Letter 16: Procopius delights in Gessius's letter and recommends two companions.

When I took your letter into my hands, I seemed almost to have received the Muses themselves. I was inspired by pleasure and did not know what to become, like the Delphians when Apollo comes from the Hyperboreans and they, silent before, are suddenly filled with the god. Such was I, admiring everything: the bloom of the words, their harmony with one another, the beauty shining through all of them, and above all your character, from which the letter came. May many good things be yours for giving me such a feast. But, as the saying goes, one swallow does not make spring. What use was even the first swallow, if one was enough for spring? If you added a second and a third and then many, neither Croesus nor gold-flowing Pactolus would count for anything beside us. I was glad to see your children, and through their image I was carried up to you. That is why I prayed to see more of them and, if I may speak boldly, better children than their father. Still, a man who is praying can easily say whatever he likes and imitate Hector. As for my companion Dorotheus, I seemed to bring him to you myself, as though I were standing there, and to say nothing except this: fulfill for him the hopes he raised by telling me about you. If he hopes to gain something more because of me, it belongs to you not to let him be mistaken in that expectation. His character and earnestness together will commend the young man to you; if they could be made clear at the very sight of him, perhaps there would be no need of my letters. As it is, honor him first for my sake; later, I think, you will admire him for his own. I think you will also look with kindly eyes on my companion Anastasius, who too is inscribed with my family. What more need be said to a man long a friend and now no less chosen for goodwill?

Γεσσίωι ἰατροσοφιστῆι Τὴν ὑμετέραν ἐπιστολὴν εἰς χεῖρας λαβὼν αὐτὰς ἔδοξα μόλις ἀπειληφέναι τὰς Μούσας, ἔνθους τε ἦν ὑφ' ἡδονῆς καὶ οὐκ εἶχον ὅ τι καὶ γένωμαι, ὥσπερ οἱ Δελφοὶ ἐπειδὰν [ὡς] ἐξ Ὑπερβορέων ἐλθόντος Ἀπόλλωνος τὸ πρὶν σιγῶντες πλήρεις ἐξαίφνης γένωνται τοῦ θεοῦ. τοιοῦτος ἦν τις ἐγώ, πάντα θαυμάζων, τῶν ὀνομάτων τὴν ὥραν, τὴν πρὸς ἄλληλα τούτων ἁρμονίαν, τὸ διὰ πάντων κάλλος ἐπιφαινόμενον, καὶ τὸ δὴ μέγιστον, τοὺς ὑμετέρους τρόπους, ἐξ ὧν ἡμῖν προῆλθε τὰ γράμματα. καί σοι πολλὰ κἀγαθὰ γένοιτο τοιαύτην ἡμῖν ἀποδεδωκότι τὴν ἑορτήν. ἀλλὰ γὰρ μία χελιδὼν ἔαρ φησὶν οὐ ποιεῖ. οἷον δὲ καὶ ἡ προλαβοῦσα χελιδὼν εἰς ἔαρος ἤρκεσε χρείαν; εἰ δὲ καὶ δευτέραν προσθείης καὶ τρίτην, εἶτα πολλάς, οὐδὲν ἂν εἴη παρ' ἡμῖν οὔτε Κροῖσος ἐκεῖνος οὔτε χρυσῷ ῥέων ὁ Πακτωλός. τοὺς δὲ ὑμετέρους παῖδας εἶδον ἡδέως καὶ ὥσπερ δι' εἰκόνος ἀνηγόμην πρὸς σέ. ὅθεν ηὐξάμην καὶ πλείους ἰδεῖν, καὶ εἰ δεῖ μεγάλα λέγειν, τοῦ πατρὸς ἀμείνους. ἀλλ' οὖν εὐχομένῳ ῥᾴδιον λέγειν ὅσα γε βούλεται, καὶ μιμεῖσθαι τὸν Ἕκτορα. τὸν δὲ ἑταῖρον Δωρόθεον αὐτόν με δοκεῖ παρόντα προσάγειν ὑμῖν, καὶ λέγειν ἄλλο μὲν οὐδέν, πληρῶσαι δὲ τούτῳ ἃς ἐλπίδας αὐτὸς παρέσχε τὰ ὑμέτερα διηγούμενος. εἰ δὲ καὶ δι' ἐμέ τι πλέον ἕξειν ἐλπίζει, ὑμέτερον ἂν εἴη μὴ ψευσθῆναι τοῦτον τῆς γνώμης. συστήσει δὲ τὸν νέον ὑμῖν καὶ τρόπος ὁμοῦ καὶ σπουδή, ἅπερ εἰ ἦν αὐτὸν ἅμα τῇ θέᾳ παραστῆσαι σαφῆ, οὐδὲν ἂν ἴσως ἔδει τῶν ἡμετέρων γραμμάτων. νῦν δὲ δι' ἐμὲ τὰ πρῶτα τιμήσας, ὕστερον οἶμαι θαυμάσεις καὶ δι' αὐτόν. οἶμαι δὲ καὶ τὸν ἑταῖρον Ἀναστάσιον εὐμενέσιν ὑμᾶς ἰδεῖν ὀφθαλμοῖς, ὃς καὶ τὸ ἡμέτερον ἐπιγράφεται γένος. τί γὰρ δεῖ πλέον εἰπεῖν πρὸς ἄνδρα πάλαι τε φίλον καὶ νῦν οὐδὲν ἧττον εὐνοεῖν ᾑρημένον;