Letter 250
To Caesarius. (358/359?)
So your good fortune does not stop with your sons, who are fine young men in love with learning. Your son-in-law, too, earns you that title by being both of those things himself.
It seems to me that in deliberating about the marriage, you did not marvel at the measure of his land or the weight of his gold so much as at the fact that you found a man whose soul is truly golden.
I began by loving him on account of your letter. But as I came to know him from experience, it was no longer for your sake that I valued him -- rather, I now love you more than before because of him.
For what quality of his is not admirable? Is he not gentle? Is he not sharp of mind? Is he not a powerful speaker? Is he not a sound judge? Does he not surpass the Corybantes [frenzied devotees of Cybele] in his passion for eloquence?
Shall I tell you a secret? He often came to visit me when I was feeling sluggish, and his appearance was like a spur. At the very first thing he said I would leap up, and he drove my tongue forward to its peak -- so that I congratulated myself. As for his goodness, sufficient proof is the journey he made to visit us: what others have not done even for their own brothers, this man did for his wife's brothers.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.