Letter 557

To Drusenus the Governor. Those who rule lawfully over their subjects, according to the principle of justice and with the fear of God, are honored by the venerable Scripture and are accounted blessed; and such men are blessed both in the present life and in the life to come. But all who pass their lives according to your own irrationality, having filled up the soul's faculty of judgment [with corruption] though they have been entrusted with the governorship of a province, such men would be pitiable in a dignity of that kind, and condemned before God, even though they appear to be judging others. For their mind no longer sits upon the tribunal of office, having been created according to the image and likeness of God and appointed beforehand to rule; but rather, having been cast down from the thrones that belong to rulers, it has henceforth been assigned to the rank of the subjects, or rather of the condemned.

Οἱ μὲν νομίμως, καὶ κατὰ τὸν τοῦ δικαίου λόγον σὺν θεῷ φόβῳ ἄρχοντες τῶν ὑποτεταγμένων, τιμῶνται παρὰ τῇ σεπτῇ Γραφῇ, καὶ μακάριοι· οὗτοι τῆς παρούσης, καὶ τῆς μελλούσης ζωῆς ὅσοι δὲ κατὰ τὴν σὴν ἀλογίαν διαζῶσι, πεπληρωμένοι μὲν τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ κριτήριον, ἡγεμονίαν δὲ Ἔθνους ἐγκεχειρισμένοι, ἐλεεινοὶ ἂν εἶεν οἱ τοιοῦτοι τῆς τοιαύτης ἀξίας, καὶ κατακεκριμένοι παρὰ Θεῷ, κἂν ἄλλους κρίνειν δοκῶσιν. Οὐκέτι γὰρ ὁ νοῦς τούτων ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος τῆς ἀρχῆς καθέζεται, κατ’ εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν Θεοῦ κτισθείς, καὶ ἄρχειν προτεταγμένος, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον κατενεχθεὶς ἐκ θρόνων ἀρχοντικῶν, ἐν τῇ τῶν ὑπηκόων λοιπὸν, μᾶλλον δὲ κατακρίτων, τέτακται τάξει.