Letter 123: Philip, once devoted to philosophy, is now teased as a bridegroom captured by love.

At last you changed my helplessness by writing that you want to sing a wedding song and become father of children. A flood of rumor had arrived, each person bringing a different story. While everyone else narrated, I listened in silence, ignorant of the greatest matters in my own family and seeming to joke with those who asked, as though I were pretending not to know on purpose. Now delighted by what you wrote, I would gladly have become winged Perseus at once, flown over the sea, reached you, seen the sacred bridal chamber and sweetest sight of all: a bridegroom from philosophy turned lover, even if someone calls him material, answering philosophically that he had to honor birth, offering a contribution of himself and fulfilling what is proper. You have been captured at last, my excellent friend, and late in the day you learn the arrows of the Loves. They say the bride is beautiful, by the Graces, and able to turn even a lover from philosophy. Only become a father "for the plowing of legitimate children," as comedy says, and may I soon see from you a child whose appearance proclaims his father, or better, who resembles him in gentleness, greatness of soul, and the other virtues.

Φιλίππωι ἀδελφῶι Μόλις ἡμᾶς ἀμηχανοῦντας μετέβαλες, γράψας ὡς ᾄδειν ἐθέλεις ὑμέναιον. καὶ παίδων γενέσθαι πατήρ. πολλὴ γὰρ ἐπιδραμοῦσα φήμη ἄλλους ἀλλαχόθεν ἐπήγετο λόγους, καὶ πάντων διηγουμένων σιωπῶντες ἡμεῖς ἠκροώμεθα, τῶν ἡμετέρων ἀγνοοῦντες τὰ μέγιστα καὶ τοῖς πυνθανομένοις παίζειν δοκοῦντες, ὡς ἀγνοεῖν ἐπίτηδες προσποιούμενοι. νυνὶ δὲ τοῖς γραφεῖσιν ἡσθείς, ἡδέως ἂν εὐθὺς Περσεὺς ἐγενόμην ὑπόπτερος, καὶ τοῦ πελάγους ὑπερπτὰς καὶ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀφικόμενος παστάδα κατεῖδον ἱερὰν καὶ τὸ πάντων ἥδιστον θέαμα, νυμφίον ἐκ φιλοσοφίας ἐρωτικόν, κἂν ὑλικόν τις αὐτὸν ὀνομάζῃ, φιλοσόφως ἀποκρινόμενον ὡς κοσμεῖν ἔδει τὴν γένεσιν, ἔρανον ἀνθ' ἑαυτοῦ χορηγοῦντα καὶ τὰ εἰκότα πρὸς ταύτην ἀφοσιούμενον. ἑάλως δ' οὖν ὅμως, ὦ βέλτιστε, καὶ ὀψέ ποτε τὰ τῶν Ἐρώτων μανθάνεις τοξεύματα, ἥ τε νύμφη καλή φασι, νὴ τὰς Χάριτας, καὶ ἱκανὴ φιλοσοφίας παρατρέψαι τὸν ἐραστήν. πατὴρ μόνον γίνου "παίδων ἐπ' ἀρότῳ γνησίων", ἡ κωμῳ δία φησί, καὶ θᾶττον ἐξ ὑμῶν ἴδοιμι παῖδα διὰ τῆς θέας τὸν πατέρα κηρύττοντα, μᾶλλον δὲ πραότητι καὶ μεγαλοψυχίᾳ, καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις ἀρεταῖς παραπλήσιον.