Letter 206: Know this: those who discipline you are not your enemies, and those who flatter you are not your friends.

To Theonilla. On the stater which Peter took. The stater [a silver coin] which Peter was commanded to take from the deep, hidden within the fish [see Matthew 17:24-27], signified our nature, veiled by the passions, which the Lord recalls in himself back to its archetype. And he ordered that this be given in his own stead, as one who, having become man, is subject to all that is ours; for he neither allowed resistance to be offered to a king who issues commands that bring no harm, and at the same time he displayed the workings of the divine power.

Περὶ τοῦ στατῆρος ὃν ἔλαβεν ὁ Πέτρος. Ὁ στατὴρ ὃν ὁ Πέτρος ἐκ τοῦ βυθοῦ λαβεῖν ἐκελεύετο ἐν τῷ ἰχθύϊ κρυπτόμενον (98), τὴν μορφὴν ἡμῶν ἐδήλου καλυπτομένην τοῖς πάθεσιν, ἣν ἐν ἑαυτῷ πρὸς τὸ ἀρχέτυπον ἀνακαλεῖται ὁ Κύριος. Ἀνθ’ ἑαυτοῦ δὲ τοῦτον δοθῆναι προσέταξεν, ὡς γεγονὼς ἄνθρωπος τοῖς ἡμῶν ἅπασιν ὑποκείμενος· οὔτε βασιλεῖ συγχωρῶν ἀντιτάσσεσθαι ἀβλαβῶς ἐπιτάσσοντι, καὶ τῆς θεϊκῆς δυνάμεως τὰς ἐνεργείας ἐπιδεικνύμενος.