Letter 12: Procopius asks Zacharias to intervene in a Rhodian commercial injustice.

Here is another opportunity that calls for your leaning toward people in need, and once again I am the one giving you the occasion. I know you will thank me on two counts: because you have found a chance to do good, and because it came to you through me. You truly take more pleasure in doing good than others take in receiving it; you would even call the person who gave you the occasion a benefactor. So I am taking pride in this as though I were about to give thanks to you rather than receive them. "But what is the matter?" I know you are asking with a smile. A certain Alexander among us trades in timber and makes his living from it. As such men naturally do, he took a partner in the business, named Euthymius, so that one would send what was needed and the other, remaining there, would receive it; in that way they carry on the trade. This man lives among you in the Rhodian community, by Zeus, and yet says that he is suffering injustice. The wrongdoer, in Roman legal speech, you might call a concussor, an extortioner. He is imposing unfamiliar regulations and contriving a new opportunity for profit, as though Rhodes were not under your authority. Naturally these things happened because you did not know. Now that you know, let them stop, so that I may owe thanks to you, and the man who obtains justice may owe thanks to me, saying that he was being wronged and that it has ended.

Ζαχαρίαι Ἰδού σοι καιρὸς πάλιν ἀπαιτῶν τὴν πρὸς τοὺς δεομένους ῥοπήν, ὁ δὲ τὴν ἀφορμὴν διδοὺς πάλιν ἐγώ, ὥστε διχόθεν εὖ οἶδ' ὅτι χάριν ὁμολογήσεις, ὅτιπερ εὖ ποιεῖν εὗρες καὶ ὅτι σοι τοῦτο γέγονε δι' ἐμέ. χαίρεις γὰρ ὄντως εὖ ποιῶν ἢ πάσχοντες ἕτεροι, καὶ τὸν τὴν ἀφορμὴν δεδωκότα κἂν εὐεργέτην προσείποις. ὡς τοίνυν σοι χάριν δώσων μᾶλλον ἢ ληψόμενος οὕτω σεμνύνομαι. ἀλλὰ τί τὸ πρᾶγμα; γελῶν εὖ οἶδ' ὅτι πυνθάνῃ. Ἀλέξανδρός τις παρ' ἡμῖν ἐπὶ ξύλοις τὴν ἐμπορίαν ποιεῖται, κἀντεῦθεν ἔχει τὸν βίον. οἷα δὲ εἰκὸς τοὺς τοιούτους, κοινωνόν τινα ποιεῖται τοῦ πράγματος, Εὐθύμιος αὐτῷ τοὔνομα, ὅπως ὁ μὲν πέμποι τὰ δοκοῦντα, ὁ δὲ μένων δέχοιτο, καὶ τὴν ἐμπορίαν οὕτω ποιοῦνται. οὗτος τοίνυν τὴν τῶν Ῥοδίων οἰκεῖ παρ' ὑμῖν, ὦ Ζεῦ, καὶ ὅμως φησὶ μὴ δίκαια πάσχειν. τὸν δὲ ἀδικοῦντα Ῥωμαίων γλώσσῃ κογκούσσωρα εἴποις· νομοθετεῖ γὰρ μὴ εἰωθότα καὶ καινοτέρου κέρδους ἀφορμὴν μηχανᾶται, ὥσπερ οὐχ ὑμῶν ἀρχόντων τῆς Ῥόδου. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ὡς εἰκὸς ὑμῶν οὐκ εἰδότων. οὐκοῦν παυέσθω μαθόντων, ὅπως ἐγὼ μὲν σοὶ χάριν εἰδείην, ὁ δὲ τυχὼν τῶν δικαίων ἐμοί, διηγούμενος ὡς ἠδικεῖτο καὶ πέπαυται.