Letter 266: You have been doing what is right -- looking after the people I commend to you, not as a favor to me but out of your...

To Olympius. (358) Your sons will obtain everything that is just from us, first by reason of the very claim of justice and the obligation that at least a governor who is not wicked should act in this way; and next because Eutherius pleads on their behalf, and Nemesius escorted them here, the one being an excellent magistrate, the other a consummate orator, who, even if he had put into my hands the sons of an enemy, I would have looked upon them as the sons of a friend, and would have come to love the very enmity. For who would not feel reverence before that countenance, that voice, that silence? For my part, I have not seen a man who does everything so well suited to the occasion. And it is no wonder that he, being an Armenian, should be such a man; for your land knows how to bring forth the virtues of men. Do you, then, seek how you may requite the ferryman; but in any case you will give nothing of such a kind as will free you from still being in debt. As for me, I confess that I owe a fee to these young men, and I will pay it, on whose account this man both came hither and entered into our company and has become one of my friends.

Ὀλυμπίῳ. (358) Τεύξονται πάντων τῶν δικαίων οἱ σοὶ παῖδες παρ’ ἡμῶν, πρῶτον μὲν κατ’ αὐτὸ τὸ τοῦ δικαίου μέρος καὶ τὸ δεῖν οὕτω ποιεῖν τόν γε οὐ πονηρὸν ἡγεμόνα· ἔπειθ’ ὅτι πα- ρακαλεῖ μὲν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν Εὐθήριος, ἦγε δὲ αὐτοὺς Νεμέσιος, ὁ μὲν ἄρχων ἄριστος, ὁ δὲ ῥήτωρ ἄκρος, ὃς εἰ μοι καὶ δυσμε- νοῦς ἐνεχείριζε παῖδας, εἶδον ἂν ὡς φίλου παῖδας καὶ τὴν ἀπέχθειαν ἠγάπων. τίς δ’ οὐκ ἂν αἰδεσθείη τὸ πρόσ- ωπον, τὴν φωνήν, τὴν σιγήν; ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ εἶδον ἄνδρα οὕτω μετὰ τοῦ καιροῦ πάντα ποιοῦντα. καὶ θαυμάσιόν οὐδὲν εἶναι τοιοῦτον ὄντα Ἀρμένιον. οἶδε γὰρ ἡ ὑμετέρα φέρειν ἀνδρῶν ἀρετάς. σὺ μὲν οὖν ὅπως ἀμείψῃ τὸν πορθμέα, ζήτει, πάν- τως δὲ οὐδὲν δώσεις τοιοῦτον, ὃ ποιήσει σε μὴ προσοφείλειν· ἐγὼ δὲ μισθὸν ὀφείλειν ὁμολογῶ τοῖς νέοις καὶ ἀποδώσω δι’ οὓς οὗτος καὶ δεῦρο ἦλθε καὶ παρ’ ἡμᾶς εἰσῆλθε καὶ τῶν φίλων εἷς γεγένηται.