Letter 410: [To Aristainetus]

[To Aristainetus] I hear that grief has overcome you and that you spend your time at the tomb. I would have blamed you if you felt no grief at all, but I cannot praise grief this extreme. The first would be unworthy of your nature; the second is unworthy of your education. If, then, you need some consolation from another, Olympius will provide it. He is good at both -- freeing souls and bodies from their illnesses. [To Silanus] I wanted to give you the things that seem great in people's eyes but could not. What I can give -- things that truly are great rather than merely seem so -- accept: a friend overflowing with every virtue, the remarkable Olympius.

Ἀρισταινέτῳ. (355) Ἀκούω σου κεκρατηκέναι τὴν λύπην καὶ εἶναί σοι περὶ τὸ μνῆμα τὴν διατριβήν. ἐγὼ δὲ ὥσπερ μὴ λυπούμενον ᾐτιώ- μην ἄν, οὕτω σφόδρα λυπούμενον οὐκ ἐπαινῶ. τὸ μὲν γὰρ οὐ τῆς σῆς φύσεως, τὸ δὲ οὐ τῆς σῆς παιδεύσεως. εἰ δ᾿ οὗν δεῖ τινος καὶ παρ᾿ ἄλλου παραμυθίας, πληρώσει ταύτην Ὀλύμ- πιος ἀμφότερα ὢν ἀγαθός, ψυχάς τε καὶ σώματα νοσημάτων ἐλευθεροῦν. Σιλανῷ. (355) Τὰ μὲν δοκοῦντα παρὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις μεγάλα δοῦναί σοι βουληθεὶς οὐκ ἠδυνήθην, τὰ δὲ ὄντα μᾶλλον ἢ δοκοῦντα – ταυτὶ γὰρ δοῦναι δεδύνημαι – δέχου, φίλον ἄνδρα πάσης ἀρετῆς γέμοντα, τὸν θαυμαστὸν Ὀλύμπιον.