Letter 576: By telling me that many sorrows have befallen you since your governorship, yet not saying what they are, you have...
To Olympios. (357)
By telling me that many sorrows have befallen you since your governorship, yet not saying what they are, you have forced me to imagine every kind of misfortune. There is no calamity to which I have not led my mind in dread. I pray that none of these has happened, but I fear that some have.
If I knew the specific point on which you blame fortune, I would address my words to that. But since I have only heard in general terms that you are in difficulties, I advise you to be braver than any misfortune, holding fast to the universal saying: grief is no cure for calamity.
You seem to me to have decided well in this too — to take refuge in Nicaea. For there is no consolation like living with Aristainetos: to see that face, to hear those words, to delight in his playfulness, and to profit from his seriousness.
Use this remedy you have rightly found. And if my letters too are a remedy, you will have a second one on top of the first.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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. (357)
Τὸ μὲν προσπεσεῖν σοι πολλὰ λυπηρὰ μετὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν
λέγων, αὐτὰ δὲ οἷς ἐλυπήθης οὐκ εἰπὼν πᾶν εἶδός με κακῶν
ἠνάγκασας ἐννοεῖν, ὥστ’ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐφ’ ὅ τι δυσχερὲς τὴν
ψυχὴν οὐκ ἄγων ἀπεύχομαι μὲν μηδὲν εἶναι τούτων, φοβοῦμαι
δὲ μὴ τούτων ἐνῇ τι.
εἰ μὲν οὖν ᾔδειν, καθ’ ὃ μέμφῃ τὸν
δαίμονα, πρὸς τοῦτ’ ἂν ἐποιούμην τὸν λόγον ἐπεὶ δὲ ἁπλῶς
ὡς εἴης ἐν χαλεποῖς ἀκήκοα, παραινῶ σοι παντὸς ἀνδρειότε-
ρον εἶναι κακοῦ τὸ πανταχοῦ λεγόμενον ἡγούμενος εὖ ἔχειν,
ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν ἴασις συμφοραῖς ἡ λύπη.
καλῶς δέ μοι δο-
κεῖς καὶ τοῦτο βεβουλεῦσθαι, καταφυγεῖν εἰς Νικαίαν· παρα-
μύθιον γὰρ οἷον οὐκ ἄλλο ζῆν σὺν Ἀρισταινέτῳ καὶ μορφὴν
ἐκείνην ὁρᾶν καὶ λόγων ἀκούειν ἐκείνων καὶ παίζοντος γάννυ-
σθαι καὶ σπουδάζοντος ὠφελεῖσθαι.
χρῶ τοίνυν τῷ
καλῶς εὑρημένῳ φαρμάκῳ. εἰ δὲ καὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα γράμματα
φάρμακον, ἕξεις ἐπὶ τῷ προτέρῳ τὸ δεύτερον.
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