Letter 767: If you had written to Olympius what you wrote to me about my letters, and if he had known your passion for them, you...

To Severus. (362) If you had written to Olympius what you wrote to me about my letters, and if he had known your passion for them, you would have had more of them than I was sending. For I am no sluggard in such matters, and Olympius is the heir to Maximus's friendship with me — not to say his madness — which I was not unaware of before and have now come to know even better, since the change of times has brought us many messengers. But Olympius, I think, knows how to deliver letters, yet will not demand them. And when your ship puts in, I am aware of it, but when it sails out, I no longer am. So now I have given this letter after your ships had already departed, to lie in Olympius's keeping — because I wanted to clear myself of the charge of not writing. Now more than ever I wished to take hold of you, with whom I once trembled in fear and now yearned for in freedom, so that I might see the man who shared the terror sharing the liberation as well.

Σευήρῳ. (362) Εἰ καὶ πρὸς Ὀλύμπιον ἃ πρὸς ἐμὲ περὶ τῶν ἐμῶν ἔγρα- φες ἐπιστολῶν ἐπιστολῶν καὶ σοῦ τὸν ἔρωτα τοῦτον ἐκεῖνος πλείους ἂν εἶχες ὧν ἔπεμπες. οὔτε γὰρ ἐγώ τις περὶ ταῦτα βραδὺς οὗτός τε κληρονόμος τῆς Μαξίμου πρὸς ἐμὲ φιλίας, ἕνα μὴ μανίας εἴπω, ἣν οὔτε πρότερον ἠγνόουν νῦν τε μᾶλλον ἔμαθον πολλοὺς ἡμῖν τοῦ καιροῦ κεκομκότος ἀγγέλους. ἀλλ᾿, οἶμαι, δοῦναι μὲν οἶδεν Ὀλύμπιος, ἀπαιτεῖν δὲ οὐ βούλεται γράμματα. καὶ τῆς σῆς νεὼς καταιρούσης μὲν αἰσθάνομαι, ἀποπλεούσης δὲ οὐκέτι. καὶ νῦν ταύτην ἔδωκα τὴν ἐπιστολὴν τῶν μὲν σῶν ἀνηγμένων, κεισομένην δὲ παρ’ Ὀλυμπίῳ βου- λόμενος λελύσθαι τὴν αἰτίαν ὡς οὐ γράφων εἶχον. σοῦ δὲ νῦν, εἴπερ ποτέ, ἐβουλόμην λαβέσθαι, σῦν ᾧ τὰ τότε μὶν ἔπτησσον, τὰ νῦν δὲ ἐπόθουν, ὅπως τὸν τοῦ τρόμου κοινω- νοῦντα καὶ τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἴδω.