Leiden conventions rendered as EpiDoc: restorations as supplied(reason=lost), gaps as gap, abbreviations as expan(abbr+ex), omitted letters as supplied(reason=omitted), surplus as surplus, corrections as corr. Critical apparatus as listApp. The facing translation is div type=translation; the historical commentary is div type=commentary.
King Eumenes to Attis the priest, greeting. If you were well it would be well; I too was in good health. I have received your letter in which you showed me what had been written concerning your brother Aioiorix. You were absolutely right in setting yourself utterly against him. Would that the goddess, taking thought for her priests who have been and are being insulted, had deprived the man who did these things of what he most desires; but if not, may he become sane of mind and reverent and send back the offerings. Farewell.
(fragmentary) … touching the Galatians and the Roman Senate, and the defence of 'the brother Attalus' … the stone is badly broken here.
Attalus to Attis the priest, greeting. If you are well it would be good; I too am in health. As soon as [Meno]doros and my brother had come to the camp, I brought the man to them and showed them your policy, and sent him back to you. Farewell.
Attalus to Attis the priest, greeting. If you were well it would be well; I too was in good health. Menodoros, whom you sent to me, gave me your letter — assiduous and friendly as it was — and himself gave a fuller account of the matters on which he said he had instructions. I have accordingly approved your policy, because I have seen you enthusiastic for our interest on every occasion; and, having told him what I thought you ought to know, I have instructed him to report to you. Farewell.
Attalus to Attis the priest, greeting. If you are well it would be good; I too am in health. Menodoros gave me your letter, in which you had written that, on learning that my brother had come to the camp, you sacrificed to the gods for our safety; and he spoke … (the rest is lost).
Attalus to Attis the priest, greeting. … with caution; after opening and resealing the letters of Lysias I have sent them back to you — for they said you would not be able to open them if I sent them as they were. Do you receive them, then, and forward them to whom you wish as they request, since we know that whatever you do you will do to our advantage. And the courier who brings them — since he wishes to confer with you — summon him by all means; for it is useful, among other things, to hear from him what he says Publius told you, and to send someone of yours with him to those places. Farewell.
King Attalus to Attis the priest, greeting. If you are well, it would be good; I too am in good health. When we had come to Pergamon and I had gathered not only Athenaios and Sosandros and Menogenes but also several others of my intimates, and had laid before them what we had been deliberating at Apamea, and spoke of the things that had seemed best to us, many exceedingly (long) speeches were made; and at first all inclined to the same opinion as us,
but Chlorus was the most vehement, putting forward the Roman consideration and counselling in no way to do anything without them. At first few shared his view, but afterwards, as day by day we kept weighing it, it took hold of us more, and to rush into action without them seemed to carry great danger: for if we succeeded we should expect jealousy and confiscation and base suspicion — the very thing they had conceived about my brother — and if we failed, manifest ruin; for they would not come to our aid, but would gladly see it, because we had undertaken such great things without them.
Whereas now, if — which heaven forbid — we should be worsted in anything, having done each thing with their consent we should obtain help and retrieve the struggle, with the goodwill of the gods. I decided therefore always to send to Rome men to report continually the matters at issue, and that we ourselves should prepare carefully, so that, if need be, we may defend ourselves.
The one letter of Eumenes II in the dossier. Attis' own brother, Aioiorix — a Galatian — had insulted the priests and laid hands on the goddess's offerings; the king backs Attis' resistance and, in a striking turn, prays Cybele herself to punish the offender or bring him to repentance. Sacred and dynastic interest coincide (Welles 1934, 243).
Badly broken; what survives touches the Galatians, the Roman Senate, and the defence of 'the brother Attalus'. Given here for completeness.
A brief note: when the courier and the king's brother reached the camp, the king presented Attis' man and policy to them and sent him back.
The courier Menodoros delivers Attis' warm letter; the king approves his policy, praising his unfailing zeal for Attalid interests, and sends Menodoros back to report.
Attis had sacrificed for the king's safety on learning the king's brother had reached the camp — the priestly counterpart of political loyalty.
The king returns the sealed letters of Lysias for Attis to forward, and asks him to summon the courier and hear what the Roman Publius had said — the practical channel of information that the war-council letter (61) makes momentous. (OGIS prints this as §VII; it is Welles 60, not 61.)
The dossier's climax, and unique among royal letters in preserving the inner debate of a Hellenistic council of state. Attalus II gathers his intimates — his brother Athenaios, Sosandros, Menogenes and others — and lays before them at Apamea the question of war on the Galatians. All first incline to act; but Chlorus presses the Roman consideration and carries the day. The reasoning is starkly clear-eyed: an independent victory would earn Rome's jealousy, confiscation and suspicion — exactly what Eumenes II, the king's brother, had suffered after his triumphs — while defeat would bring ruin with no Roman aid. Only by acting 'with their approval' can the dynasty count on Roman support. The resolution — permanent envoys at Rome, no major move without Roman sanction — is the most candid surviving avowal of a client-king's calculus under Roman hegemony (Welles 1934, 241–257; OGIS 315; IGRR III 222).