Letter 702: Those who saw the honors you lavished on Artemis are the luckier ones.

To Bacchius. (362) Those who saw the honors you lavished upon Artemis were the more fortunate, but we too were gladdened by what was reported, and though we did not have an equal share to theirs, we had not much less. For the man who brought your letter to you was the one who carried to me the account of what had been done: from where you led the goddess in procession, and in what guise, and how she was equipped under arms, and that the cost of her array was your own. And he made mention of the sacrificial victims, of the silver boar and the deer, and he described the splendor of the procession, the multitude of banqueters, the multitude of days spent in drinking, and the finest thing of all: for he said that the noble Demetrius added to the feast the entertainment that comes from eloquence, so that I was seized with leaping for joy and rejoiced together with you in your service to Artemis. But may you indeed hand on the priesthood to your children, and may land and sea yield their enjoyment of the renewed sacrifices for all time.

Βακχίῳ. (362) Οἱ μὲν ἰδόντες εὐδαιμονέστεροι τὰ περὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν σοὶ πεφιλοτιμημένα, γεγόναμεν δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ τοῖς ἠγγελμένοις ἡδίους καὶ οὐκ ἴσον μὲν ἐκείνοις, οὐ πολὺ δὲ ἔλαττον εἴχομεν. ὁ γάρ σοι τὰ γράμματα φέρων οὗτος ἐκόμιζέ μοι τῶν πε- ποιημένων τὸν λόγον, ὅθεν μὶν σὺ τὴν θεὸν ἦγες καὶ ἐν ὅτῳ σχήματι, ὅπως δὲ ὡπλισμένην, σὸν δὲ εἶναι τὴν σκευὴν ἀνάλωμα. καὶ τῶν ἱερείων ἐμνήσθη τοῦ τι ἀργυροῦ συὸς καὶ τῆς ἐλάφου πομπῆς τε διηγήσατο κόσμον πλῆθός τε δαι- τυμόνων καὶ πλῆθος ἡμερῶν ἐν πότω καὶ τὸ κάλλιστον· προσθεῖναι γὰρ ἔφησε τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν λόγων τὸν καλὸν Δημή- τριον ἑστίασιν, ὥστε με σκιρτήμασιν ἔχεσθαι καὶ συνήδεσθαί σοι τῆς περὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν θεραπείας. ἀλλὰ σύ γε παισί τι παραδοίης τὴν ἱερωσύνην τῆς τε τῶν θυσιῶν ἐπανόδου γῆ τε καὶ θάλαττα πάντα ἀπολαύοι τὸν χρόνον.