Letter from Artemidoros to Zenon

Description

Artemidoros the physician writes that he and Apollonios are both well and that they are now returning to Sidon after having escorted the queen as for as the frontier. He expects to be in Philadelphia very soon and asks Zenon to do various things for him; to buy some honey and barley, to look after his house and see that it is roofed over, to keep an eye on his cattle, pigs, geese and other farm stock and to attend to the harvesting of his crops. [The first few lines of the letter refer to the wedding of the princess Berenike. She had been accompanied by her father as far as Pelusium, where the king took leave of her and entrusted her to the care of Apollonios. At the frontier line between Syria and the Syrian province of Egypt she was met by Antiochos or his ambassadors and the Egyptian mission returned to Sidon and thence to Egypt. Apollonios, to whom the king had apparently paid the high compliment of choosing him to act as his representative on this historic occasion, took with him as usual his private physician Artemidoros.]