Letter 62: The strength of rulers is friendship with God.
To Titianus.
A discourse produced for the benefit of those who hear it is a discourse with real power, justly called a discourse, and one that holds its imitation toward God. But the one that ends only in delight and applause is a noise upon bronze, ringing in the ear with great clangor. Therefore regulate your discourse by dignity, preferring moderation to bombast; otherwise, know that you are a cymbal, suited only to the stage of the theaters.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Λόγος πρὸς ὠφέλειαν τῶν ἀκουόντων γινόμενος,
λόγος ἐστὶν ἐνδύναμος, ἐνδίκως λόγος καλούμενος,
καὶ πρὸς θεὸν ἔχων τὴν μίμησιν. Ὁ δὲ πρὸς τέρψιν
[μόνην] καὶ κρότον τελευτῶν, ἦχος ἐπὶ (60) χαλκοῦ
τοῖς μεγάλοις ψόφοις τὴν ἀκοὴν ἐνηχῶν. Ἡ τοίνυν
σεμνότητι τὸν λόγον σου ῥύθμιζε, προτιμῶν τὸ
κόμπου τὸ μέτριον, ἢ γίνωσκε κύμβαλον ὤν, τῇ
σκηνῇ τῶν θεάτρων ἁρμόδιον.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern isidore pelusium workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/PatrologiaGraeca (PG vol.78)
Related Letters
The strength of rulers lies in friendship with God.
Chrysostom praises bishops who traveled with western bishops for the churches' benefit.
Chrysostom presses Marcianus and Marcellinus to end their silence with health news.
In Plato, we see Socrates, already advanced in years, still pursuing his intellectual passions.
Chrysostom excuses Hesychius's illness and treats his intention as equivalent to a visit.