Letter 64: Procopius says Alpheus's report confirmed exactly what he expected of Sosianus.

Procopius of GazaSosianus, correspondent of Procopius of Gaza|c. 515 AD|Procopius of Gaza|From Gaza, Palaestina Prima|AI-assisted
late antique Greek letters; Sosianus; Alpheus; recommendation; favor; gratitude
Procopius presents his own confident prediction as a proof of friendship with Sosianus.

Admirable Alpheus has told me that you acted toward him exactly as he wished, as I expected, and as it was fitting for you to be seen acting. When I heard this I was delighted, of course. Yet the event did not already seem surprising to me. If you like, I had even told the story in advance, sketching what you would be like toward him, so that he was left with nothing to say, fell silent with a laugh, and called me blessed in my friendship.

Now bring the same zeal to the matters he asked of you in person. Then he will owe thanks to me, and both of us in turn will owe thanks to you.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Σοσιανῶι

Ὁ θαυμάσιος Ἀλφαῖος ἀπήγγειλέ μοι τοιοῦτόν σε περὶ αὐτὸν γεγενῆσθαι, οἷον αὐτὸς μὲν ἐβούλετο, ἐγὼ δὲ προσεδόκων, σὲ δὲ προσῆκεν ὀφθῆναι. ἐγὼ δὲ τούτων ἀκούσας ἥσθην μέν, πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἔμελλον; οὐ μὴν ἤδη μοι καὶ θαυμαστὸν ἐδόκει τὸ πρᾶγμα· εἰ δὲ βούλει, καὶ προλαβὼν διηγούμην ὑπογράφων οἷος περὶ τοῦτον ἐγένου, ὡς ἐκεῖνον ἀποροῦντα λοιπὸν ὅ τι καὶ λέγοι ἅμα γέλωτι σιωπᾶν καὶ εὐδαίμονά με τῆς φιλίας ἀποκαλεῖν. ἀλλ' ὅπως τὴν ἴσην σπουδὴν εἰσενέγκῃς περὶ ὧν ὑμῶν ἐδεήθη παρών, ὅπως αὐτὸς μὲν μοι χάριν εἰδείη, ἀμφότεροι δὲ πάλιν ὑμῖν.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch5 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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