Letter 160: Philip is asked for one reply after five years of Pythagorean silence.

Procopius of GazaPhilip, brother of Procopius of Gaza|c. 515 AD|Procopius of Gaza|From Gaza, Palaestina Prima|AI-assisted
late antique Greek letters; Philip; brother; bearer; silence; Pythagoreans; Dodona; family
Procopius compares himself to Dodona's bronze vessel, sounding until Philip speaks.

I longed for the bearer of this letter for other reasons too, but especially because, always remembering you for good, he has at last become the cause of a letter from me to you. He said it would be dreadful if he appeared before you empty of words from me. You, then, send me one letter in return and break your silence in the fifth year, like the Pythagoreans. As for me, I have become the bronze vessel of Dodona, trying to move you toward speech.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

Φιλίππωι ἀδελφῶι Τὸν ταύτην ὑμῖν κομίζοντα τὴν ἐπιστολὴν καὶ ἄλλως μὲν ἐπόθουν, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ ὅτιπερ ὑμῶν ἐπ' ἀγαθοῖς ἀεὶ μεμνημένος τέλος καὶ τῆς πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐπιστολῆς ἐμοὶ γέγονεν αἴτιος, δεινὸν εἶναι φάσκων εἰ τῶν ἐξ ἐμοῦ γραμμάτων ἔρημος ὑμῖν ἐπιφαίνοιτο. σὺ δὲ γοῦν μίαν ἡμῖν ἀντεπίθες ἐπιστολήν, καὶ λῦσον ἔτει πέμπτῳ μετὰ τῶν Πυθαγορείων τὴν σιωπήν. ὡς ἡμεῖς καὶ Δωδώνης χαλκεῖον γεγόναμεν, κινῆσαί σε πρὸς λόγους βουλόμενοι.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch9 matia greek v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf

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