Letter 158: A man impoverished by his brother's injustice seeks help from law at Caesarea.

Procopius of GazaJohn, correspondent of Procopius of Gaza|c. 515 AD|Procopius of Gaza|From Gaza, Palaestina Prima|To Caesarea Maritima, Palaestina Prima|AI-assisted
late antique Greek letters; John; Caesarea; brother; lawsuit; poverty; legal support; court costs
This recommendation is practical and legal, focused on allies and the cost of court.

The bearer of this letter is a good man, and he laments poverty caused by his brother's injustice. For this reason he is going to Caesarea, if he can, to recover what belongs to him. Please deign to help, preparing the powerful people among you to give him adequate support. He has one hope of consolation: to receive assistance from the laws, of which he has been deprived for far too long, because he has a very wicked brother who is always devising new evasions. Console his distress by cutting down the expenses of the courts as much as possible.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

Ἰωάννηι Ὁ τὴν παροῦσαν ἐπιστολὴν ἐπαγόμενος, ἀνὴρ ὢν ἀγαθός, ἐξ ἀδικίας ἀδελφοῦ τὴν ἀπορίαν ὀδύρεται. ὅθεν καταλαμβάνει τὴν Καίσαρος, ἄνπερ οἷός τε ᾖ, τὰ προσήκοντα κομιούμενος. ἀλλὰ συλλαβεῖν καταξίωσον, τοὺς παρ' ὑμῖν δυνατοὺς εἰς συμμαχίαν αὐτῷ παρασκευάζων ἀρκοῦσαν. μίαν γὰρ ἔχει παραμυθίας ἐλπίδα, τῆς ἐκ τῶν νόμων ἐπικουρίας τυχεῖν, ἧς πλεῖ στον ἄγαν ἐστέρηται χρόνον, πονηρότατον ἔχων τὸν ἀδελφὸν καὶ καινο τέρας διαδύσεις ἀεὶ μηχανώμενον. ὅθεν αὐτῷ τὴν ἀπορίαν παραμυθήσασθε, τὰς τῶν δικαστηρίων δαπάνας ὡς δυνατὸν περικόπτοντες.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch9 matia greek v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf

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