Letter 409: I know a letter from me delights you.

To Italicianus [355]. I know that a letter of mine gives you joy. For you are that man who flies, so as to give us a hearing, and who flies again in turn, carried away by the speeches in the assembly, both hastening eagerly to the lecture and, while in it, doing everything. It was therefore plain that you would not dishonor a letter from one whose discourses you honor. And I repay you by being greatly proud, because you seem to be admirable in the eyes of Olympius the wise, who goes to those who are sick and fills them up. Indeed, he is a friend so manifest that he would join in campaign with a friend even against the Gorgons. And you will see him working wonders in the contests on our behalf, in which you will surely share, even if no one rouses you to it.

Ἱταλικιαῷ (355) Οἶδ’ ὅτι σε εὐφραίνει γράμμα ἐμόν. σὺ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ὁ πετόμενος μέν, ὅπως ἂν ἡμῶν ἀκούσαις, πετόμενος δὲ αὖθις όπὸ τῶν λόγων έν τῷ συλλόγῳ, καὶ σπεύδων τε ἐπ’ ἀκρόασιν καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ πάντα δρῶν. ἦν οὖν δῆλον ὡς οὐκ ἀτιμάσεις ἐπιστολὴν οὖ τιμᾷς τοὺς λόγους. ἀμείβομαι δέ σε τῷ μέγα φρονεῖν, ὅτι δοκεῖς εἶναι καλὸς Ὀλυμπίῳ τῷ σοφῷ, ὃς βαδίζει μὲν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀρρωστοῦντας καὶ ἐμπίμπλησι. φίλος γε μὴν οὕτω σαφὴς ὥστε κἂν ἐπὶ τὰς Γοργόνας φίλῳ συστρατεύσαι. ὄψει δὲ αὐτὸν θαυμαστὰ ἐργαζόμενον ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἄθλοις, ὧν κοινωνήσεις δήπου, κἂν μηδεὶς ἐπεγείρῃ.