Letter 187: At first we had no way of knowing where exactly you were.

To Modestus. (358/59) At first it was not possible for us to know where in the world you happened to be; but that you were in the land which has a river on either side, the Tigris on this side and the Euphrates on that, this much it was not possible to be ignorant of; yet whereabouts in that land you were, this at least escaped us, as well as the cities there, on account of the eagle that settles nowhere. So I prayed that you, freed from your wandering, might come to a brief halt, so that it might be possible for letters to make their way to you, which indeed has come to pass. For as soon as you took breath, you both wrote and rouse us to letters, and you will not say that the past year, as the proverb has it, turned out better for correspondence than the present one. But the young man whom you sent to study medicine, that he might make use of Thallus as his teacher, I have not yet been able to see. For either he has not arrived, or he thinks he has no need of us at all.

Μοδέστῳ. (358/59) Τὸ μὲν πρῶτον οὐκ ἦν ἡμῖν εἰδέναι, ποῦ ποτε ὢν τυγ- χάνεις, ἀλλ’ ὅτι μὲν ἐν τῇ ποταμὸν ἑκατέρωθεν ἐχούσῃ, Τί- γρητα μὲν ἐνθένδε, Εὐφράτην δὲ ἐνθένδε, τοῦτο οὐκ ἦν ἀγνο- εἰν· ταύτης δὲ ἐκείνης ὅπου τοῦτό γε καὶ τὰς αὐτόθι πό- λεις ἐλάνθανε διὰ τὸν οὐδαμοῦ καθήμενον ἀετόν. εὐχόμην δή σε τῆς πλάνης ἀπαλλαγέντα στῆναι μικρόν, ὅπως γένοιτο πορεύεσθαι ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς, ὃ δὴ καὶ γέγονεν. ὡς γὰρ ἀνέ- πνευσας, ἐπέστειλάς τε καὶ πρὸς ἐπιστολὰς ἐγείρεις, καὶ οὐ φή- σεῖς γε τὸ παρελθὸν ἔτος κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν εἰς γράμματα γενέσθαι βέλτιον τοῦ νῦν. ὃν δὲ ἔπεμψας ἐπὶ ἰατρικὴν νέον διδασκάλῳ Θάλλω χρησόμενον, οὔπω ἔσχον ἰδεῖν. ἢ γὰρ οὐχ ἧκεν ἢ οὐδὲν ἡμῶν οἴεται δεῖσθαι.