Letter 230: This Antiochus here is a man who barely survived.

To Andronicus. (358) This Antiochus here is one of those who have barely been saved. For when Demetrius was governor of Phoenicia, a groom led out a hard-to-handle [skittish] horse and gave it to him. And he had no sooner mounted it than he was thrown off and lay there in the very marketplace, while the horse ran off carrying the saddle-pack. And this was perhaps a profit for those who keep that fine beast. They ought, then, to have died for so very clever a contrivance, for this man too, had not one of the gods warded it off, would have fallen and been killed; but on account of Antiochus's fairness, they came to an accounting concerning the money. And to those who had done the wrong it seemed good to settle the charge for twenty-five staters, but since he asserts that a hundred staters had been lost to him, the matter stands in dispute. It is for you, then, to decide what is just and to help the one man, while bringing the others to their senses.

Ἀνδρονίκῳ. (358) Ἀντίοχος οὑτοσὶ τῶν μόλις ἐστὶ σεσωσμένων. ὅτε γὰρ ἦρχε Φοινίκης Δημήτριος, ἵππον αὐτῷ δίδωσι δυσγάργαλιν ἱπποκόμης ἐξαγαγών. ὁ δὲ ἅμα τε ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ἀνέβη καὶ ἐκ- κρουσθεὶς ἐπ’ αὐτῆς ἔκειτο τῆς ἀγορᾶς, ὁ δὲ ἵππος ἔθει φέρων τὸ στρωματόδεσμον. καὶ ἦν ἴσως τοῦτο κέρδος τῶν τὸ καλὸν τρεφόντων θηρίον. ἔδει μὲν οὖν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τῇ σοφωτάτῃ μηχανῇ ἀποθανεῖν, καὶ γὰρ οὗτος, εἰ μὴ θεῶν τις ἤμυνε, πε- σὼν ἂν ἐτεθνήκει, διὰ δὲ τὴν ἐπιείκειαν Ἀντιόχου περὶ τῶν χρημάτων εἰς λόγον καθίσταντο. καὶ τοῖς μὲν ἠδικηκόσιν ἐδόκει πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι στατῆρσι λῦσαι τὸ ἔγκλημα, τοῦ δὲ φάσκοντος ἑκατὸν αὑτῷ στατῆρας ἀπολωλέναι τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐπὶ τῆς ἀμφισβητήσεως ἵσταται. σὸν δὴ τὰ δίκαια ννῶναι καὶ τῷ μὲν βοηθῆσαι, τοὺς δὲ σωφρονίσαι.