Letter 434: We are gaping in expectation -- not for Aeschylus [i.

To Olympius. (355) We have been standing open-mouthed in expectation not of Aeschylus, but of letters both from you and from our good emperor [Constantius II], the ones granting the remission, and yours making clear that these were granted through your exertions on the matter. Know too that a second letter has come from there imposing the same orders, but not allowing one to learn whether it was later than the decree or whether it came earlier. But it falls to you to resolve these constraints as well, just as you resolve illnesses. For I am keeping the agreements, though everyone has campaigned against them except two; for it is not lawful that what you brought together should be pulled apart; but you, see to it that you do not preserve the taxes against us. Let this be the contest: for me, to guard the one thing; for you, to set the other in motion. You know that the president of the games of the Olympia [the local Olympic festival at Antioch] performs his public service on a great scale and not from small means, and in such matters a generous emperor is an ally. Show him to be such a one, by Zeus, by rousing the soul of Datianus to come to the rescue. And good is the entreaty of a comrade.

Ὀλυμπίῳ. (355) Κεχήναμεν προσδοκῶντες οὐ τὸν Αἰσχύλον, ἀλλὰ γράμ- μaτα τὰ σά τε καὶ χρηστοῦ βασιλέως, τὰ μὲν ἄφεσιν διδόντα, τὰ σὰ δὲ ὅτι σοῦ ταῦτα πονοῦντος ἐδόθη δηλοῦντα. ἴσθι δὲ καὶ δευτέραν ἥκειν ἐκεῖθεν ἐπιστολὴν ταὐτὰ μὲν ἐπιτάττου- σαν, μαθεῖν δὲ οὐ παρέχουσαν οὔθ’ ὡς νεωτέρα τοῦ ψηφί- σματος ὡς ὡς προτέρα γένοιτο. ἀλλὰ σοὶ καὶ ταύτας προσ- ήκει τὰς ἀνάγκας ὥσπερ τὰ νοσήματα λύειν. τὰς μὲν γὰρ συνθήκας ἐγὼ τηρῶ πάντων αὐταῖς ἐπιστρατευσάντων πλὴν δυοῖν, διαστῆναι γὰρ ἃ συνήγαγες οὐ θέμις, σὺ δ’ ὅπως ἡμῖν μὴ τηρήσῃς τοὺς φόρους. ἆθλος γὰρ ἐμοὶ μὲν ἔστω τοῦτο φυλάξαι, σοὶ δὲ ἐκεῖνο κινῆσαι. τὸν δ’ ἀγωνοθέτην τῶν Ὀλυμπίων γινώσκεις μεγάλα οὐκ ἐκ μικρῶν οἷον ὄντα λει- τουργεῖν, συμμαχία δὲ ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις φιλόδωρος βασιλεύς. ὅν, πρὸς τοῦ Δῖός, δεῖξον τοιοῦτον ἐξορμήσας τὴν Δατιανοῦ ψυχὴν εἰς ἐπικουρίαν. ἀγαθὴ δὲ παραίφσίς ἐστιν ἐταί- ρου.