Letter 248: If you wish to consider Olympius an excellent man, you will be right.

To Themistius. (358/59?) If you are willing to consider Olympius an excellent man, you will think rightly; but if you should place him among the wealthy, you will not be supposing what is the case. And the Romans, knowing these things too, enrolled him among themselves, yet released him as exempt from taxation. I say this not in order that exemption may now be granted to him by you as well, for your city has not yet been schooled in such matters, although it ought to have been in the one where you live and take part in public life, but rather because it is just that the man who lays out nothing there should not bear among you a burden greater than his means. But he is compelled to bear not only what is greater, but also those things of which another is the debtor, because both this man bears the name Olympius and so does that one, on whose account this man is dragged in. And so the fear of Mantitheus was not, after all, in vain, nor did he expend his argument on behalf of a trivial matter, if indeed this man, though not of the same father, undergoes troubles because he has the same name. They say that he has even been brought forward as a producer of choruses [chorus-leader liturgy] for the most expensive office, yet he could not undertake either that one or the one you consider second, and I would say that he could not undertake even the third without hardship, and this too, if anyone summons him according to the law. But this will be at a later time. For those whom you have now taken in addition from the mother city, since you do well in calling Rome by that name, these the emperor has favored with a postponement. And if anyone deprives Olympius of this, do not make it bearable [to him]. For you could not say that he does not love you, and it is likely that he will help one who loves him.

Θεμιστίῳ. (358/59?) Ἄριστον μὲν δρῶν εἰ βούλει νομίζειν Ὀλύμπιον, ὀρθῶς οἰήσῃ· τῶν πλουτούντων δὲ αὐτὸν εἰ τιθείης, οὐ τὰ ὄντα δο- ξάσεις. καὶ ταῦτα εἰδότες Ῥωμαῖοι κατέλεξαν μὲν εἰς αὑ- τούς, ἀφῆκαν δὲ ἀτελῆ. λέγω δὲ τοῦτο οὐ τοῦ καὶ παρ’ ὑμῶν αὐτῷ γενέσθαι νῆν ἀτέλειαν, οὔπω γὰρ τὰ τοιαῦτα ὑμῖν ἡ πό- λις πεπαίδευται, καίτοι χρῆν ἐν ᾗ σὺ ζῇς καὶ πολιτεύῃ, ἀλλ’ ὅτι τὸν μηδὲν ἐκεῖ τιθέντα δίκαιον παρ’ ὑμῖν μήτοι μείζω τῆς δυνάμεως φέρειν. ὁ δὲ οὐ μείζω μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὧν ἕτε- ρος ὀφειλέτης, ταῦτα ἀναγκάζεται φέρειν, διότι τούτῳ τε Ὀλύμ- πιος ὄνομα κἀκείνῳ, δι’ ὃν οὗτος ἕλκεται. καὶ οὐκ ἄρα μά- ταιος ἦν ὁ τοῦ Μαντιθέου φόβος οὐδ’ ὑπὲρ φαύλου λόγον ἀνήλισκεν, εἰ δὴ οὗτος οὐκ ὢν ταὐτοῦ πατρός, ὅτι ταὐτὸν ὄνο- μὰ ἔχει πράγματα ὑπομένει. φασὶ δὲ αὐτὸν καὶ χορηγὸν ἐνηνέχθαι τῆς τὰ μέγιστα δαπανώσης, ὁ δὲ οὔτε ταύτην οὔθ’ ἣν δευτέραν νομίζετε δύναιτ’ ἂν ἄρασθαι, φαίην δ’ ἂν ὡς οὐδὲ τὴν τρίτην ἄνευ πόνου, καὶ ταῦτ’, ἤν τις αὐτὸν κατὰ τὸν νόμον καλῇ. τοῦτο δὲ έ·σται χρόνοις ὕστερον. οὓς γὰρ νῦν προσειλήφατε παρὰ τῆς μητρός, οὕτω γὰρ εὖ ποιοῦντες καλεῖτε τὴν Ῥώμην, τούτους ἀναβολῇ δεδώρηται βασιλεύς. ἧς εἴ τις Ὀλύμπιον ἀποστερεῖ, μὴ ποιοῦ φορητόν. οὔτε γὰρ αὐ- τὸν εἴποις ἂν μὴ φιλεῖν φιλοῦντί τε βοηθεῖν αὐτὸν εἰκός.