Letter 506: I owe my homeland to you, and I may soon add that I owe my health to you as well.
To Olympius.
I owe my homeland to you, and I may soon add that I owe my health to you as well. That terrible affliction [his chronic headaches] has launched another attack on me, shaking my head again. I have swallowed a great deal of medicine, but the results have not been impressive -- the prospect of each dose cheered me with hope, but the actual effect was small.
So unless you come quickly and drive out this illness with your skill, the illness will drive me from my homeland. You know how it is with the sick: when nothing helps, they blame the place and in desperation leap to another.
It is up to you, then, not only to have given me back my city, but also to give me back a head that works.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Ὀλυμπίῳ. (356/57)
Ἔχω τὴν πατρίδα διὰ σέ, προσθήσω δ’ ἴσως ποτὲ τὸ
ὅτι καὶ ὑγιαίνων ἔχω διὰ σέ, ὡς νῦν ἡμῖν ἐπεστράτευσε πάλιν
ἐκεῖνο τὸ δεινὸν τὸ σεῖον τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ φάρμακα πολλὰ
μὲν ἀνήλωται πίνοντος ἐμοῦ, τῆς δὲ πόσεως τὸ ἔργον οὐ λαμ-
πρόν, ἀλλὰ μέλλουσα μὲν εὔφρανεν ἐλπίδι, γενομένη δὲ ἤνεγκε
μικρόν.
ὥστ’ ἂν μὴ τάχιστα ἡμῖν ἀφικόμενος ἐκβάλῃς τὸ
κακὸν τῇ τέχνῃ, τῆς γε πατρίδος ἡμᾶς ἐκβαλεῖ τὸ κακόν.
οἶσθα γὰρ ὡς οἱ ιοσοῦντες, ἐπειδὰν μηδεὶς ὠφελῇ, τοῦ τόπου
κατηγοροῦντες ὑπὸ τῆς ἀπορίας ἀποπηδῶσιν ἐπ’ ἄλλο χωρίον.
σὸν οὖν ἂν εἴη πρὸς τῷ τὴν οἰκείαν ἀποδοῦναι τὸ καὶ τὴν
κεφαλὴν ἐρρῶσθαί μοι δοῦναι.
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