Letter 49: Procopius asks Ulpius to honor Strategius, whose case restarted their exchange.

I already loved admirable Strategius before, but now I loved him still more because he became the occasion for letters between us. Removing the previous silence, he has given me the chance to say something to you and to hear you speaking again. If my letters give any pleasure, then honor the man responsible for them. He already acknowledges gratitude to you for your earlier zeal, and he will proclaim your benefaction all the more if you carry the favor through to completion. Show some youthful vigor against those doing wrong, so that everyone may realize what sort of friends he had without their knowing it. As for your brother, I knew him even before seeing him, for rumor had often made him known to me. Now I admire him even more, having learned by experience. Seeing him, I thought I possessed you in another body; though you were far away, you seemed present to me through another image.

Οὐλπίῳ Τὸν θαυμαστὸν Στρατήγιον καὶ πρότερον ἤδη φιλῶν, νῦν ἔτι καὶ μᾶλλον ἠγάπησα, διότι τῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἡμῖν γραμμάτων ὑπῆρξεν ὑπόθεσις· τὴν γὰρ προτέραν σιωπὴν μεταστήσας δέδωκεν ἡμῖν εἰπεῖν τι πρός σε καὶ φθεγγομένου πάλιν ἀκοῦσαι. εἰ δὲ καὶ καθ' ἡδονὴν τὰ ἡμέτερα γράμματα, τίμα δὴ τούτων τὸν αἴτιον, ἤδη μὲν ὑμῖν χάριν ὁμολογοῦντα τῆς προλαβούσης σπουδῆς, μᾶλλον δὲ κηρύξοντα τὴν εὐεργεσίαν, εἰ πρὸς τέλος ἐνέγκοις τὴν χάριν. ἀλλ' ἐπίδειξαί τι νεανικὸν κατὰ τῶν ἀδικούντων, ὅπως ἂν αἴσθοιντο πάντες οἵους ἄρα τοὺς φίλους ἔχων ἐλάνθανον. τὸν δὲ ὑμέτερον ἀδελφὸν καὶ πρὶν μὲν ἰδεῖν ἠπιστάμην· ἐγνώρισε γάρ μοι πολλάκις τοῦτον ἡ φήμη· νυνὶ δὲ μᾶλλον ἐθαύμασα τῇ πείρᾳ μαθών. καὶ τοῦτον ἰδὼν σὲ δι' ἑτέρου σώματος ἔχειν ἡγούμην, καὶ μακρὰν ἀπὼν δι' ἄλλης ἡμῖν εἰκόνος ἐδόκεις παρεῖναι.