To Senator the Patrician, on the Taxes of Cyrrhus

To the patrician Senator. [a]

Thanks be to the Savior of the world, because he is always adding dignity and honor to your greatness. I have not written until now to show the delight I felt at the crowning of your honors, because I did not wish to trouble your magnificence. As I now write, the district that Providence has entrusted to my care stands, as the proverb says, on a razor’s edge. [b]

You will remember the survey made at the time when we first had the benefit of your presence among us: how it was established with difficulty in the time of the most excellent prefect, the lord Florentius, and how it was confirmed by the present holder of that office. A man who bears the name of bishop, but whose ways are unworthy even of stage actors, has fled from the synod of bishops while lying under sentence of excommunication. He is trying to slander and discredit the survey, and through his hatred of the illustrious Philip he attacks the truth. So I beg your excellency to make his lies come to nothing, and to let the survey, lawfully confirmed, remain undisturbed. It is indeed fitting for your greatness to reap the fruit of this good deed along with the rest, to receive the cheers of those you are benefiting, and so to honor at once the God of all and his true servant, the very man of God, the lord Jacobus, who joins me in sending you this plea. If it were his custom to write, he would have written himself.