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Royal Correspondence: 73


LETTER OF MITHRIDATES TO LEONIPPOS

Original text:   Nysa_44 ,   Nysa_9 ,   Nysa_7   ( Syll_741 )
Date:     88 B.C.

This inscription was set up after the end of the first Mithridatic war in 85 B.C., when the cities of Asia were anxious to commemorate any citizens who had taken the considerable risk of opposing Mithridates. Chairemon was probably killed at Ephesos during the war.

In the inscription, the letters of Mithridates were preceded by a letter from C.Cassius, proconsul of Asia in 88 B.C.


[A]   The people [and the] council [of Nysa honoured] Chairemon son of Pythodoros.

[B]   Gaius Cassius to the magistrates of Nysa, greetings. Chairemon son of Pythodoros, your citizen, came to me in Apameia and asked that I should permit him to appear in my council. This I permitted him, and he promised to the council that, out of regard for the senate and [people] of Rome, he would give a gift of six thousand modii of wheat flour to our camp. I replied to him about this matter, that he had acted well and that I in my turn would take care that he should realise our gratitude for these things. We [have reported these things] to the senate and people of [Rome].

[C]   King Mithridates to the satrap Leonippos, greetings. Whereas Chairemon the son of Pythodoros, a man most hateful and most hostile to our state, has always [consorted] with our most hated enemies, and now learning of my proximity has removed to a place of safety his sons Pythodoros and Pythion and has himself fled, proclaim that if anyone apprehends Chairemon or Pythodoros or Pythion living, he will receive forty talents, and if anyone brings in the head of any [of these], he will receive twenty talents.

letter 74


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