Letter 103: A generous letter from Stephanus makes Procopius feel seen and then gently redirects the praise back to its writer.

I was delighted to receive your letter. I have always enjoyed holding you in memory; now through your writing I seemed to see you, if words truly are images of the soul. If you will allow me to say so, I felt greater than myself as I considered how you enroll me in the chorus of your friends, how you speak of me, and how you begin an exchange of letters that invites the same in return. Yet the very things by which you seemed to admire me allowed me to see you in the letter, because through me, as a middle term, you were describing yourself. So I smiled and said to myself, "By the gods, these words would be true if they were spoken about the writer." As it is, while speaking you failed to notice that you were describing not what I am, but what I ought to be if I am to receive such praise. May many good things come to you: for your zeal, for the gentleness of your character, for the memory of goodwill, and above all because even in absence you have remained the same.

Στεφάνωι Ἥσθην δεξάμενος τὴν ὑμετέραν ἐπιστολήν, ὃν ἡδόμην ἀεὶ τῇ μνήμῃ λαβών, τοῦτον διὰ τῶν γραμμάτων θεώμενος, εἴ γε τῆς ψυχῆς ὄντως εἰκόνες οἱ λόγοι. καὶ εἴ μοι δίδως εἰπεῖν μείζων ἢ κατ' ἐμαυτὸν ἐδόκουν γενέσθαι, σκοπῶν ὥς με φίλων ἐγκαταλέγεις χορῷ καὶ λόγος ἐμοῦ παρὰ σοὶ καὶ γραμμάτων ἄρχεις προκαλουμένων τὰ παραπλήσια. δι' ὧν δέ με θαυμάζειν ἐδόκεις, σαυτὸν ὁρᾶν παρεῖχες τοῖς γράμμασι, δι' ἐμοῦ μέσου τὰ σαυτοῦ διηγούμενος. ὥστε με μειδιῶντα λέγειν πρὸς ἐμαυτόν· "ὡς ἀληθεῖς οἱ λόγοι, νὴ τοὺς θεούς, εἰ περὶ τοῦ γεγραφότος ἐλέγοντο." νυνὶ δὲ λέγων ἐλάνθανες οὐχ οἷος ἐγώ, ἀλλ' οἷον εἶναί με δεῖ τοιούτων ἐπαίνων τευξόμενον. πολλὰ δέ σοι κἀγαθὰ γένοιτο καὶ σπουδῆς ἕνεκα καὶ τρόπων πραότητος καὶ μνήμης εὐνοίας, καὶ τὸ δὴ μέγιστον, ὅτι καὶ μὴ παρὼν καθέστηκας παραπλήσιος.