὺς
κρατοῦντας τοῖς ὅπλοις τῶν ἱκετευόντων ἡττᾶσθαι,
καὶ τοὺς πολέμῳ νικώντας παραχωρεῖν τῷ οἴκτῳ.
Σὺ δ', ὡς φασιν, οὔτε τοὺς ἐμφύτους θεσμούς, οὔτε
τοὺς ἀγράφους νόμους αἰδεσθεὶς, τοὺς περὶ τῶν
οἰκετῶν τὴν συνηγορίαν ἀναδεξαμένους ἡτίμασας.
Ἴσθι τοίνυν ὅτι εἰκός σε εἰς τοῦτο περιστῆναι τὸ
σχῆμα, ὁ ἄλλους θεασάμενος ἔχοντας, οὐκ ἔπαθές
τι ἀνθρώπινον, ἀλλ᾽ ἀμείλικτος ὀφθεὶς, καὶ τὴν φύ-
σιν αὐτὴν καὶ τὸν ἔλεον ὕβρισας.
ΡΜΑ΄. – ΘΕΟΔΩΡΩ
Αἱροῦ τήν τε σωφροσύνην ἀσκήσει.
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