Letter 15

15. To Arcadius, count of the privy purse

The citizens of our metropolis have given a greater favour than they received, in furnishing me with the occasion for this letter to your honoured self. For the kindness on account of which they received the letter from us was theirs even before our letter, because of the habitual and natural gentleness that dwells in you toward all.

But we have counted it the greatest gain to have the occasion of addressing your inimitable nobility, praying to the holy God that, as you advance in your pleasing of Him and grow yet greater in the distinction that surrounds you, we ourselves may rejoice and share the gladness of those benefited by your governance; and that one day too those who deliver our letter to you may meet a gentle reception, and be sent away with all the rest, themselves also extolling your meekness, having learned forever that our embassy on their behalf to your unsurpassable nobility has not been useless to them.