Letter 435: We ask everyone who comes from your region how your health is.

We ask everyone who comes from your region how your health is. About your soul we need not ask -- we know it is good. That much I would say even to strangers. But when we hear you are well, we both rejoice and are puzzled: how is it that a man who knows what a terrible thing illness is -- and how much it requires rest -- is trying to deprive me of that very rest, surrounded as I am by ailments? For the man who has the power to stop these summons being written against me but allows them -- he is the one imposing the pressure. Please, gentlest of men, do not stand by while I am dragged from my sickbed, and do the generous emperor the favor of ensuring that nothing unworthy of his own judgment is done to a man who has sung his praises many times. As for our fellow citizen Antiochus, who brings a crown from the contest sacred to Zeus -- be everything to him, knowing that in supporting him you honor both the city and delight the mind of Zeus more than the Greeks at Troy pleased Apollo with their songs.

Παλλαδίῳ. (355) Τῶν ἐκεῖθεν ἀνιόντων ἕκαστον ἐρωτῶμεν, ὅπως ἔχει σοι τὸ σῶμα. περὶ γάρ τοι τῆς ψυχῆς οὐκ ἂν ἐροίμεθα εἰ χρηστή τοῦτο γὰρ κἂν πρὸς ἄλλους εἴποιμεν. ἀκούοντες δὲ ὡς ἔρ- ρωσαι χαίρομέν τε καὶ προσέτι θαυμάζομεν εἰ εἰδὼς ἡλίκον τι κακὸν τὸ ἀρρωστεῖν καὶ ὡς μάλιστα πρᾶγμα τῆς ἡσυχίη δεό- μενον, ἐμέ γε ταύτης ἀφαιρῇ τῆς ἡσυχίας κεκυκλωμένον νο- σήμασιν. ὁ γὰρ ἔχων μὲν κωλῦσαι μὴ τοιαῦτα περὶ ἐμοῦ γρά- φεσθαι, γράφεσθαι δὲ ἐπιτρέπων αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ τὰς ἀνάγκας προσάγων. ἀλλ’, ὦ πρᾳότατε, μήτ’ ἐμὲ περιίδης ἐκ τῆς κλί- νης ἀποσπώμενον τῷ τε ὁριστῷ βασιλεῖ χάρισαι τὸ μηδὲν ἀνά- ξιον τῆς αὑτοῦ γνώμης εἰς ἄνδρα πράττεσθαι πολλὰ εἰς ἐκεῖ- νον ᾄσαντα. τῷ πολίτῃ δὲ ἡμῶν Ἀντιόχῳ στέφανον φέροντι τοῦ ἀγῶνος ἐπώνυμον τῷ Διὶ πάντα γενοῦ νομίζων ἐν τούτῳ τήν τε πόλιν εὖ ποιεῖν καὶ τοῦ Δῖός τὴν φρένα τέρπειν μᾶλ- λον ἢ τῶν Ἑλλήνων οἱ περὶ Τροίαν μέλποντες τὸν Ἀπόλλω.