Letter 185: If you wish to silence those who mock Christ's teaching, the most effective response is not argument but conduct.
Nothing, O excellent one, is more beneficial than piety. For it preserves even the subjects of victorious kings. Looking to piety, then, try to steer the ship of government so that, at least as far as your part is concerned, the governed may remain free from storms. If the task involves labors, it also involves joys. And if you say these do not coincide, I reply: the joy follows the labor, as the harvest follows the sowing.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
ΡΑΓ΄. – ΤΙΜΟΘΕΩ ΛΑΜΠΡΟΤΑΤΩ.
Πρὸς ἄρχοντας.
Εὐσεβείας οὐδὲν, ὦ ἄριστε, ὠφελιμώτερον. Αὕτη
γὰρ σώζει καὶ τοῖς τροπαιούχοις βασιλεῦσι τὸ ὑπα
ήκοον. Πρὸς ταύτην τοιγαροῦν βλέπων, εὐθύνειν
πειρῶ τὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς σκάφος, ὅπως ἀχείμαστοι, τὸ γε
σὸν μέρος, οἱ ἀρχόμενοι διαμείναιεν. Εἰ δὲ πόνους
ἔχει τὸ πρᾶγμα, ἔχει καὶ θυμηδίας. Εἰ δὲ φαίης, Ου
κατὰ ταυτὸν· φαίην, Οὐ γὰρ οἷόν τε. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ
πολεμοῦντα διαλλαγῆναι οὐκ ἀνέχονται, διὰ τῶν κο-
ρυφῶν συνήφθησαν. Ο γὰρ οἱ πόνοι παραγένωνται,
ἐπακολουθοῦσιν ὕστερον καὶ αἱ θυμηδίαι
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