Letter 101: Zacharias's praise makes Procopius imagine himself as Laconic, Doric, and almost Egyptian if praised that way.

How much ambition you have filled me with by lifting up my little letter, the one you yourself would call Laconic. Look: I now see myself as solemn, and I have become a Spartan outright. Lycurgus is everything to me; Solon is nothing. I nearly let loose a Doric voice as well, forgetting that Attic one. It even pains me that my city is walled in part, because it is not an image of unwalled Sparta. Such is the power of a good rhetorician: he draws a person toward whatever feeling he wants. If you praise me again as Attic, take care that I do not deny Sparta in turn; I am pulled so strongly by longing for your letters. But do not, in play, praise Egypt, or I may become Egyptian by your words. Spare me, by Zeus. I cannot help admiring whatever you admire.

Ζαχαρίαι ἀδελφῶι Ὅσης με τῆς φιλοτιμίας ἐνέπλησας τὴν σμικρὰν ἐξάρας ἐπιστολὴν καὶ τὴν ὡς ἂν αὐτὸς εἴποις Λακωνικήν. ἰδοὺ δή σοι καὶ σοβαρὸν ὁρῶ καὶ Σπαρτιάτης αὐτόχρημα γεγένημαι, καί μοι πάντα Λυκοῦργος, ὁ δὲ Σόλων οὐδέν. μικροῦ δεῖν καὶ Δωρικὴν ἀφῆκα φωνήν, τῆς Ἀττικῆς ἐκείνης εἰς λήθην ἐλθών. λυπεῖ δέ με καὶ πατρὶς ἐκ μέρους τετειχισμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ τῆς ἀτειχίστου Σπάρτης [ἐστὶν] εἰκών. τοιαῦτα δύναται ῥήτωρ ἀγαθός, πρὸς πάθος ἕλκων οἷον καὶ βούλεται. εἰ δέ με πάλιν ὡς Ἀττικὸν ἐπαινέσεις, ὅρα μὴ τὴν Σπάρτην αὖθις ἀρνήσωμαι, οὕτω τῷ πόθῳ τῶν σῶν γραμμάτων μεθέλκομαι. ἀλλ' ὅπως μὴ παίζειν ἐθέλων ἐπαινέσῃς τὴν Αἴγυπτον, καὶ τῷ λόγῳ γενοίμην Αἰγύπτιος. οὐκοῦν φεῖσαι πρὸς Διός· οὐ γὰρ ἔχω μὴ θαυμάζειν ὁπόσα καὶ σύ.