Letter 593: As long as you are alive and watching over Bithynia, the province can triumph through its men — for no one else...

To Alcimus. (357 AD) As long as you are alive and watching over Bithynia, the province can triumph through its men — for no one else could produce another Alcimus. Your letter about the bears made a festival for our city. People hearing such marvels could not disbelieve them when you were the source, and they felt almost as if they were seeing the spectacle themselves. I imagine the leopards reached you around the time your letter about them reached us, for they have been at sea a good while and, as one can guess, have completed the voyage. So as you enjoy the entertainments from here, delight us with those from there — and remember that the current animals are, as your letter says, fiercer than the previous ones for the hunters.

Ἀλκίμῳ. (357) Ἕως ἂν ᾖς καὶ σώζῃ τῇ Βιθυνίᾳ, καὶ δι’ ἀνδρῶν ἔστι τῷ ἔθνει νικᾶν· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἄλλοι γε δείξειαν ἕτερον Ἄλκιμον. τοῖς δὲ περὶ τῶν ἄρκτων γράμμασιν ἑορτὴν ἐποίησας τῇ πόλει. μεγάλα γὰρ ἀκούοντες ἀπιστεῖν οὐκ εἶχον σοῦ λἐγον- τος, ἀλλ’ ἐγγύς τι καθειστήκεσαν τοῦ ὁρᾶν. ἡγοῦμαι δὲ σοὶ τὰς παρδάλεις ἥκειν, ἡνίκα πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὰ περὶ ἐκείνων γράμ- ματα. πάλαι γὰρ δὴ πλέουσι καί, ὡς εἰκάζειν ἔστιν, ἐχρήσαντο πλῷ. τερπόμενος δὴ τοῖς ἐνθένδε τέρπε τοῖς ἐκεῖθεν ἡμᾶς μεμνημένος ὅτι τῶν προτέρων αἱ νῦν κυνηγέταις, ὡς ὁ σὸς λόγος, χαλεπώτεραι.