Letter 7: Procopius chides Philip for silence through a seasonal sequence from winter to summer.

You have been silent toward me for a long time, and I cannot bear it. Consider the facts. It was winter, and we endured it with difficulty. The swallows appeared, and not even with them did you speak. Now the cicadas are singing, and still, beyond all expectation, your silence remains. If you are doing this to hurt me, I do not know what I did to hurt you, but I think you could not have taken a greater revenge. If your former eagerness has shifted into idleness, then you are wronging the law of kinship and breaking the ordinance of friendship. If it is not too harsh to say, someone might even say that you have become your own accuser. You reproached me when I was silent, and now you have been caught doing the very same thing. What sense is there in the man who persuaded another to speak taking up the silence of the man he persuaded? It is time, then, for you to call me a sophist and play with the argument. That is no great matter. Whatever you say, I will bear it moderately, if only I hear you speaking.

Φιλίππῳ ἀδελφῷ Μακρὸν ἡμῖν ἐσίγησας χρόνον καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα φέρειν οὐκ ἔχω. σκόπει γάρ, χειμὼν ἦν καὶ οὐ μετρίως ἐφέρομεν, ὤφθησαν χελιδόνες καὶ οὐδὲ μετὰ τούτων ἐφθέγξω, καὶ νῦν ᾄδουσι τέττιγες καὶ παρ' ἐλπίδας ἡμῖν ἡ σιγή. εἰ μὲν οὖν πρὸς λύπην ταῦτα, ἀγνοῶ μὲν ὅ τί ποτε πράττων ἐλύπησα, ὅμως δ' οὐκ ἂν ὑμᾶς οἶμαι μείζω τιμωρίαν λαβεῖν. εἰ δὲ τῆς πάλαι σπουδῆς εἰς ῥαθυμίαν μετέστης, ἀδικεῖς μὲν συγγενείας νόμον, παραβαίνεις δὲ φιλίας θεσμόν. εἰ δὲ μὴ δυσχερὲς εἰπεῖν, τάχ' ἄν τίς σε φαίη καὶ σαυτοῦ κατήγορον γεγενῆσθαι. οἷς γὰρ ἡμῖν σιωπῶσιν ἐπέπληξας, τούτοις ὤφθης αὐτὸς ἁλισκόμενος. καὶ πῶς ἂν ἔχοι λόγον τὸν πεπεικότα λαλεῖν τὴν τοῦ πεισθέντος μεταλαμβάνειν σιωπήν; ἀλλ' ὥρα λοιπὸν καὶ σοφιστήν με καλεῖν καὶ παίζειν ἅμα τῷ λόγῳ. οὐδὲν τοῦτο πρᾶγμα πάντως, καὶ ὅ τι ἂν λέγῃς, οἴσω μετρίως, εἰ φθεγγομένου μόνον ἀκούσομαι.