Letter 582: I received your letter through Thorax.

To Alcimus. (357) I received your letter through Thorax; but although he said he would give me, in addition to it, a document from which I might have learned what needs to be done on your behalf, he gives me an audience only with difficulty, and even then he does not hand it over. So if I do get those documents, I shall show myself to you to be such a man as you hope for; but as for the bears, let your city share some of them with us. And in conversing with you about what must be obtained from the community, perhaps I am not mistaken; for you have the city compliant, as it does well to be. Consider too that the same thing will bring applause both to us and to you: to us, as having shown zeal toward [...], and to you, as having given without grudging. And it is somehow a pleasant thing, when the bear performs wonders, that the man who asks, "Where does this one come from?" should hear, "From the Bithynians."

Ἀλκίμῳ. (357) Ἔλαβόν σου διὰ Θώρακος ἐπιστολήν, γράμματα δὲ ἐπ ἐκείνη δώσειν εἰπών, ἀφ’ ὧν ἂν ἦν μοι μαθεῖν, ὅ τι δεῖ σοι πραχθῆναι, μόλις μὲν ἐντυγχάνει, δίδωσι δὲ οὐδὲ τότε. ἐκείνων μὲν οὖν ἢν λάβω, φανοῦμαί σοι τοιοῦτος οἷον ἐλπίζεις· τῶν ἄρκτων δὲ ἡμῖν ἡ πόλις ὑμῶν μεταδότω. σοὶ δὲ διαλεγόμενος περὶ ὧν δεῖ γενέσθαι παρὰ τοῦ κοινοῦ τάχ’ ἴσως οὐχ ἁμαρτάνω· πειθομένην γὰρ ἔχεις καλῶς ποιοῦσαν τὴν πόλιν. ἐνθυμοῦ δὲ ὅτι τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ ἡμῖν καὶ ὑμῖν οἴσει κρότον, ἡμῖν μὲν ὡς σπουδῇ χρησαμένοις <εἰς> τὸ βεῖν, ὑμῖν δὲ ὡς ἄνευ φθόνου δεδωκόσιν. ἡδὺ δέ που τὸ τῆς ἄρκτου θαυμαστὰ ἐργαζομένης τὸν ἐρόμενον, πόθεν δὲ αὕτη; παρὰ Βιθυνῶν ἀκοῦσαι.