Letter 243: You do not give me a chance to ask for anything -- you who send everything before being asked.

To Demetrius. (360/61) You do not allow me to ask, you who send everything before being asked. For at one and the same time something has been given to you by the land and to me by you, and no one had time to say how good indeed is the country of our near neighbors, before now your servant is also bringing close to us the very thing that the land produces, the things for which the country was praised. How then is it possible for one to ask for the things one has [already] received, in order that one might receive them? The farmer, when Zeus does not send rain, asks the god to send rain, but when it is raining he sits and rejoices, and does not ask.

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.