Letter 46: Procopius jokes that public applause has made him act like a sophist.

My fatherland, may the words be said with God's help, looked on me with friendly eyes. It brought forward the people I had prayed to find. After a short delay it gathered theaters for me, stirred applause, and a kind of fame took hold of me and carried me through every mouth. Perhaps I seem to be showing off, my mind lifted by the applause and behaving exactly like a sophist, as you yourself would say. So mock such things if you like. I, however, will not endure failing to be splendid, failing to lift my brow, or failing to follow the law of my own art. Let these things be said in play, so that I may give you your usual material for joking. Know this well: you delight me more by mocking than others do when they strike me with many praises.

Ζαχαρίᾳ ἀδελφῷ Ἡ πατρὶς, σὺν θεῷ δὲ εἰρήσθω, εὐμενέσιν εἶδεν ἡμᾶς ὀφθαλμοῖς· τοὺς γὰρ ἐπιτηδείους παρέστησεν ὁποίους ηὐχόμην εὑρεῖν, βραχὺ δὲ διαλιποῦσα θέατρά μοι συνῆγε καὶ κρότους ἐκίνει, καί μέ τις φήμη λαβοῦσα διὰ πάντων ἦγε στομάτων, καί τί που καὶ νεανιεύεσθαι δοκῶ καὶ τὸν νοῦν ἐπῆρθαι τοῖς κρότοις καὶ τὸ σοφιστικὸν ἀτεχνῶς ἔχειν, ὡς ἂν αὐτὸς εἴποις. σὺ μὲν οὖν σκῶπτε τοιαῦτα· ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἀνέξομαι μὴ οὐ λαμπρὸς εἶναι καὶ τὴν ὀφρῦν ἄνω φέρειν καὶ τῷ τῆς ἐμῆς τέχνης ἕπεσθαι νόμῳ. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν μοι πεπαίχθω ὡς ἄν σοι καὶ τοῦ σκώπτειν συνήθως ὕλην παράσχω· εὐφραίνεις γάρ με σκώπτων, εὖ ἴσθι, ἢ πολλοῖς ἐπαίνοις βάλλοντες ἕτεροι.