Letter IV.27    Placed about 358.  Olympius sends Basil a present in his retreat, and he playfully remonstrates.

To Olympius.28    cf. Letters xii., xiii., lxiii., lxiv., and ccxi.

What do you mean, my dear Sir, by evicting from our retreat my dear friend and nurse of philosophy, Poverty?  Were she but gifted with speech, I take it you would have to appear as defendant in an action for unlawful ejectment.  She might plead “I chose to live with this man Basil, an admirer of Zeno,29    The founder of the Stoic school. who, when he had lost everything in a shipwreck, cried, with great fortitude, ‘well done, Fortune! you are reducing me to the old cloak;’30    The τρίβων, dim. τριβώνιον, or worn cloak, was emblematic of the philosopher and later of the monk, as now the cowl.  cf. Lucian, Pereg. 15, and Synesius, Ep. 147. a great admirer of Cleanthes, who by drawing water from the well got enough to live on and pay his tutors’ fees as well;31    Cleanthes, the Lydian Stoic, was hence called φρέαντλος, or well drawer.  On him vide Val. Max. viii. 7 and Sen., Ep. 44. an immense admirer of Diogenes, who prided himself on requiring no more than was absolutely necessary, and flung away his bowl after he had learned from some lad to stoop down and drink from the hollow of his hand.”  In some such terms as these you might be chidden by my dear mate Poverty, whom your presents have driven from house and home.  She might too add a threat; “if I catch you here again, I shall shew that what went before was Sicilian or Italian luxury:  so I shall exactly requite you out of my own store.”

But enough of this.  I am very glad that you have already begun a course of medicine, and pray that you may be benefited by it.  A condition of body fit for painless activity would well become so pious a soul.

ΟΛΥΜΠΙῼ

[1] Οἷα ποιεῖς, ὦ θαυμάσιε, τὴν φίλην ἡμῖν πενίαν καὶ φιλοσοφίας τροφὸν τῆς ἐσχατιᾶς ἀπελαύνων; Οἶμαι γὰρ ἄν σε καὶ ἐξούλης γραφὴν ὑπ' αὐτῆς φεύγειν, εἴ τις αὐτῇ προσγένοιτο λόγος, ὅτι τούτῳ μὲν συνοικεῖν εἱλόμην ἐγώ, νῦν μὲν τὸν Ζήνωνα ἐπαινοῦντι, ὃς ναυαγίῳ πάντα ἀποβαλὼν οὐδὲν ἀγεννὲς ἐφθέγξατο, ἀλλ': «Εὖγε, εἶπεν, ὦ Τύχη, συνελαύνεις ἡμᾶς εἰς τὸ τριβώνιον»: νῦν δὲ τὸν Κλεάνθη, μισθῷ ὕδωρ τοῦ φρέατος ἀπαντλῶντα, ὅθεν αὐτός τε διέζη καὶ τοῖς διδασκάλοις μισθοὺς ὑπετέλει. Τὸν δὲ Διογένη οὐδὲ ἐπαύσατό ποτε θαυμάζων, τοῖς παρὰ τῆς φύσεως μόνοις ἀρκεῖσθαι φιλοτιμούμενον, ὡς καὶ τὸ κισσύβιον ἀπορρῖψαι, ἐπειδήπερ παρὰ παιδὸς ἐδιδάχθη κοίλαις ταῖς χερσὶν ἐγκύπτων πίνειν. Ταῦτα ἄν σοι καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἡ σύνοικος ἡμῖν πενία μέμψαιτο, ταῖς μεγαλοδωρεαῖς ἐξοικισθεῖσα νῦν, προσθείη δὲ καὶ ἀπειλήν τινα ὅτι: «Εἴ σε ἐνταῦθα πάλιν λάβοιμι, Σικελικὴν ἢ Ἰταλιῶτιν τρυφὴν ἀποδείξω τὰ πρότερα: οὕτω σε ἀκριβῶς τοῖς παρ' ἐμαυτῆς ἀμυνοῦμαι.» Καὶ ταύτῃ μὲν δὴ ταῦτα, ἥσθην δὲ ἀκούσας ἦρχθαί σε τῆς θεραπείας ἤδη, καὶ εὔχομαί σε ὄνασθαι αὐτῆς. Πρέποι δ' ἂν τῇ ἱερᾷ σου ψυχῇ ἄλυπος ὑπηρεσία σώματος.