Letter 19: Procopius welcomes Epiphanius's return to speech as the arrival of spring.

You are truly formidable at moving whomever you wish toward speech and silence. You seem to do something like a man who owns a lyre and has learned to use it: now he weaves a melody, now he holds back from the strings. If anything else seems better, he turns at once to that, and neither he nor the lyre would be called musical. So when you were silent and had changed over to newer ways, we too, once dearest friends and now perhaps only friends, immediately became gloomy and silent. But I know where the matter came from. The laws forced you to prepare yourself, to draw your brows up solemnly; then, taking on the mind of a lawgiver and thinking that you now direct Roman affairs by your vote, you lifted yourself so high above me. At last some thought and memory of our old intimacy have slipped in. Would that this had happened long ago. Still, when I heard your tongue, together with the swallows, sounding something sweet, I rose up in soul, the sun seemed to strike me more brightly, and now it is truly spring for me. Be kindly to me from now on, and do not again let old loves fall into forgetfulness.

Ἐπιφανίωι Δεινὸς ἄρα τις ἦσθα κινεῖν ὃν ἂν ἐθέλῃς πρὸς λόγον καὶ σιωπήν, καί μοι δοκεῖς παραπλήσιόν τι ποιεῖν, ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις λύραν ἔχων, κεχρῆσθαι ταύτῃ μαθών, νῦν μὲν ὑφαίνοι μέλος, νῦν δὲ τῶν κρουμάτων ἀπόσχοιτο. εἰ γάρ τι παρὰ ταῦτα κρεῖττον νομισθείη, εὐθὺς πρὸς ἐκεῖνο γίνεται, καὶ οὐδὲν ἂν εἴποι μουσικὸν οὔτε αὐτὸς οὔτε ἡ λύρα. καὶ σοῦ σιωπῶντος ἡμῖν πρὸς τὰ καινότερα μεταβεβλημένου κατηφεῖς εὐθὺς καὶ σιωπῶντες οἱ πάλαι μὲν φίλτατοι, νῦν δὲ ἴσως φίλοι. ἀλλ' οἶδα πόθεν τὸ πρᾶγμα. οἱ νόμοι σε παρασκευάζειν ἠνάγκασαν σεμνὸν ταῖς ὀφρύσιν ἀνέλκειν, εἶτα φρόνημα νομοθέτου λαβὼν καὶ δόξας ἤδη τὰ Ῥωμαίων ἄγειν τῇ ψήφῳ, τοσοῦτον ἡμῶν κατεπήρθης. ἀλλ' ἐπειδή σε μόλις ὑπεισῆλθε τῆς παλαιᾶς συνηθείας λόγος καὶ μνήμη, εἴθε μὲν καὶ πάλαι γέγονε τοῦτο. ὅμως δέ, τῆς σῆς γλώττης μετὰ τῶν χελιδόνων ἡδύ τι φθεγγομένης ἀκούσας διανίσταμαι τῇ ψυχῇ καὶ λαμπρότερόν μοι τὸν ἥλιον προσβάλλειν δοκῶ, καὶ νῦν ὄντως ἔαρ ἐμοί. ἀλλὰ γένοιο λοιπὸν ἡμῖν εὐμενής, καὶ μηκέτ' ἔλθῃς παλαιῶν ἐρώτων εἰς λήθην.