Letter 1022: A warm response to Proclus, treating busy public service as better evidence than a letter.

I received a letter from your noble father through the rhetor Priscianus and expected one from you, but no letter came. Instead, I heard what had kept you from writing: a crowd of public business, each matter pulling you toward itself and demanding to be handled first. That news stood in place of a letter for me, or rather gave me even greater pleasure, since it showed you displaying your gifts in many affairs. Whatever Proclus touches is set right. So if you do not write to me, I am not discouraged, since I know the reason; if you can write even while doing all this, I will admire you for managing both. In competing with your father's diligence, you seem to me likely to carry off his prize too, with the same man both praising and awarding it. Perhaps I shall see this myself and enjoy it. When I write about these things, I shall need no other opening than the one I used with your father; that will be enough for you as well.