To Cyrillus. (357)
Dionysius, who urged me to write to you, first convinced me that you speak of me with praise -- and he convinced me easily. I used to pray that Procopius would become a good man in the halls of learning, and it is natural that you, who were so close to him, would count me among your friends.
So let me speak plainly, lest this become a riddle. Procopius, doing a noble deed, took pity on Dionysius when he saw him in poverty after his father's murder. So that Dionysius would not be deprived of his studies by lack of food, he ordered his estate managers to deliver to him a certain amount from Cilicia and an equal amount from the Euphrates region.
The share from Cilicia, he says, never went beyond the letter, but the other was actually paid. And so Dionysius could eat, and Procopius could earn renown. But now even this has been taken away: the one who always gave has stopped giving, claiming he is prevented by a letter -- not from Procopius (he did not dare to make that lie) but from one of the estate managers.
Convince the managers not to "love" their master in such a way that they destroy his great reputation for the sake of a small addition of wheat. If Dionysius has become either wicked toward you or wealthy, there would be reason to stop the allowance. But if he is in the same poverty and the same good character, and your affairs are going well -- as I hope they continue to do -- do not end this aid.
Dionysius, who urged me to write to you, first convinced me that you speak of me with praise -- and he convinced me easily. I used to pray that Procopius would become a good man in the halls of learning, and it is natural that you, who were so close to him, would count me among your friends.
So let me speak plainly, lest this become a riddle. Procopius, doing a noble deed, took pity on Dionysius when he saw him in poverty after his father's murder. So that Dionysius would not be deprived of his studies by lack of food, he ordered his estate managers to deliver to him a certain amount from Cilicia and an equal amount from the Euphrates region.
The share from Cilicia, he says, never went beyond the letter, but the other was actually paid. And so Dionysius could eat, and Procopius could earn renown. But now even this has been taken away: the one who always gave has stopped giving, claiming he is prevented by a letter -- not from Procopius (he did not dare to make that lie) but from one of the estate managers.
Convince the managers not to "love" their master in such a way that they destroy his great reputation for the sake of a small addition of wheat. If Dionysius has become either wicked toward you or wealthy, there would be reason to stop the allowance. But if he is in the same poverty and the same good character, and your affairs are going well -- as I hope they continue to do -- do not end this aid.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.