Letter 576: By telling me that many sorrows have befallen you since your governorship, yet not saying what they are, you have...

To Olympius. By telling me that many distressing things have befallen you since taking up your office, yet not saying what the things were by which you were grieved, you have compelled me to imagine every kind of evil, so that there is no hardship to which I do not lead my soul; and I pray that none of these may be so, but I fear that some one of them may be the case. If, then, I knew in what respect you blame your fortune, I would direct my words to that; but since I have heard simply that you are in difficulties, I urge you to be more courageous than any evil, holding that what is everywhere said is sound, namely that grief is no cure for misfortunes. And in this too you seem to me to have deliberated well, in taking refuge at Nicaea; for there is no other consolation like living together with Aristaenetus, and seeing that countenance, and hearing those words, and taking delight when he jests, and being benefited when he is in earnest. Use, then, the remedy you have so well discovered. And if our letters too are a remedy, you will have the second in addition to the first.

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.