Letter 243: You do not give me a chance to ask for anything -- you who send everything before being asked.
Δημητρίῳ. (360/61)
Σύ με οὐκ ἐᾷς αἰτεῖν ὁ πάντα πέμπων πρὶν αἰτηθῆναι. 15
ὁμοῦ γὰρ ὑμῖν τέ τι παρὰ τῆς γῆς δέδοται καὶ ἐμοὶ παρὰ σοῦ,
καὶ οὐκ ἔφθη τις εἰπών, ὡς ἀγαθή γε τῶν ἀστυγειτό-
νων χώρα, νῦν τὸ καὶ φύει ὁ σὸς οἰκέτης ἐγγὺς
φέρων ἡμῖν ἐφ’ οἷς ἡ χώρα ἐπῃνέθη.
πῶς οὖν ἔστιν ἅ τις
εἴληφεν αἰτεῖν, ὅπως ἂν λάβοι; ὁ γεωργός, ὅταν ὁ Ζεὺς οὐχ
ὕῃ, ὗσαι τὸν θεὸν αἰτεῖ, ὕοντος δὲ χαίρει καθήμενος, ἀλλ’
οὐκ αἰτεῖ.
Related Letters
I displayed both speeches -- both of them in full: the recent combative one and the older laudatory one.
Here's how it happened: Hermogenes didn't slam the door shut like some savage -- he just fell idle.
I mourned for the city itself -- the one I was so glad to see, which I left unwillingly, and which I longed for even...
The young men you sent are a credit to your city and to their fathers, and they have shown themselves worthy of the...
The young man did not come to me without thinking it through.