Letter 149: Muselius's excellence makes silence itself seem enough praise.

Procopius of GazaJohn, correspondent of Procopius of Gaza|c. 515 AD|Procopius of Gaza|From Gaza, Palaestina Prima|AI-assisted
late antique Greek letters; John; Muselius; students; praise; Agamemnon; Teucer; education
Agamemnon's line to Teucer becomes encouragement for John to keep producing such students.

I envy you for your offspring, if you know how to beget such things. You reveal happy children from happy fathers, wisely bringing divine things forward with some musical stream. Such is the learned Muselius who has come to me. Wanting to praise him, and unable to say what belongs to him, I think silence alone is enough for praise. But if you would believe me, I will adapt Agamemnon's line to you: "shoot so, dear Teucer," and do not spare your voice.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Ἰωάννηι Ἐζήλωκά σε τῆς γονῆς, εἰ τοιαῦτα τίκτειν ἐπίστασαι· εὐδαιμόνων γὰρ πατέρων παῖδας ἀποφαίνεις εὐδαίμονας, μουσικῷ τινι νάματι τὰ θεῖα σοφῶς προφερόμενος. τοιοῦτος ἡμῖν ὁ λογιώτατος ἀφῖκται Μουσήλιος, ὃν ἐπαινεῖν ἐθέλων καὶ τὰ προσόντα μὴ λέγειν δυνάμενος μόνην τὴν σιωπὴν ἀρκεῖν ἡγοῦμαι πρὸς ἔπαινον. ἀλλ' εἴ μοί τι πίθοιο, τὴν Ἀγαμέμνονος ἐπὶ σοὶ μεθαρμόσω φωνήν, "βάλλ' οὕτω" φίλε Τεῦκρε, καὶ μὴ φείσῃ φθεγγόμενος.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch9 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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