Letter 166: The funeral oration filled the theater with applause and is requested for absent listeners.
When you first brought your funeral oration into our midst, I took such pleasure in your Attic honey that I thought the Muse-leader himself had worked on the speech with the Graces. At each phrase I and all the listeners filled the theater with applause, each of us shouting in a Stentorian voice. Once we were around the city, admiration for you grew even stronger. Your golden offspring were in everyone's mouth: people compared them with one another because nothing was similar, and they could not decide which of the beauties ought to be crowned above the others. Equal Graces met them all.
Since those who happened not to hear the speech because of business begged me to let them taste your Attic honey through me, send the speech. Know well that after crowning it again with countless praises, we will send it back quickly.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Μεγέθιος Προκοπίωι Ὅτε πρῶτον εἰς μέσους ἡμᾶς τὸν ἐπιτάφιον λόγον παρῆγες, τοσοῦτον ἥσθην ταῖς Ἀττικαῖς σου μελίτταις, ὥστε καὶ ἡγούμην τὸν Μουσηγέτην αὐτὸν συνεργάσασθαί σοι μετὰ τῶν Χαρίτων τὸν λόγον. ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ μὲν οὖν τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐγώ τε καὶ ὅσοι τῶν ἀκροωμένων ἐνέπλησα τότε κροτῶν τὸ θέατρον βοῶντες ἕκαστοι τὸ Στεντόρειον. ὡς δὲ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν γεγόνα μεν, ἐντεῦθεν μᾶλλον ἐπετείνετό σοι τὸ θαῦμα, καὶ ἦν ἐν τοῖς ἁπάντων στόμασι τὰ χρυσᾶ σου γεννήματα, κρινόντων μὲν ταῦτα πρὸς ἄλληλα, τῷ μή τι παραπλήσιον εἶναι, ἀπορουμένων δὲ ποῖα δεῖ μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων στεφανῶσαι τοῦ κάλλους. ἴσαι γὰρ προσέβαλλον Χάριτες. ἐπεὶ οὖν ὅσοις δι' ἀσχολίαν ἀνηκόοις γενέσθαι τοῦ λόγου συμβέβηκεν, ἱκέτευον ἀπογεύσασθαι δι' ἐμοῦ τῆς Ἀττικῆς σου μελίττης, πέμπε τὸν λόγον, εὖ εἰδὼς ὡς μυρίοις αὖθις αὐτὸν καταστέψαντες τοῖς ἐγκωμίοις εἰς τάχος ἀποστελοῦμεν.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch9 matia greek v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf
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