“Hermes: …What direction shoud we take, Philosophy? You know where they are.
Philosophy: These others have no use for Attic poverty; we must look for them in some quarter where much gold or silver is mined.
Hermes: Then we must make straight for Thrace.
Heracles: Quite right, and indeed I will show you the way, as I know the whole of Thrace from repeated visits. So, if you please, let us now take this direction.
Hermes: What direction do you mean?
Heracles: Do you see two ranges, Hermes and Philosophy, the highest and most beautiful of all mountains (the higher is Haemus, the one opposite is Rhodope), and a plain of great fertility outspread beneath them, beginning at the very foothills of each? Also, three very beautiful eminences standing up, not so rough as to be shapeless? They look like multiple citadels belonging to the city beneath them (Philippopolis). For the city, too, is now in sight.
Hermes: Yes, by Zeus, Heracles, the greatest and loveliest of all cities! In fact, its beauty is radiant from afar. And also, a very large river flows past it, coming quite close to it.
Dialog between Hermes and Heracles
Lucian, “Runaways”
Written in Plovdiv in 165-166 AD
