To Anthemius the Subdeacon, on Gifts to the Poor

Gregory to Anthemius, and so on. [a]

When you left, we charged you, and I remember directing you afterward by letter as well, to take care of the poor, and if you found any in those parts in want, to let me know by letter. And you have taken the trouble to do this for only a very few. Now I want you, as soon as you have received this present order, to give Pateria, my father’s sister, forty solidi as shoe money for her boys, and about a hundred bushels of wheat; to the lady Palatina, the widow of Urbicus, twenty solidi and about seventy-five bushels of wheat; and to the lady Viviana, the widow of Felix, twenty solidi and about seventy-five bushels of wheat. Let all these eighty solidi be entered together in your accounts. But bring the total of your receipts here quickly, and be here, with the Lord’s help, by Easter Day. [b]