Dark of the Sun (Page 26)
Text of a letter from Eustasios Krisanthemenis in Constantinople to his uncle, Porphyry Cantheos, in Sinope, carried by merchant ship and delivered two months after it was dispatched.
The greetings of Eustasios Krisanthemenis to his well-regarded uncle, Porphyry Cantheos, in the handsome port of Sinope on this the 537th anniversary of the beginning of the season of the Birth of Christ, which blessed day will come at the end of this dark, miserable month: may Heaven bless you and send you many good things in the year to come, commensurate with your worth and in forms that need no explication to understand. This letter will not be long, for I want to confine it to both sides of a single page; the Captain of the Diadem will charge me by the sheet of parchment, and so I apologize for the necessarily brusque tone of my communication.
In two previous letters my remonstrations have made no impact upon her, for she is persisting in soliciting my help. It would be a significant task to attempt to bring her and her family safely to Constantinople at this time, but it would be possible to send her and her three children to you, at least until things are less unstable here. This is the proposition I lay before you, and I hope you will consider this request in the sprit in which it is made-as a plea for our family. I am prepared to send you money twice a year to contribute to the maintenance of my sister and her children. We may decide on a reasonable sum if you are willing to take on this responsibility of housing and feeding my sister and her children. I would propose the amount of ten gold Apostles for the year for my sister and six Apostles each for her children. It is not an extravagant, amount, I agree, but in these days, it is the most generous sum I can offer. My circumstances, have never been affluent, and with the privations of the last two years, I have had to reduce my household and keep my business in much more frugal fashion than I have in the past, which has displeased my wife and children, but has been necessary. I have sold three of the household slaves, keeping only eight to tend to my wife and children as well as my stable and racing teams, which have been idle for almost a year and a halt due to this blight God has visited upon us.
Eustasios Krisanthemenis