Letter 38: Procopius prosecutes Zacharias in imagination for disparaging the rhetoric by which he wins.

You accuse me because the seasons of the year have passed; I accuse you because they are present again. Why, then, are you still silent? It is not enough for a defense to anticipate an accusation against oneself. When a guilty man then blames others, remove the pretense of accusing someone else and he is accusing himself. Do not bring forward your stay in Constantinople as an excuse for my silence. Pamphylia itself is my witness that it spoke many things and heard nothing. If only I had a solemn platform again, an Attic judge, and the brilliant arrangement of Athens, when rhetoric flourished in honorable fortune and Plato - how can I say it moderately? - could not bear her prosperity. A charge would immediately have been laid against you: "He wrongs Greece by treating rhetoric, on which the cities stand, as nothing." I would have come forward as prosecutor. Allow me a little youthful boldness; anger and prosecutorial arguments are already filling me, and I would not keep silent at the opening. "Nothing is more terrible, judges, than when a man speaks badly of the very thing from which his ability came. This excellent man here, speaking about you, dares to say something against rhetoric, from which he has a happy life and reputation. Even if he wins the vote, he has been defeated, because he prevails by the art from which his victory comes. He uses Plato as witness, the man who assigned rhetoric the lowest lot and went far into insulting rhetors." Once the judges in the speech had learned this ... but I will not add the penalty. When you mention Polus and Callicles, add that they are Plato's men; he creates them for himself as if in a drama, speaking what he composed. Otherwise, allow the Socrates in the comedy to be considered his guide too.

Ζαχαρίαι ἀδελφῶι Σὺ μὲν ἐγκαλεῖς ὡς παρῴχοντο τοῦ ἔτους αἱ ὧραι, ἐγὼ δὲ ὡς καὶ πάρεισι πάλιν. τί τοίνυν ἔτι σιγᾷς; οὐ γὰρ ἱκανὸν εἰς ἀπολογίαν προλαβεῖν τὸ καθ' αὑτοῦ τινος ἔγκλημα, ἀλλ' ὅστις ἔνοχος ὢν εἶτα τοῖς ἄλλοις μέμφεται, ἂν ἀφέλῃς τὸ δῆθεν ἑτέρων κατηγορεῖν, ἑαυτὸν αἰτιᾶται. καὶ μή μοι πρόφερε τὴν ἐν Βυζαντίῳ διαγωγὴν σιγώντων ἡμῶν· ἐμοὶ γὰρ καὶ Παμφυλία μάρτυς αὕτη ὡς πολλὰ μὲν ἔλεγεν, ἤκουε δὲ οὐδέν. ἀλλ' εἴθε μοι πάλιν ἦν βῆμα σεμνὸν καὶ δικαστὴς Ἀττικὸς καὶ σχῆμα λαμπρὸν Ἀθηνῶν, ὅτε ῥητορικὴ μὲν ἐπὶ σεμνῆς ἤκμαζε τύχης, Πλάτων δὲ πῶς ἂν εἴποιμι μετρίως; οὐκ ἔφερεν εὐτυχοῦσαν· γραφὴ γὰρ ἂν εὐθὺς ἀπέκειτο κατὰ σοῦ, ὡς "ἀδικεῖ τὴν Ἑλλάδα, ῥητορικήν, ἐφ' ἧς ἑστήκασιν αἱ πόλεις, οὐδὲν εἶναι τιθείς", καὶ παρελθὼν κατηγόρουν. ἀλλά μοι μικρὸν διδου νεανιεύεσθαι· ἤδη γὰρ ὑπ' ὀργῆς καὶ λόγων κατηγορίας ἐμπίπλαμαι, καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν οὐκ ἂν σιωπήσαιμι. "οὐδὲν ἦν ἄρα δεινότερον, ὦ δικασταί, ἢ ὅταν ἄνθρωπος τοῦτο λέγῃ κακῶς ὅθεν αὐτῷ προσῆλθε τὸ δύνασθαι. οἷον ἡμῖν ὁ χρηστὸς οὑτοσὶ λέγων περὶ σοῦ κατὰ ῥητορικῆς τολμᾷ τι καὶ φθέγγεσθαι, ἐξ ἧς αὐτῷ βίος εὐδαίμων καὶ φήμη, ὥστε κἂν τὴν ψῆφον λάβῃ, νενίκηται, ταύτην κρατῶν ἐξ ἧς αὐτῷ τὸ νικᾶν. καὶ μάρτυρι χρῆται τῷ Πλάτωνι, ὃς τὴν ῥητορικὴν ἐσχάτῃ δέδωκε μοίρᾳ, καὶ εἰς ῥητόρων ὕβριν ἐχώρει πολύς." ταῦτα μαθόντας τοὺς τῷ λόγῳ δικαστὰς ... ἀλλ' οὐκ ἂν ἔτι προσθείην τὸ τίμημα. Πῶλον δὲ καὶ Καλλικλέα λέγων προστίθει τοὺς Πλάτωνος· τούτους γὰρ ἑαυτῷ δημιουργεῖ καθάπερ ἐν δράματι φθεγγομένους ἃ δὴ συνέθεντο. εἰ δὲ μή, καὶ τὸν ἐν τῇ κωμῳδίᾳ διδου Σωκράτην ἡγεῖσθαι.