Letter 306

306. To the Governor of Sebaste

I perceive that your honour gladly receives our letters, and I know the reason. Being a lover of the good and ready for acts of kindness, since each time we furnish you with some matter sufficient to engage the nobility of your purpose, you hasten to our letters as to so many occasions for good works. There comes, then, yet another occasion able to receive the marks of your readiness in all things, and bringing with it, at the same time, a herald of your good deeds.

For certain men have set out from Alexandria, fittingly, on a necessary errand—one owed, as is common to the whole nature of mankind, to the departed. They need your protection, so that you may grant them, by an official decree, leave to move the body of their kinsman, who died here in Sebaste during the army's encampment; and further, that what help is possible may be furnished to them from the public post, so that they may find through your nobility some relief from their long wandering. That this kindness will reach as far as great Alexandria, and will be a service to those there, the wonder of your honour will be made plain to your good sense, even if I do not say it. And we, in addition to the many favours we have already received, shall reckon this one too among them.