Letter 190: While we were lamenting what has happened to Procopius and praying for his darkness to be lifted, the Cilicians --...

To Modestus. (360) While we were lamenting what Procopius has suffered and were praying together that the gloom over the Cilicians might be dissipated, those who had received many benefits from him, in return for his good services, call him an Agamemnon. For, like wolves falling upon sheep left without a shepherd, they have made his daughter's household into plunder, a Mysian booty. And yet Procopius lives, though he has been stripped of his property, but in all else he is as great as he was. You too live, and you have power, and you count Procopius as one of your friends, and you know how to love no less than how to rule. Show, then, to the wicked among the Cilicians that it is no easy matter to drive this man out. And do not be surprised if I have sent a short letter about many evils. For the one who carries it is an orator, and a pupil of that man, and one who has shared in the wrong done, and he has a tongue sufficient for the tragedy.

Μοδέστῳ. (360) Σχετλιαζόντων ἡμῶν οἴα πέπονθε Προκόπιος καὶ συν- ευχομένων λυθῆναι τὸν ζόφον Κιλίκων οἱ πολλὰ δὴ παρ’ αὐ- τοῦ χρηστὰ παθόντες ἀντ’ εὐεργεσίας Ἀγαμέμνονά φα- σιν. ὥσπερ γὰρ λύκοι προβάτοις ἐπιπεσόντες ἐρήμοις Μυσῶν λείαν τὴν τῆς θυγατρὸς αὐτοῦ πεποιήκασιν οἰκίαν. καίτοι ζῇ μὲν Προκόπιος καὶ χρημάτων ἐστέρηται, τἄλλα δέ ἐστιν ἡλίκος ἦν. ζῇς δὲ καὶ σὺ καὶ δύνασαι καὶ Προκόπιον ἔνα τῶν φίλων ἡγῇ καὶ φιλεῖν ὅλως οὐχ ἧττον ἢ ἄρχειν ἐπίστασαι. δεῖξον δὴ τοῖς πονηροῖς Κιλίκων, ὡς οὐ ῥᾴδιον τὸν ἄνδρα ἐλαύνειν. καὶ μὴ θαυμάσῃς, εἰ περὶ πολλῶν κακῶν βρα- χεῖαν ἐπιστολὴν ἔπεμψα. ῥήτωρ γάρ ἐστιν ὁ κομίζων παῖς τε ἐκείνου καὶ συνηδικημένος καὶ γλῶτταν ἔχων ἀρκοῦσαν τῇ τρα- γῳδίᾳ