Letter 203: I will not render judgment based on hearsay alone, and I will not take sides before hearing both parties.

To Zosimus. Even though Noah had experience of his own farming, he was ignorant of what he suffered from wine; and Lot too was bent toward folly by wine, and became a father in old age against his will; and Herod, when he had become a plaything of drunkenness, reddened his table and his heart with the blood of the great John [the Baptist]. And consider what sorts of dissolutions wine is the cause of for all the irrational charges men incur. Why, then, do you drag in upon yourself a self-chosen madness, and not gird yourself with sober moderation?

Εἰ καὶ Νῶε τῆς οἰκείας γεωργίας πεπείρατο, ἀγνοήσας ὅ πέπονθεν ἐξ οἴνου· καὶ Λὼτ εἰς ἄνοιαν (96) ἐκλίθη ὑπὸ οἴνου, καὶ πατὴρ ἐν γήρει ἀβουλήτως· γεγένητο καὶ Ἡρώδης μέθης γενόμενος παίγνιον, τῷ τοῦ μεγάλου Ἰωάννου αἵματι τὴν τράπεζαν αὐτοῦ καὶ καρδίαν ἐφοίνιζε· καὶ πάντα τὰ ἄλογα τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐγκλήματα, οἵου ἐστὶν ἀπολύσματα· τί τὴν αὐθαίρετον ἐφέλκη μανίαν, καὶ οὐ τὴν σώφρονα περιάπτεις συμμετρίαν.