Letter 657: Who will win the crown at our festival — whether in wrestling, the pankration, or boxing — Zeus and Heracles know,...
To Sopater. (361 AD)
Who will win the crown at our festival — whether in wrestling, the pankration, or boxing — Zeus and Heracles know, along with whatever gods oversee those contests. But you, before any athlete has competed, have already defeated every festival-president the sun has ever seen — in excellence, in the number of competitors, and above all in the magnificence of your gifts, which you mingled with the banquets, compelled by no precedent and unlikely to find an imitator.
The expense is yours, but the glory it brings belongs to your whole family. When the recipients showed off their prizes and described them, I swelled with pride as if I myself had founded the Olympic Games.
Yet while I send others and urge them on, I sit here by necessity, suffering from my head. Still, I console myself for missing the spectacle through the wonder of those who were there.
And I contrived a way not to be entirely absent: I roused Olympius from deep grief and persuaded him to stop his mourning and join the festival. So now I consider myself seeing and hearing everything through his eyes and ears.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Σωπάτρῳ. (361)
Ὅστις μὲν στεφανώσεται παρ’ ἡμῖν ἢ παλαίων ἢ παγ-
κρατιάζων ἢ πυγμῇ νικῶν, Ζεύς που τοῦτο οἶδε καὶ Ἡρακλῆς
καὶ ὅσοις μέλει τῶν ἄθλων ἐκείνων δαίμοσι· σὺ δ’ ἡμῖν πρὸ
τῶν ἀθλητῶν νενίκηκας ἅπαντας οὓς ἐπεῖδεν ἥλιος ἀθλοθέτας
ἀρετῇ τε καὶ πλήθει τῶν ἀγωνιστῶν καὶ ἔτι γε μᾶλλον τῷ
μεγέθει τῶν δώρων, ἃ ταῖς τραπέζαις ἀνέμιξας οὔτε παρα-
δείγματι βιασθεὶς οὔθ’ ἕξων τὸν μιμησόμενον.
ἡ μὲν οὖν
δαπάνη σή, τὸ δὲ ἀπ’ αὐτῆς καλὸν κοινὸν τοῦ γένους. ἔγωγέ
τοι τῶν λαβόντων ἐπιδεικνύντων τε καὶ διηγουμένων ἡβρυ-
νομὴν τε καὶ μεῖζον ἐφρόνουν καθάπερ αὐτὸς ὢν ὁ θεὶς τὰ
Ὀλύμπια.
ἀλλά τοι τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους κινῶ καὶ πέμπω,
κάθημαι δὲ ὑπ’ ἀνάγκης ἐνθάδε τοιαῦτα ἀπολαύων τῆς κε-
φαλῆς. παραμυθοῦμαι δὲ ὅμως τὸ μὴ θεάσασθαι τῷ τῶν
ποιουμένων θαύματι.
καί τινα τρόπον ἐσοφισάμην, ὅπως
μὴ παντάπασιν ἀπείην. ἀνέστησα γὰρ ἀπὸ λύπης ἰσχυρᾶς
Ὀλύμπιον καὶ πανηγυρίζειν ἔπεισα παυσάμενον οἰμωγῶν. καὶ
νῦν ἐγὼ πάντα μὲν ὁρᾶν, πάντα δὲ ἀκούειν ὠσί τε ἡγοῦμαι
τοῖς τοῦδε καὶ ὄμμασιν.
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This letter survives only in fragmentary form, with the manuscript text too damaged to reconstruct reliably.
Many other journeys have taken me from home. I have been as far as Pisidia to settle the matters concerning the brethren in Isauria in concert with the Pisidian bishops. Thence I journeyed into Pontus, for Eustathius had caused no small disturbance at Dazimon, and had caused there a considerable secession from our church.