Letter 110: Chrysostom gently rebukes Bassus for not writing despite their friendship and proximity.

What is this? You showed us such love before, and again recently in Constantinople, yet after hearing that we are near your Honor you have not thought us worthy even of a letter. Do you not know how we feel toward your Reverence and how tightly we are bound to you by friendship? I expected you to come here and comfort us in this wilderness. What could be more desolate than Cucusus, especially now that it is besieged by the Isaurians? If coming is difficult because of the robbers and the hard road, then do not hesitate at least to write and tell us the good news of your health. Even in a foreign land, we will draw great comfort from that.

ΡΙʹ. Βάσσῳ ἐπισκόπῳ. Τί τοῦτο; Ὁ τοσαύτην περὶ ἡμᾶς ἀγάπην ἐπιδειξάμενος, καὶ ἐν τῷ ἔμπροσθεν χρόνῳ, καὶ ἔναγχος ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει, ἀκούσας ἡμᾶς ἐκ γειτόνων εἶναι τῆς σῆς τιμιότητος, οὐδὲ γραμμάτων ἡμᾶς ἠξίωσας. Οὐκ οἶσθ' ὅπως διακείμεθά σου περὶ τὴν εὐλάβειαν, καὶ ὅπως συνδεδέμεθά σοι τῷ τῆς φιλίας δεσμῷ; Ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ προσεδόκων σε καὶ ἥξειν ἐνταῦθα, καὶ παρακαλέσειν ἡμᾶς ἐν ἐρημίᾳ τοσαύτῃ καθεστῶτας. Τί γὰρ ἂν γένοιτο ἐρημότερον Κουκουσοῦ, μετὰ τῆς ἐρημίας, καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν Ἰσαύρων πολιορκουμένης ἐφόδου; Ἀλλ' ὅμως, εἰ τοῦτο ἐργῶδες διά τε αὐτῶν τῶν λῃστῶν τὸν φόβον, διά τε τῆς ὁδοῦ τὴν δυσκολίαν, γράφειν ἡμῖν μὴ κατόκνει, καὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς ὑγείας τῆς σῆς εὐαγγελίζεσθαι, ἵνα, καὶ ἐν ἀλλοτρίᾳ διατρίβοντες, πολλὴν ἐντεῦθεν καρπωσώμεθα τὴν παράκλησιν.