Letter 202: I received your letter with the same pleasure I always feel when something of yours arrives.

[To the same.] (360) We love Zenas both as a capable orator and as a good man, and we owe him some debts of gratitude for the labors his brother endured on our behalf, when Limenius thought it necessary to kill me as a favor to someone else. His brother stood with me against a governor's wrath. Paionius, that excellent man, ought to have lived and received his due rewards. Since he has departed, this man becomes heir to what was his -- a man whom some spirit, for reasons unknown to me, threw into a foul business, from which fines have made the Hydra seem small. For one sycophant always follows another. He has paid sums that would have exposed even the wealth of Midas. Comfort then a man who has been laid waste like a city worn down by a long siege. It would be impious for me not to help him, and it is your habit to do what pleases us.

τῷ αὐτῷ. (360) Ζηνᾶν καὶ ὡς ῥήτορα δεξιὸν καὶ ὡς ἄνδρα ἀγαθὸν φι- λοῦμεν, ὀφείλομεν δέ τινας αὐτῷ καὶ χάριτας ἀντὶ τῶν πό- νων, οὓς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ὑπέμεινεν ἀδελφὸς ὁ τοῦδε, ὅτε με Λι- μένιος ἀποκτεῖναι δεῖν ᾤετο φέρων ἑτέρῳ χάριν. ὁ δὲ ἔστη μετ’ ἐμοῦ πρὸς ἄρχοντος ὀργήν. ἔδει μὲν οὖν ζῆν τὸν χρὴ. στὸν Παιόνιον καὶ κομίζεσθαι τὰς ἀμοιβάς· ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀπῆλθεν, οὗτος τῶν ἐκείνου γίγνεται κληρονόμος, ὃν δαίμων τις, οὐκ οἶδα ἀνθ’ ὅτου, φέρων ἐνέβαλεν εἰς πρᾶγμα μιαρόν, ὅθεν αὐ- τῷ ζημίαι μικρὸν ἀποφαίνουσαι τὴν ὕδραν. ἀεὶ γάρ τις ἐπὶ συκοφάντῃ συκοφάντης. ὁ δὲ ἀπέτισεν ὁπόσα ἂν καὶ τὸν Μί- δοῦ πλοῦτον ἐξήλεγξε. παραμύθησαι δὴ κεκακωμένον ἄνδρα καθάπερ πόλιν μακρᾷ πολιορκίᾳ πεπονηκυῖαν. οὔτε γὰρ ἐμοὶ μὴ τούτῳ βοηθεῖν εὐσεβὲς σοί τε ἡμῖν τι ποιεῖν τῶν κατὰ νοῦν ἐν μελέτῃ.