Letter 58: Procopius envies Perseus and Abaris but accepts letters as the only available consolation.

How could I show by words how strongly I am held by longing for you, unless you happen to have suffered something similar? The person who has suffered knows how to judge such matters. I am persuaded that you are that sort of people, and that you preserve the law of friendship and of nature at once, from the fact that you write and console me with letters. Still, when I was at a loss under the feeling, this often came to me to say: "If only I could become Perseus and appear winged, cutting through the air and being carried over the sea, so that I might at once seem to be and actually be with you, and enjoy my love." The thought is against nature, but it is not far from people who long: the mind easily wanders and dreams of things not made to happen. If you will endure me mythologizing again, I have often envied Abaris too. He was a Scythian and an outsider, yet otherwise wise; if you like, blessed, because he had the arrow serving his will and was carried wherever he wished, and no length of road troubled Abaris. But why should I seek distant things against nature? Only letters remain to console me. Let Perseus and Abaris be given over to poets and myths.

Ζαχαρίᾳ καὶ Φιλίππῳ ἀδελφοῖς Ὅσῳ τῷ περὶ ὑμᾶς κεκράτημαι πόθῳ, πῶς ἂν δυναίμην παραστῆσαι τῷ λόγῳ, πλὴν εἰ μή που παραπλήσια τυγχάνετε πεπονθότες; ὁ γὰρ πεπονθὼς τὰ περὶ τούτου κρίνειν ἐπίσταται. πέπεισμαι δὲ τοιούτους εἶναι, καὶ νόμον διασώζειν φιλίας ἅμα καὶ φύσεως ἐξ ὧν καὶ γράφετε καὶ παραμυθεῖσθε τοῖς γράμμασιν. ἐμοὶ δ' οὖν ὅμως ἠπορημένῳ τῷ πάθει καὶ τοιοῦτό τι πολλάκις ἐπῆλθεν εἰπεῖν. «εἴθε γενοίμην Περσεὺς καὶ φανείην ὑπόπτερος τὸν ἀέρα τέμνων καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς θαλάσσης φερόμενος, ὅπως ἂν ἅμα τε δοκῇ καὶ γίνωμαι παρ' ὑμῖν καὶ ἀποναίμην τοῦ ἔρωτος». παρὰ φύσιν μὲν ἀλλ' οὐ πόρρω ποθούντων ἡ γνώμη, πλανᾶσθαί τε ῥᾳδίως καὶ ὀνειροπολεῖν ἃ οὐ πέφυκε γίνεσθαι. εἰ δέ μου πάλιν μυθολογοῦντος ἀνάσχοιο, ἤδη καὶ τὸν Ἄβαριν πολλάκις ἐζήλωσα, Σκύθην μὲν ὄντα καὶ βάρβαρον, σοφὸν δὲ ἄλλως· εἰ δὲ θέλεις, εὐδαίμονα, ὅτι τὸν οἰστὸν ἔχων ὑπηρετοῦντα τῇ γνώμῃ παρ' οὓς ἤθελεν ἤγετο, καὶ ὁδοῦ μῆκος οὐδὲν παρελύπει τὸν Ἄβαριν. ἀλλὰ τί μοι τὰ πόρρω παρὰ φύσιν ζητεῖν; μόνον ἡμῖν λείπεται πρὸς παραμυθίαν τὰ γράμματα, Περσεὺς δὲ καὶ Ἄβαρις ποιηταῖς δεδόσθων καὶ μύθοις.