Letter 140: Diodorus's gifts do not taste of Hymettian honey or look like Marathon and Salamis.

Procopius of GazaDiodorus, correspondent of Procopius of Gaza|c. 515 AD|Procopius of Gaza|From Gaza, Palaestina Prima|AI-assisted
late antique Greek letters; Diodorus; Euripides; Adonis songs; sandals; Iphicrates; Attica; Marathon; Salamis; humor
The letter compresses literary parody, footwear jokes, and Athenian patriotic imagery into one insult.

You have filled my house with two-obol rags from Euripides, sending little Adonis-songs without rhythm, as you like to call them, and unmusical sandals and Iphicratid boots. Over these the general Iphicrates would have groaned greatly, since they carry no proof of Attica.

They offer no grace, no taste of Hymettian honey, nor do they shout Attica by their appearance: Attica, where Marathon and Salamis stand, and men who loved freedom and high spirit, not, by Zeus, initiated by the Muse you have there. For your things... but let them lie under a lucky silence, lest I accidentally say something.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Διοδώρωι Ὀβολοῖν τῶν Εὐριπίδου ῥακίων τὴν ἐμὴν οἰκίαν ἀνέπλησας, ἀδωνάρια πέμψας ἄρρυθμα, καθά σοι φίλον καλεῖν, καὶ βλαύτας ἀμούσους καὶ ἰφικράτι δας, ἐφ' αἷς ἦ κε μέγ' οἰμώξειεν ὁ στρατηγὸς Ἰφικράτης οὐδὲν τῆς Ἀττικῆς φερούσαις τεκμήριον. οὐδὲ γὰρ χάριν τινὰ καὶ πεῖραν μελίττης Ὑμηττίου παρέχονται, οὐδὲ βοῶσι τῇ θέᾳ τὴν Ἀττικήν, ἐν ᾗ Μαραθὼν καὶ Σαλαμὶς καὶ ἄνδρες ἐλευθερίας καὶ φρονήματος ἐρασταὶ οὐ μὰ Δία τῇ παρ' ὑμῖν Μούσῃ τετελεσμένοι· τὰ γὰρ ὑμέτερα ... ἀλλ' εὔστομα κείσθω, μή τι καὶ λάθω φθεγξάμενος.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch8 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

Related Letters