Letter 238: The one who commands rightly must first have learned to obey rightly.

To Isaiah the Soldier. To a soldier who is disorderly. If the points of weapons, a helmet, and a breastplate are your security for a good life — you who rob travelers and make the highways desolate — know that many who armed themselves more impenetrably than you met with a most pitiable death. In our records, Oreb and Zeeb and Salmana, Abimelech and Goliath, and Absalom, and all like them. And among the pagans, the Hectors and the Ajaxes, and the Spartans themselves who prided themselves above all in strength — since they did not have righteousness as their ally...

ΟΗ΄. – ΗΣΑΙΑ ΣΤΡΑΤΙΩΤΗ. Πρὸς στρατιώτην ἀτακτοῦντα. Εἰ ὅπλων αἰχμαὶ (77), καὶ κράνος, καὶ θώραξ, ἀσφάλειά σοι πρὸς εὐζωΐαν νενόμισται, λωποδυτοῦντι καὶ τὰς λεωφόρους ἐρημοῦντι· ἴσθι ὡς πολλοὶ δυσ- αλωτότερόν σου φραξάμενοι, οἴκτιστον ἀπηνέγκαντο θάνατον. Παρ' ἡμῖν μὲν ἀνάγραπτοι, Ὠρὴδ, καὶ Ζηβες, καὶ Σαλμανά, ᾿Αβιμελὲχ καὶ Γολιάθ, καὶ ᾿Αβησσαλών, καὶ ὅσοι κατ᾿ ἐκείνους. Παρὰ δὲ τοῖς D έξω, Ἔκτορες, καὶ Αἴαντες, καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ μέγα πάντων φρονήσαντες Λακεδαιμόνιοι ἐπὶ ῥώμῃ, ἐπειδὴ οὐκ ἔσχον σύνδρομον τῇ δυνάμει τὸ δίκαιον. Εἰ οὖν μὴ μάταιος εἶναι βούλει ὁπλίτης, ὀξέως πρὸς τὸν νοητὸν μετάταξαι πόλεμον, καὶ μᾶλλον τῇ σαυτοῦ ἀταξίᾳ πολέμησον. ΣΛΗ. – ΤΩ ΑΥΤΩ. Τὸ ἐν νόσῳ χαλεπωτάτῃ τυγχάνοντα, νομίζειν ὑγιαίνειν, μανία λαμπρὰ καὶ ἀνήκεστος. Πῶς γὰρ ὁ τοιοῦτος ἰατρὸν ζητήσει, μηδ' αὐτὸ τοῦτο ὅτι νοσεί ἐπιστάμενος; Πρῶτον οὖν αὐτῷ χρὴ τρανὴν τὴν αἴσθησιν τοῦ πάθους ἐμποιῆσαι, εἶτα τὸν τούτου καλέσαι ἰατρόν. ΣΛΗ. – ΠΑΜΠΡΕΠΙΟ ΔΙΑΚΟΝΩ. Τι ἐστι τὸ, « Ἱερεῖς, λαλήσατε εἰς τὴν καρδίαr Ιερουσαλήμ. » Ἐπειδὴ τὸ μὲν λόγοις φιλοσοφεῖν βάδιον, τὸ δὲ D ΣΛΗ'. – ΕΥΤΟΝΙΟ ΔΙΑΚΟΝΟ. Μὴ νόμιζε τῷ ἀσκεῖν ἀρετὴν, τὰς διαβολὰς δια- ```