Letter 113: Hieronymus and Theodorus inherit law and eloquence, but Procopius chooses his own city like Odysseus chose Ithaca.

I knew your wisdom long ago, shining everywhere through report. What sight did not give me, fame supplied. With a public proclamation it announced your grandfather as a guide in the interpretation of law, your father as drawing the ear toward the severity of the laws by the grace of his speech, and you as inheriting from them everything they had each received in part. So when I first knew you by report and then learned you by experience, I said, "Happy is the city in which such a noble family lives, and where son succeeds father in office. Happy too are the fathers who placed the hopes of their lives in you." If only I could be with you and drink deeply of your education. But homeland is a powerful source of longing for human beings. Odysseus is witness: he passed over Calypso so that he might see Ithaca. And it does not seem lawful to me to appropriate another person's place in a foreign city contrary to the argument of justice. So may you be safe, always receiving from me the reverence that is customary.

Ἱερωνύμωι καὶ Θεοδώρωι Τὴν ὑμετέραν σοφίαν ἔγνων μὲν καὶ πάλαι πανταχοῦ τῷ λόγῳ προ λάμπουσαν, καὶ ὃν ἡ θέα μὴ παρέσχεν, ἥ γε φήμη χαρίζεται, κοινῷ βοῶσα κηρύγματι τὸν πάππον ὑφηγήσει νόμων ἐπιγραφόμενον, τὸν πατέρα γλώτ της χάριτι πρὸς τὴν τῶν νόμων αὐστηρίαν τὴν ἀκοὴν ὑποσύροντα, καὶ ἐκ τούτων ὑμᾶς πάντα φέροντας, ἅπερ ἐκεῖνοι προλαβόντες ἐκ μέρους ἐνεί μαντο. ὃν οὖν ἔγνων πρῶτον τῷ λόγῳ, νῦν τῇ πείρᾳ μαθών "εὐδαίμων" ἔφην "ἡ πόλις ἐν ᾗ γένος οὕτω σεμνὸν καὶ παῖς ἐκ πατρὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν δια δέχεται· εὐδαιμόνων δὲ πατέρων παῖδες, ὅσοι τοῦ βίου τὰς ἐλπίδας ἐφ' ὑμῖν ἐποιήσαντο". ἀλλ' εἴθε πως ἐδυνάμην συνεῖναι καὶ τῆς σῆς ἐμφορεῖσθαι παιδεύσεως. ἀλλὰ μέγα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις εἰς πόθον ἐστὶν ἡ πατρίς, καὶ μάρ τυς Ὀδυσσεὺς τὴν Καλυψὼ παριδών, ἵνα τὴν Ἰθάκην θεάσηται· πρὸς δὲ οὐ θεμιτὸν εἶναί μοι δοκεῖ τόπον ἀλλότριον παρὰ τὸν τοῦ δικαίου σφετερίσα σθαι λόγον. τοιγαροῦν σώζοισθέ μοι τὰ συνήθη παρ' ἐμοῦ προσκυνούμενοι.