To Honoratus. (358/359?)
I will not hesitate to speak to you about justice -- for justice is your passion, and you would be annoyed not at those who speak up for it, but at anyone who could speak up and kept silent.
Even Rhadamanthys, I think, was glad whenever he was called upon to defend the justice for which he was famous -- because doing so made justice stronger [Rhadamanthys was one of the mythical judges of the underworld].
If you knew the rest of Olympius's circumstances as well as you know his character, you would never have allowed his persecutors their way, and I would have had no need for this letter. But that he is a good man, you can learn from many sources.
First, from the Macedonians, who pray for a governor like him but have never been able to get one. Those who could tell you the rest do not want to -- it perhaps profits them to keep the matter hidden -- but I will explain.
This Olympius, whom you have already benefited twice (since you have governed us twice, and perhaps a third term will come), was formerly enrolled in the Roman senate [the senate of Rome]. Only yesterday, so to speak, did he become one of yours [enrolled in a provincial council].
Now he is being harassed over an old tax assessment -- not because he owes it (how could he, since he did not yet belong to your jurisdiction at the time?), but because he shares a name with some other Olympius. He should hardly be made to pay for that -- he did not, after all, persuade his parents to give him the name.
First, my good sir, please sort out this confusion. Then, in assessing the tax burden, do not let the load be greater than the ship can bear. The man who is present and wealthy should not pay less while the man who is absent, even if he is not wealthy, carries more. In such matters one must look at the measure of a man's estate, not at other considerations.
Olympius has every fine quality in abundance, except money.
I will not hesitate to speak to you about justice -- for justice is your passion, and you would be annoyed not at those who speak up for it, but at anyone who could speak up and kept silent.
Even Rhadamanthys, I think, was glad whenever he was called upon to defend the justice for which he was famous -- because doing so made justice stronger [Rhadamanthys was one of the mythical judges of the underworld].
If you knew the rest of Olympius's circumstances as well as you know his character, you would never have allowed his persecutors their way, and I would have had no need for this letter. But that he is a good man, you can learn from many sources.
First, from the Macedonians, who pray for a governor like him but have never been able to get one. Those who could tell you the rest do not want to -- it perhaps profits them to keep the matter hidden -- but I will explain.
This Olympius, whom you have already benefited twice (since you have governed us twice, and perhaps a third term will come), was formerly enrolled in the Roman senate [the senate of Rome]. Only yesterday, so to speak, did he become one of yours [enrolled in a provincial council].
Now he is being harassed over an old tax assessment -- not because he owes it (how could he, since he did not yet belong to your jurisdiction at the time?), but because he shares a name with some other Olympius. He should hardly be made to pay for that -- he did not, after all, persuade his parents to give him the name.
First, my good sir, please sort out this confusion. Then, in assessing the tax burden, do not let the load be greater than the ship can bear. The man who is present and wealthy should not pay less while the man who is absent, even if he is not wealthy, carries more. In such matters one must look at the measure of a man's estate, not at other considerations.
Olympius has every fine quality in abundance, except money.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.