Letter 124: Hieronymus claims Egypt's blessings, but Procopius says the Nile merely hurries past him.

How proud you are of the Nile, and how you bring Egypt out against me, as if you had forgotten beloved Elusa. Your letter is sophistic too; I thought I saw the vanity of Gorgias. You said the Nile rains from the earth, if none of your words escaped me, and makes what was once walkable navigable. But what has that to do with you, living in the city of Hermes, which neither Zeus the rain-bringer watches over, and which the Nile passes by as it hurries elsewhere? And why do you falsely say that you have fruit? Unless you call snakes fruit, and the great multitude of scorpions. It seems one of them stung you long ago; they say you cried, "Ah, ah!" Then, seeing a luxurious table nearby, you rushed wholly toward it, said farewell to the scorpion, and perhaps quoted comedy to it: "Not even dead would I ever be apart from you." That is what you should have written, not adorned yourself with another place's blessings. And you accuse me of silence while saying nothing to me at all. If you had spoken, you would have found me saying more, and you would not have said that Kothokides mocked the sophists with the sufferings of flutes. Farewell, and so to the child and your wife. Do not lie too heavily on your son Alexander, forcing a young age too hard.

Ἱερωνύμωι Ὡς μεγάλα τῷ Νείλῳ φρονεῖς, καὶ ἀντεξάγεις ἡμῖν εἰς μέσον ἄγων τὴν Αἴγυπτον, ὥσπερ Ἐλούσης τῆς φιλτάτης εἰς λήθην ἐλθών. ὡς καὶ σοφιστικὰ δέ σου τὰ γράμματα, καὶ τὸν Γοργίου τῦφον ἐδόκουν ὁρᾶν. ὕειν γὰρ τὸν Νεῖλον ἔφης ἐκ γῆς, εἴ τί με μὴ τῶν ῥημάτων παρέλαθε, καὶ πλωτὴν ποιεῖν τὴν πάλαι βατήν. τί δέ γε τοῦτο πρὸς σὲ τὴν Ἑρμοῦ κατοικοῦντα, ἣν οὔτε Ζεὺς ὑέτιος ἐφορᾷ καὶ παρατρέχων ὁ Νεῖλος εἰς ἑτέραν ἐπείγεται; τί δὲ καὶ ψευδῶς ὀπωρίζεσθαι φής; πλὴν εἰ μὴ τοὺς ὄφεις ὀπώραν καλεῖς καὶ σκορπίων ὅσον γε πλῆθος. ὑφ' ὧν τινος ὡς ἔοικε πάλαι πληγεὶς καὶ ἰοὺ ἰού φασι κεκραγώς, εἶτα μεταξὺ τράπεζαν τρυφῶσαν ἰδών, ὅλος ἐπ' αὐτὴν ἐφέρου, τῷ σκορπίῳ χαίρειν λέξας, τουτὶ τάχα που τὸ κωμικὸν πρὸς τοῦτον εἰπών "μηδὲ γὰρ θανών ποτε σοῦ χωρὶς εἴην". ταῦτα γράφειν ἐχρῆν, οὐκ ἀλλοτρίοις ἀγαθοῖς ὡραΐζεσθαι. ἀλλὰ καὶ σιωπῆς με γράφῃ, μηδὲν ἡμῖν τὸ παράπαν φθεγγόμενος. ἦ γὰρ ἂν πλείω λέγοντας εὗρες, καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἡμῖν τὸν Κοθωκίδην ἔφης τὸ τῶν αὐλῶν πάθος τοῖς σοφισταῖς ἐπισκώπτοντα. ἔρρωσο, καὶ τὸ παιδίον, καὶ ἡ γυνή. καὶ τῷ παιδὶ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ μὴ βαρὺς ἐπίκεισο, νέαν ἡλικίαν ἐπὶ πολὺ βιαζόμενος.