Synesius, Letter 030

Synesius of Cyrene (c.370-c.413) was a Neo-Platonic philosopher who became bishop of Ptolemais in the Cyrenaica. He left behind a small corpus of texts that offer much information about daily life in Late Antiquity, and about the christianization of the Roman world.

Letters 29 and 30 were written in 403, during Synesius' stay in Alexandria. They are both addressed to Pentadius, the prefect of Egypt, and show Synesius as patron of suppressed people - something he owed to his social rank.

Letter 30 is offered here in the translation by A. Fitzgerald.

Letter 30: A Request for Pardon

[1] To Pentadius the Augustalis

I am anxious about you, and also about this man; for you, that you may not commit an injustice, for him, that he may not suffer one.