Letter 593: As long as you are alive and watching over Bithynia, the province can triumph through its men — for no one else...

To Alcimus. (357) So long as you exist and preserve Bithynia, it is possible too for the province to win victories through men; for no others, at any rate, could point to a second Alcimus. By your letter about the bears you made a holiday for the city. For though we heard great things, we were unable to disbelieve them, since it was you who told them; rather, we stood almost on the very point of seeing them. And I think the leopards have arrived for you about the same time that the letter concerning them reached us. For they have long since been at sea and, as one may guess, have enjoyed a fair voyage. Taking delight, then, in the things from here, delight us with the things from over there, remembering that, compared with those of earlier days, the beasts of the present time are, as your account has it, more difficult for the huntsmen.

Ἀλκίμῳ. (357) Ἕως ἂν ᾖς καὶ σώζῃ τῇ Βιθυνίᾳ, καὶ δι’ ἀνδρῶν ἔστι τῷ ἔθνει νικᾶν· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἄλλοι γε δείξειαν ἕτερον Ἄλκιμον. τοῖς δὲ περὶ τῶν ἄρκτων γράμμασιν ἑορτὴν ἐποίησας τῇ πόλει. μεγάλα γὰρ ἀκούοντες ἀπιστεῖν οὐκ εἶχον σοῦ λἐγον- τος, ἀλλ’ ἐγγύς τι καθειστήκεσαν τοῦ ὁρᾶν. ἡγοῦμαι δὲ σοὶ τὰς παρδάλεις ἥκειν, ἡνίκα πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὰ περὶ ἐκείνων γράμ- ματα. πάλαι γὰρ δὴ πλέουσι καί, ὡς εἰκάζειν ἔστιν, ἐχρήσαντο πλῷ. τερπόμενος δὴ τοῖς ἐνθένδε τέρπε τοῖς ἐκεῖθεν ἡμᾶς μεμνημένος ὅτι τῶν προτέρων αἱ νῦν κυνηγέταις, ὡς ὁ σὸς λόγος, χαλεπώτεραι.