Letter 37

37. Without address, on behalf of a foster-brother.

I look now with some misgiving on the multitude of my letters. Under compulsion, and unable to bear the burdensomeness of those who press their demands upon me, I am forced to speak out; yet I write nonetheless, having no other way to find relief than to give them the letters they ask of us at every turn. I am afraid, then, that, since many bring forward letters, this brother too may be reckoned as one of the many. For I confess that I have many friends and kinsmen in my native country, and that I myself have been placed in the rank of a father, on account of this office to which the Lord has appointed us. But this one I have as a foster-brother, a son of the woman who nursed me, and I pray that the house in which I was reared may remain in its same condition, so that the sojourn of your orderly self, which benefits all, may not become to the man any occasion for grief. But since even now I am still maintained from that same house, having nothing of my own and content with what belongs to those dear to me, I beg you so to spare the household in which I was reared as to preserve for me the provision of my sustenance. And may God in return count you worthy of eternal rest.

This, however, as the truest thing of all, I wish your orderly self to know: that most of his slaves came to him from us, as the wage of our upkeep, our parents having provided them. And the wage is not an outright gift, but a use for the term of life. So that, if any burden arises concerning them, he is free to send them back to us, and we shall, by another road, again become liable to the taxes and the collectors.