Letter 114: Hermeias's example makes Procopius more committed to adorning his own city.

Procopius of GazaHermeias, correspondent of Procopius of Gaza|c. 515 AD|Procopius of Gaza|From Gaza, Palaestina Prima|To Berytus, Phoenice|AI-assisted
late antique Greek letters; Hermeias; Berytus; civic patronage; homeland; virtue; letters
The city of Berytus appears as a model of civic literary responsibility rather than as a place Procopius can appropriate.

When I saw your greatness through the letter you sent me, I rightly admired your mind, and I rejoiced with the city of the Berytians if it has put forward such a man: one who takes thought for virtue and for letters, even while the times drive in the opposite direction.

May you benefit from yourself, and may the city benefit from your foresight. As for me, it is hard to overlook my own homeland after receiving an example from you. If you devise every means to adorn the city that bore you, how would it be right for me not to do the very things for which I praised you?

And to adopt myself into a place that someone else has been fortunate enough to hold seems foreign to the order of reason. May you prosper, excellent friend, in your intention toward me and toward the city itself.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

Ἑρμείαι Τὸ ὑμέτερον μέγεθος διὰ τῶν πρὸς ἐμὲ γραμμάτων ἰδὼν ὑμᾶς μὲν εἰκότως τῆς γνώμης ἐθαύμασα, τῇ δὲ Βηρυτίων συνήδομαι πόλει εἰ τοιοῦτον ἔχει προβεβλημένον, ὡς ἀρετῆς καὶ λόγων ποιεῖσθαι φροντίδα, καὶ ταῦτα τοῦ καιροῦ τὴν ἐναντίαν ἐλαύνοντος. ἀλλ' ὄναιο καὶ σὺ σαυτοῦ καὶ τῆς σῆς προνοίας ἡ πόλις. ἐμοὶ δὲ βαρὺ πατρίδος ὑπερορᾶν ἐξ ὑμῶν λαβόντι παρά δειγμα. εἰ γὰρ ὑμεῖς πάντα μηχανᾶσθε κοσμεῖν τὴν ἐνεγκοῦσαν οἰόμενοι, πῶς ἂν ἔχοι καλῶς ἐμοὶ μὴ ταῦτα ποιεῖν ἐφ' οἷς ὑμᾶς ἐπῄνεσα πράττοντας; ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰσποιεῖν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς τόπον ὃν εὐτύχησεν ἕτερος, τῆς λογικῆς καταστάσεως ἀλλότριον εἶναι δοκῶ. ἀλλ' εὐτυχοίης, ὦ ἄριστε, τῆς εἰς ἐμὲ καὶ τὴν πόλιν αὐτὴν προαιρέσεως.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch7 matia greek v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf

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