Letter 239: Well, the dreams did a fine job of prompting you -- though I know perfectly well you would have done the same thing...

To Demetrius. (360?) Well, the dreams did a fine thing in setting you in motion; yet I know well that even without dreams you would have done this thing which long ago you began to do from the matter of my estates. For one must call those estates mine and these of yours yours. For you seem to me to think that you will be doing wrong if you enjoy something that I too do not. But since it is not possible to retaliate against your gifts, receive from us a dream in return for a dream. Having bidden the slave-boy to light the lamp, so that I might write to you, since I was about to do so, I fell asleep, and I seemed to be among you and to be looking for you. Someone, then, was leading me through a lofty theater, but a certain old woman who knew the place to which we were heading [pointed out] another road, more pleasant than that one, along which, as we went, we met you sitting beside a certain temple and garden; and the ascent to the temple, no few steps, was occupied by young men leaping about, marveling at how I was contending against the speech of Demosthenes - those two speeches of his against Philip; and you, when you saw us, rose up, yet did not stop from speaking, so that we too heard something. So the night wronged me: I did not retain what was said. But if you have any such thing, send it, and gladden me beyond measure.

Δημητρίῳ. (360?) Ἀλλὰ καλῶς μὲν ἐποίησε τὰ ὀνείρατα κινήσαντά σε, εὖ μέντοι οἶδα, ὡς καὶ ὀνειράτων ἄνευ τοῦτ’ ἂν ἐποίεις, ὃ πάλαι ἤρξω ποιεῖν ἀπὸ τῶν χωρίων τῶν ἐμῶν. δεῖ γὰρ ἐκεῖνά τε ἐμὰ καλεῖν καὶ ταῦτα σά. δοκεῖς γάρ μοι νομίζειν ἀδικήσειν, εἴ τινος ἀπολαύσεις οὗ μὴ καὶ ἐγώ. ἐπεὶ δὲ τὰ δῶρά σου οὐκ ἔστιν ἀμύνασθαι, δέχου παρ’ ἡμῶν ἐνύπνιον ἀντ’ ἐνυπνίου. τὸν παῖδα κελεύσας ἅπτειν λύχνον, ὡς ἐπιστείλαιμί ἐπει- δὴ ἔμελλε, κατέδαρθον καὶ ἔδοξα παρ’ ὑμῖν τε εἶναι καὶ σὲ ζη- τεῖν. ἄγειν οὖν μέ τινα δι’ ὑψηλοῦ θεάτρου, γραῦν δέ τινα γνοῦσαν ἐφ’ ᾧπερ ἐχωροῦμεν ὁδὸν ἑτέραν ἐκείνης ἡδίω Μαὶ, καθ’ ἣν ἰόντας ἐντυχεῖν σοι καθημέ ῳ πρός τινι νεῷ καὶ κή- πῳ, τὴν δὲ ἀνάβασιν τὴν εἰς τὸν νεών, βαθμοὺς οὐκ ὀλίγους, ὑπὸ νέων πηδώντων κατέχεσθαι θαυμαζόντων ὅπως ἡμιλλῶ πρὸς Δημοσθένους λόγον τούτων δὴ τώ κατὰ τοῦ Φιλίππου, σὲ δ’ ἰδόντα μὶν ἡμᾶς ἀναστῆναι, τοῦ λέγειν δὲ οὐκ ἀποστῆ- ναι, ὥστε τι καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀκοῦσαι. ἴν με ἠδίκησεν ἡ νύξ· οὐκ ἐφύλαξα τὸ ῥηθέν. σοὶ δ’ εἴ τι τοιοῦτον ἐστι, πέμπε καὶ ὑπερ- ευγραινε.