Letter
CLII.
2503
To Victor, the Commander
.
2504
If
I were to fail to write to
any one else I might possibly with justice incur the charge of
carelessness or forgetfulness. But it is not possible to forget
you, when your name is in all men’s mouths. But I cannot be
careless about one who is perhaps more distinguished than any one else
in the empire. The cause of my silence is evident. I am
afraid of troubling so great a man. If, however, to all your
other virtues you add that of not only receiving what I send, but of
actually asking after what is missing, lo! here I am writing to you
with joyous heart, and I shall go on writing for the future, with
prayers to God that you may be requited for the honour you pay
me. For the Church, you have anticipated my supplications, by
doing everything which I should have asked. And you act to please
not man but God, Who has honoured you; Who has given you some good
things in this life, and will give you others in the life to come,
because you have walked with truth in His way, and, from the beginning
to the end, have kept your heart fixed in the right
faith.
2503
Placed in
373.
2504
cf
. Greg. Naz.,
Letters
cxxxiii. and cxxxiv. and
Theodoret,
Ecc. Hist
. iv. 30. and Amm. Marc. xxxi.
7.