{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/208/2080094.htm","path":"chr/ecf/208/2080094.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/208/2080094.htm","text":"Letter XXI. 1912\nThe excellent Julianus 1913 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\u2014as he has this. But possibly you have a preference for the famous \u201cfour-times-as-much.\u201d 1914 For even the Pythagoreans were not so fond of their Tetractys, 1915 as these modern tax-collectors of their \u201cfour-times-as-much.\u201d 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 \u201cfour-times-as-much.\u201d 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. 1916 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.\nOf about the same date as the preceding.\n127:1913 127:1914\nThe Ben. note quotes Ammianus Marcellinus xxvi. 6, where it is said of Petronius, father-in-law of Valens: \u201cad nudandos sine discretione cunctos immaniter flagrans nocentes pariter et insontes post exquisita tormenta quadrupli nexibus vinciebat, debita jam inde a temporibus principio Aureliani perscrutans, et impendio m\u00e6rens si quemquam absolvisset indemnem;\u201d and adds: \u201cEst ergo quadruplum hoc loco non quadrimenstrua pensio, non superexactio, sed debitorum, qu\u00e6 soluta non fuerant, crudelis inquisitio et quadrupli p\u0153na his qui non solverant imposita.\u201d\n127:1915\n\u03c4\u03b5\u03c4\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03cd\u03c2 was the Pythagorean name for the sum of the first four numbers (1+2+3+4=10), held by them to be the root of all creation. cf. the Pythagorean oath:\n\u039d\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bc\u1f70 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f01\u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u1fb3 \u03c8\u03cd\u03c7\u1fb3 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03b4\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c4\u03b5\u03c4\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03cd\u03bd,\n\u03a0\u03b1\u03b3\u1f70\u03bd \u1f00\u03b5\u03bd\u03ac\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c6\u03cd\u03c3\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2 \u1fe5\u03b9\u03b6\u03ce\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u1fbd \u1f14\u03c7\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\ncf. my note on Theodoret, Ep. cxxx. for the use of \u03c4\u03b5\u03c4\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03cd\u03c2 for the Four Gospels.\n127:1916\n\u03a4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03b8\u03ae\u03ba\u03b7\u03c2 \u03b3\u03af\u03bd\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9. The pregnant sense of \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03cc\u03c2 makes translation difficult.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VIII: The Letters.: To Leontius the Sophist.","type":"page"}