Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. III:
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret.: To Stasimus, Count and Primate.

XXXIII. To Stasimus, Count and Primate. 1673

To narrate the sufferings of the most honourable and dignified Celestinianus would require tragic eloquence. Tragic writers set forth fully the ills of humanity, but I can only in a word inform your excellency that his country is Libya, so long on all men’s tongues, his city the far famed Carthage, his hereditary rank a seat in her famous council, his circumstances affluent. But all this is now a tale, mere words stripped bare of realities. The barbarian war has deprived him of all this. But such is fortune; she refuses to remain always with the same men and hastens to change her abode to dwell with others. 1674 I beg to introduce this guest to your excellency, and beseech you that he may enjoy your far famed beneficence. I beg also that through your excellency he may become known to all those who are in office and opulence, in order that you may both become a means of advantage to them and win the higher reward from our merciful God.

Footnotes

The title Primas was applied in civil Law to (a) the Decuriones of a municipality, and (b) to the chiefs of provincial governments. Cod. Theod. vii. 18. 13, ix. 40. 16 etc.

cf. Horace I. xxxiv. 14 and III. xxix. 52 “nunc mihi nunc alii benigna.”