Letter 1003: A second letter to Heraclius that contrasts gratitude for letters with gratitude for deeds.

You will count my letter a great thing and know gratitude for letters; I, however, owe you gratitude for deeds. From the time you first received office down to today, those deeds have continued without break. Some strengthened my son; others helped me as a speaker by making even what was not fine appear fine through the leaps of a celebrated rhetorician. And now, through what you have done for excellent Maximus, or rather for everyone for whom we have labored, you give me all Armenia. You love the son of Iphicrates with disciplined affection: self-controlled toward a self-controlled man, just toward a just one, and skilled in labor toward a man who knows how to labor. The love is common to you both; because of it you call him, and he would come even if you did not call. He will soon be with you, thinking it an equal good to see you and his mother. I too have some benefit here, since I have your son on my knees, his mother granting me that favor.