Letter 91: Procopius answers Hieronymus's charge that placing his own name first was arrogant.

What an accusation I have enjoyed from you: I am arrogant, deeply sophistic, and diseased with contempt, all because of a modest form of address. I could not even recount all the charges you heaped against me, as if you had long been looking for an occasion to lift your tongue against me. Without even taking a just pretext, you bring into the open things you had long been hiding. Tell me, what was so terrible if I wrote to you with the heading, "Procopius to Hieronymus, greetings"? You would surely agree that the custom is ancient. "But present usage," you say, "does not need to give way." Then you should accuse anyone who wished to bring present luxury back to ancient seriousness, or to rescue music from nonsense tunes and common chatter and restore it to the Muse of Terpander. And you yourself, by the god of friendship, why do you seem dignified if you utter some Attic word and win praise for sounding ancient, when you could fill yourself with street-corner words and carry those to the platform? Why do you think it important, sitting before young men, to speak like the famous Aristides? Did Polemon not cleanse the old rhetoric of Asian extravagance? If Fortune had put you then, I think you would have brought an indictment against him too for ignoring the usual forms and wanting to be arrogant by returning to the ancient Muse. I wish a Spartan table ruled again now, and that our life were like that of the old Persians: barley-cake, water, and cress. Even now a person might see such things ruling in your Elusa, not because of excessive endurance, but because the land barely supplies that much to its inhabitants. Yet you, having learned Egyptian luxury, stripped off your native ways, though you legislate that usual customs must be preserved even when they fall outside propriety. You call me arrogant because I set your name after my own in the address. That seems to come from not knowing that what stands first in order does not always hold first place in honor. Nor do you seem to know the Demosthenic point that schoolboys regularly practice: action and voting come later in order than speaking, but they are earlier and stronger in power. If you charge such things with arrogance, then it is time to wrap me together with all who used the old form of address in the same disease of contempt. I pass over the others and name only Socrates and Plato, who lifted philosophy upward. But drop the charge of arrogance at once, and do not turn the proverb's knife against yourself. Were these not your own doings? When you stepped off the merchant ship, the Egyptian boys escorted you with some barbarian shout, and there was a festival no smaller than when a favorable birth once gave them Apis. Lifted high in mind by these things, you called me worthless because I lived in a small city; homeland, wife, and child were all cast aside in your eyes. You thought my philosophy was nonsense because no great applause surrounded me, you who came from an obscure sound and a foreign tongue. Most of all, you called yourself happy if they showed your house full of grain and meat. Do you see how far you were lifted by small things, you who now bring a charge of arrogance? By the gods, I say this not because I want to retaliate for your words; I do not judge that worthy of my philosophy. I say it in hope that I might make your tongue more moderate. Still, do not be so struck by the force of my words that you keep far away from writing such things to me. By your Nile and the Graces now with you, your letter provided a theater of words. It was read aloud in the middle of Gaza before everyone. I blushed when your letter called me arrogant, but the audience laughed at my expense, and you seemed blessed in your eloquence.

Ἱερωνύμωι Ὅσης σου τῆς κατηγορίας ἀπελαύσαμεν οἱ ἀλαζόνες ἡμεῖς καὶ λίαν σοφισταὶ καὶ νοσοῦντες ὑπεροψίαν ἐν μετρίῳ τῷ σχήματι. καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἔχοιμι λέγειν ὅσα καθ' ἡμῶν συνεφόρησας, ὥσπερ καιρὸν πάλαι ζητῶν ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἐγεῖραι τὴν γλῶτταν. ὅθεν οὐδὲ πρόφασιν δικαίαν λαβὼν εἰς μέσον ἄγεις ἃ πάλαι κρύπτων ἐλάνθανες. τί γάρ, εἰπέ μοι, δεινὸν εἰ πρὸς σὲ γράφων "Προκόπιος Ἱερωνύμῳ χαίρειν" ἐπέγραφον; ὡς μὲν γὰρ ἀρχαῖος ὁ νόμος, ἔχω δήπουθεν ὁμολογοῦντα ἂν καὶ σέ. "ἀλλ' οὐδὲν δεῖ" φής "τὴν νῦν ἐπι πολάζουσαν ἐκβῆναι συνήθειαν". οὐκοῦν κατηγόρει κἂν εἰ τὴν νῦν κρατοῦ σαν τρυφὴν εἰς σεμνότητά τις τὴν ἀρχαίαν ἐπανάγειν ἐθέλοι, κἂν εἰ τὴν μουσικὴν ἐκπεσοῦσαν εἰς ὕθλους μελῶν καὶ δημοτικὴν φλυαρίαν εἰς τὴν Τερπάνδρου μοῦσαν αὖθις ἐνέγκοι. αὐτὸς δὲ πόθεν ἡμῖν, πρὸς Φιλίου, σεμνὸς εἶναι δοκεῖς εἴ τι ῥῆμα φθέγξαιο τῶν Ἀττικῶν, καὶ τύχοις τῶν ἐπαινούντων ὡς ἀρχαῖον καθέστηκε, παρὸν ἐμφορεῖσθαι τῶν ἐκ τριόδου ῥημάτων καὶ ταῦτα φέρειν ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος; ἢ τί δῆτα τῶν μειρακίων προκαθεζόμενος οἴει τι μέγα φέρειν Ἀριστείδου τοῦ πάνυ πρὸς ἔπαινον, εἰ λέγοις ὡς αὐτός; ἢ Πολέμων τῆς Ἀσιανῆς τερατείας τὴν ἀρχαίαν ῥητορικὴν οὐκ ἐκάθηρεν; εἰ δέ σοι τότε γενέσθαι παρέσχεν ἡ τύχη, τάχ' ἄν μοι καὶ γραφὴν ἐπενέγκα σθαι κατ' ἐκείνου δοκεῖς, ὅτι τὰ συνήθη παριδὼν ἀλαζὼν εἶναι βούλεται, πρὸς ἀρχαίαν ἀναγόμενος μοῦσαν. εἴθε δὲ καὶ τράπεζα νῦν αὖθις ἐκράτει Λακωνικὴ καὶ ἦν ἡμῖν ὁ βίος ὡς πάλαι τοῖς Πέρσαις μᾶζα καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ κάρδαμα. ταῦτα δὲ καὶ νῦν ἐν Ἐλούσῃ τις ἴδοι κρατοῦντα τῇ σῇ, οὐ διὰ καρτερίας ὑπερβολήν, ἀλλ' ὅτι τοσαῦτα μόλις χορηγεῖ τοῖς ἐνοικοῦσιν ἡ γῆ. ἀλλ' ὅμως αὐτὸς τρυφὴν Αἰγυπτίαν μαθὼν ἀπεδύσω τὰ πάτρια, ὁ φυλάτ τειν τὰ συνήθη νομοθετῶν, κἂν ἔξω τοῦ πρέποντος ᾖ. τὸ δὲ καὶ ἀλαζόνα με καλεῖν, ὅτε σε μετὰ τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ προσηγορίαν φέρων ὑπέταξα, ἔοικεν οὐ λίαν εἰδότος ὡς οὐ τὸ πρῶτον τῇ τάξει καὶ τῆς τιμῆς ἔχει πάντως τὰ πρῶτα, οὐδὲ τὰ Δημοσθένους εἰδέναι ποιουμένου, ἅπερ μελετᾶν εἴωθε τὰ παιδάρια, ὡς ἄρα τὸ πράττειν τοῦ λέγειν καὶ χειροτονεῖν, ὕστερον ὂν τῇ τάξει, πρό τερον τῇ δυνάμει καὶ κρεῖττόν ἐστιν. εἰ δὲ πάντως ἀλαζονείαν τὰ τοιαῦτα κατηγορεῖς, καιρὸς καὶ τοὺς πάλαι κεχρημένους τῷ νόμῳ τῆς τοιαύτης ἐπι γραφῆς ὑπεροψίας σὺν ἐμοὶ περιβάλλειν νοσήματι, ὧν τοὺς ἄλλους παρεὶς Σωκράτην λέγω καὶ Πλάτωνα τοὺς ἄνω τὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἐξάραντας. ἀλλὰ περὶ ἀλαζονείας αὐτόθεν κατάβαλε, καὶ μὴ κίνει κατὰ σαυτοῦ τῆς παροιμίας τὴν μάχαιραν. ἢ οὐ σὰ δήπου πάλαι ταῦτα καθέστηκεν, ὡς ἅμα σε τῆς ὁλκάδος ἐκβάντα προὔπεμπον δὴ σὺν βοῇ τινὶ βαρβάρῳ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων οἱ παῖδες, καὶ πανήγυρις ἦν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ ὅτε πάλαι φορά τις αὐτοῖς εὐμενὴς ἐδίδου τὸν Ἆπιν, καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ τούτοις ὑψοῦ τῆς διανοίας ἀρθεὶς ἐμὲ μὲν μικρὰν οἰκοῦντα πόλιν φαῦλον ἐκάλεις, ἀπόρριπτος δὲ παρὰ σοὶ πατρίς τε καὶ γυνὴ καὶ τὸ παιδίον αὐτό; καί πού με φιλοσοφοῦντα λῆρον ἐδόκεις, ὅτι με μὴ κρότος εἶχε πολύς, ἐξ ἀσήμου φωνῆς, ὦ Ζεῦ, καὶ βαρβάρου γλώττης ὤν· καί, τὸ δὴ μέγιστον, εὐδαίμονα σαυτὸν ἐκάλεις, εἰ σίτου σοι καὶ κρεῶν πλήρη τὴν οἰκίαν ἀπέδειξαν. ὁρᾷς ὅσον ἐπὶ σμικροῖς ἐπήρθης, ὁ νῦν ἀλαζονείας γραφόμενος; καὶ ταῦτά φημι μὰ τοὺς θεούς, οὐκ ἀμύνασθαί σε τῶν ῥημάτων ἐθέλων, οὐ γὰρ πρὸς τῆς ἐμῆς τοῦτο κρίνω φιλοσοφίας - ἀλλ' εἴ πως δυναίμην, μετριωτέραν σοι τὴν γλῶτταν ἀποδεῖξαι βουλόμενος. ἀλλ' ὅπως μὴ τὴν δύναμιν τῶν ἐμῶν λόγων καταπλαγεὶς πόρρω γένῃ τοῦ τὰ τοιαῦτα γράφειν ἡμῖν. μὰ γὰρ τὸν σὸν Νεῖλον καὶ τὰς παρούσας σοι Χάριτας, θέατρον λογικὸν τὴν σὴν παρέσχον ἐπιστολήν, κἀν τῇ Γάζῃ μέσῃ πρὸς πάντας ἐλέγετο. κἀγὼ μὲν ἀλαζὼν ᾐδούμην ὑπὸ τῶν σῶν γραμμάτων καλούμενος, ἐγέλα δὲ τὸ θέατρον ἐπ' ἐμοί· σὺ δὲ τῶν λόγων εὐδαίμων ἐδόκεις.