Letter 178

178. To Aburgius

I know that I have often commended many men to your honour, and that in the gravest hours of need I have been of considerable help to those in distress. Yet I am not aware of having previously sent to your excellency anyone dearer to me, or one contending for greater things, than my most beloved son Eusebius, who now places this letter of ours in your hands. In what sort of affair he has become entangled he will himself relate to your dignity, should he find the occasion. What it is fitting for us to say is this: that the man should not be swept away, nor, because many have been shown to be guilty of the most serious offences, should he too come to share in any part of the suspicion that falls upon the many; but that he should obtain a trial, and that his life should be brought to examination. For in this way the slander will most readily be made plain, and the man, having obtained the most just protection, will be a perpetual herald of the kindnesses done him by your gentleness.