Letter 1018: A generous praise letter for Prosdocios' character, skill, honors in Tyre, and medical help.

I have long counted you blessed, ever since those days when I first received the many people who praised you. They admired both your character and your skill, and congratulated themselves on having such admiration. Now I call you the happiest of all men, after hearing such great things said about you by the two brothers, who by an ancient law possess both their ancestral office and the broad street. I go to them every day. I am not usually eager to visit others, but I count it the greatest gain to visit these men, whom, as I have often said, I believe even the god delights to see surpassing their ancestors in many things, not least in possessing a Greek voice and power in speech. They know how to speak, and among speakers they know the better and the worse, the genuine and the counterfeit. So in their carriages there is no small place for books, and to me they are like a flute: they sound, they hold me, and they will not let me go. In these long conversations the greater part is always yours, as they say something about you, whether greater or lesser, and ask me to include in my praises what your character teaches and what you have achieved by your art: helping the wealthy and not despising poverty. Lovers often return to the same subjects, not teaching people who do not know, but taking pleasure among those who do. It seems to me that if a sophist came to Tyre, the greatest praise he could give the city would be your honors and influence there. In both, the god who protects the art is honored, with whose help you have won many victories. I once heard something like this from the brothers too: our city is great, but it would be much greater if Prosdocios' hands and feet were moving on behalf of those who are ill here. I myself would give you plenty of trouble with my many illnesses. Perhaps you know this already, since Maxentius the sophist reported it; for I told him to ask whether, even from so far away, you might somehow correct what is wrong with me. Your reward for what you have done for Maxentius is to learn what praise those men give you, men who adorn the earth, and how much joy we too take in such honors coming to you from such men.