Letter 94: In Holy Scripture, expressions that go beyond the singular number indicate the distinction of the persons;...

On the fact that it is good to flee public life [the affairs of the city-state], and addressed to magistrates. To Agathos. We fled the cities as turbulent places, and we have found turmoil even at the edge of the wilderness [the desert frontier where the monks dwell]. For the governors of the commonwealth, who ought to be making the cities tranquil, now throw the deserts into uproar, turning those who inhabit them into fugitives, and pouring out upon us tearful cries. That it is a divine thing to feel compassion, this I too know well; and that a vindication too feeble to take effect is an addition to the wound, this also I am not ignorant of. You yourself, then, since you have the power, and are a ruler with authority to defend, both put a stop to the injustice, and set the commonwealth on its feet, and grant us tranquillity, having silenced the laments of the wilderness.

Ὅτι καλὸν τὸ φεύγειν (f. add. τὰς) πολιτείας καὶ πρὸς ἄρχοντας. Ἡμεῖς τὰς πόλεις ὡς θορυβώδεις πεφεύγαμεν, καὶ θορύβους ἐπὶ τῆς ἐσχατιᾶς εὑρήκαμεν. Οἱ γὰρ ἡγεμόνες τῆς πολιτείας, οἱ τὰς πόλεις ἠρεμεῖν παρασκευάζειν ὀφείλοντες, νῦν τὰς ἐρημίας πολύζουσι, τοὺς οἰκοῦντας αὐτὰς τρέποντες εἰς φυγάδας (86), καὶ ἡμῖν δακρυώδεις ἐπαντλοῦντες φωνάς. Ὅτι δὲ θεῖον τὸ συμπαθεῖν, εὖ οἶδα κἀγὼ· ὅτι δὲ τὸ πρὸς ἐκδίκησιν ἀσθενὲς προσθήκη ἐστὶ τῆς πληγῆς, καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀγνοῶ. Αὐτὸς οὖν ὡς ἔχων τὸ δύνασθαι, καὶ ἀρχὼν πρὸς τὴν ἄμυναν, καὶ παῦσον τὴν ἀδικίαν, καὶ στῆσον τὴν πολιτείαν, καὶ δὸς ἡμῖν ἠρεμίαν, στείλας τοὺς θρήνους τῆς ἐρημίας.