To Alcimus. (357 AD)
As long as you are alive and watching over Bithynia, the province can triumph through its men — for no one else could produce another Alcimus.
Your letter about the bears made a festival for our city. People hearing such marvels could not disbelieve them when you were the source, and they felt almost as if they were seeing the spectacle themselves. I imagine the leopards reached you around the time your letter about them reached us, for they have been at sea a good while and, as one can guess, have completed the voyage.
So as you enjoy the entertainments from here, delight us with those from there — and remember that the current animals are, as your letter says, fiercer than the previous ones for the hunters.
As long as you are alive and watching over Bithynia, the province can triumph through its men — for no one else could produce another Alcimus.
Your letter about the bears made a festival for our city. People hearing such marvels could not disbelieve them when you were the source, and they felt almost as if they were seeing the spectacle themselves. I imagine the leopards reached you around the time your letter about them reached us, for they have been at sea a good while and, as one can guess, have completed the voyage.
So as you enjoy the entertainments from here, delight us with those from there — and remember that the current animals are, as your letter says, fiercer than the previous ones for the hunters.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.