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has provided. Therefore, arrange for my lord, the most venerable Count Theophilus, to be requested to have it made for us again by him and sent. And do not let it grieve you that we are spending the winter here; for we are in a much easier and healthier state now than last year, so that if you too took the proper care of yourself, you would be in a much better condition. But if you say your illnesses are born of despondency, how is it that you again seek letters from us, having reaped no cheerfulness from here, but are so immersed in the tyranny of despondency as to now even desire to depart from this life? Do you not know how great a reward is laid up for sickness? Have I not often spoken to you about this subject, both when present and through letters? But since perhaps either the multitude of affairs or the very nature of your sickness and the successive circumstances do not allow you to keep a lasting memory of what has been said, listen again as we chant the same things over the wounds of your despondency: “For to write the same things,” he says, “is not tedious for me, but for you it is safe.” 17.2 What then do I say and write? Nothing, Olympias, is equal to patience in suffering, with a view to gaining approval. For this is preeminently the queen of good things and the crown of crowns; and just as it prevails over other right actions, so in itself this form is more brilliant than the others. Perhaps what has been said is unclear; therefore I will make it clearer. What then is it that I am saying? Not to be deprived of one's money, even if one is stripped of all possessions, not to fall from honor, not to be cast out from one's country and carried off into exile, not to be worn out with toil and sweat, not to live in a prison and be bound with a chain, not reproaches and insults and scoffs; for do not think this a small form of endurance, to bear such things nobly. And Job shows, that great and mighty man, not disturbed as it happened by this temptation, but not even this, not the loss of children, even if all were snatched away at once, not enemies continually assailing, not anything else of that kind, not even the very summit of things that seem grievous, death, so fearful and dreadful, is as heavy as sickness of the body. And this the greatest athlete of patience shows, who, when he fell into a bodily sickness, considered death to be a release from the terrible things that possessed him; and while he was suffering all the other things, he did not even feel it, although he received the blows one after another and the fatal one last. For this too was no small thing, but also part of the most grievous malice of him who warred against him, to deliver the fatal blow concerning his children not when he was fresh nor entering the contest for the first time now, but when he had already been worn down by the thickness of the successive darts, and this blow so grievously as to destroy them of both sexes and all at once, and at an untimely age and by a violent end, and to make the manner of their death a makeshift tomb for them. For he did not see them lying on a bed, nor did he kiss their hands, nor did he hear their last words, nor did he touch their feet and knees, he did not close their mouths, he did not shut their eyes as they were about to die—things which are no small consolation to fathers being separated from their children; nor did he send some to the tomb, and returning find others as a consolation for those who had departed; but at the time of a banquet, a banquet abounding not in drunkenness but in love, at a table of brotherly affection, he heard that all had been buried as they lay on their couches and that everything had been mixed together: the blood, the wine, the cups, the roof, the table, the dust, the limbs of his children. But nevertheless, when he heard these things, and before these the other things that were also grievous; for those things too had been grievously lost; both the flocks and entire herds, the

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παρέσχεν. Ποίησον τοίνυν παρακληθῆναι τὸν δεσπότην μου τὸν αἰδεσιμώτατον Θεόφιλον τὸν κόμητα, ὥστε πάλιν ἐξ αὐτοῦ κατασκευάσαι ἡμῖν καὶ ἀποστεῖλαι. Καὶ μή σε λυπείτω τὸ ἐνταῦθα ἡμᾶς χειμάζειν· καὶ γὰρ πολλῷ ῥᾷον καὶ ὑγιεινότερον νῦν ἢ πέρυσι διακείμεθα, ὥστε εἰ καὶ αὐτὴ τὴν προσήκουσαν ἐπιμέλειαν ἐποιοῦ, πολλῷ ἂν ἄμεινον διετέθης. Εἰ δὲ ἐξ ἀθυμίας φῂς τετέχθαι σοι τὰ νοσήματα, πῶς πάλιν ἐπιστολὰς ζητεῖς παρ' ἡμῶν μηδὲν ἐντεῦθεν εἰς εὐθυμίαν καρπωσαμένη, ἀλλ' οὕτω τῇ τυραννίδι τῆς ἀθυμίας βαπτισθεῖσα ὡς καὶ ἐπιθυμεῖν νῦν τῆς ἐντεῦθεν ἀποδημίας; Οὐκ οἶσθα ὅσος καὶ ἀρρωστίας κεῖται μισθός; Οὐ πολλάκις σοι καὶ παρὼν καὶ δι' ἐπιστολῶν ταύτης ἕνεκα διείλεγμαι τῆς ὑποθέσεως; Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἴσως ἢ ὁ τῶν πραγμάτων ὄχλος ἢ αὐτὴ τῆς ἀρρωστίας ἡ φύσις καὶ αἱ ἐπάλληλοι περιστάσεις οὐκ ἐῶσί σε διηνεκῶς ἔναυλον ἔχειν τῶν εἰρημένων τὴν μνήμην, ἄκουε πάλιν τὰ αὐτὰ ἐπᾳ δόντων ἡμῶν τοῖς ἕλκεσί σου τῆς ἀθυμίας· «Τὰ γὰρ αὐτὰ γράφειν, φησίν, ἐμοὶ μὲν οὐκ ὀκνηρόν, ὑμῖν δὲ ἀσφαλές.» 17.2 Τί οὖν καὶ λέγω καὶ γράφω; Οὐδέν, Ὀλυμπιάς, τῆς ἐν ἀλγηδόσιν ὑπομονῆς εἰς εὐδοκιμήσεως λόγον ἴσον. Ἡ γὰρ βασιλὶς τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ τῶν στεφάνων ἡ κορωνὶς αὕτη μάλιστά ἐστι· καὶ καθάπερ αὕτη τῶν ἄλλων κρατεῖ κατορθωμάτων, οὕτως ἐν αὐτῇ τοῦτο μάλιστα τὸ εἶδος τῶν ἄλλων ἐστὶ λαμπρότερον. Τάχα ἀσαφὲς τὸ εἰρημένον· οὐκοῦν αὐτὸ ποιήσω σαφέστερον. Τί οὖν ἐστιν ὅ φημι; Οὐ τὸ χρήματα ἀφαιρεθῆναι, κἂν πάντων τις γυμνωθῇ τῶν ὄντων, οὐ τὸ τιμῆς ἐκπεσεῖν, οὐ τὸ πατρίδος ἐκβληθῆναι καὶ πρὸς τὴν ὑπερορίαν ἀπενεχθῆναι, οὐ τὸ πόνῳ καὶ ἱδρῶτι κατατείνεσθαι, οὐ τὸ δεσμωτήριον οἰκεῖν καὶ ἅλυσιν περικεῖσθαι, οὐκ ὀνειδισμοὶ καὶ λοιδορίαι καὶ σκώμματα· μὴ γὰρ μηδὲ τοῦτο μικρὸν νομίσῃς εἶναι καρτερίας εἶδος τὸ γενναίως τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐνεγκεῖν. Καὶ δείκνυσιν ὁ Ἰὼβ ὁ τοσοῦτος καὶ τηλικοῦτος ἀνὴρ οὐχ ὡς ἔτυχεν ὑπὸ τούτου θορυβηθεὶς τοῦ πειρασμοῦ, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοῦτο, οὐ παίδων ἀποβολή, κἂν ἀθρόον πάντες ἀναρπασθῶσιν, οὐκ ἐχθροὶ συνεχῶς ἐπεμβαίνοντες, οὐκ ἄλλο τῶν τοιούτων οὐδέν, οὐκ αὐτὸς ὁ κολοφὼν τῶν δοκούντων εἶναι λυπηρῶν, ὁ θάνατος, ὁ φοβερὸς οὕτω καὶ φρικώδης, οὕτως ἐστὶ βαρὺς ὡς σώματος ἀρρωστία. Καὶ ταῦτα δείκνυσιν ὁ μέγιστος τῆς ὑπομονῆς ἀθλητὴς ὅς, ἐπειδὴ σωματικῇ περιέπεσε νόσῳ, ἀπαλλαγὴν τῶν κατεχόντων δεινῶν τὴν τελευτὴν εἶναι ἐνόμισε· καὶ ὅτε μὲν τὰ ἄλλα ἔπασχεν ἅπαντα, οὐδὲ ᾐσθάνετο, καίτοι ἐπαλλήλους δεχόμενος τὰς πληγὰς καὶ τελευταίαν τὴν καιρίαν. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τοῦτο μικρόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς χαλεπωτάτης τοῦ πολεμοῦντος αὐτῷ κακουργίας, τὸ μὴ νεά ζοντι μηδὲ νῦν εἰς τοὺς ἀγῶνας καθιέντι πρῶτον, ἀλλ' ἤδη τῇ πυκνότητι τῶν ἐπαλλήλων βελῶν κατειργασμένῳ, τότε τὴν καιρίαν δοῦναι τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς παισὶ πληγήν, καὶ ταύτην οὕτω χαλεπῶς ὡς καὶ ἐξ ἑκατέρας τῆς φύσεως καὶ πάντας ἀθρόον, καὶ ἐν ἀώρῳ ἡλικίᾳ καὶ βιαίᾳ τελευτῇ διαφθεῖραι καὶ τοῦ θανάτου τὸν τρόπον ἐσχεδιασμένον αὐτοῖς ἐργάσασθαι τάφον. Οὐδὲ γὰρ εἶδεν ἐν κλίνῃ κειμένους, οὐδὲ ἐφίλησε χεῖρας, οὐδὲ ἐσχάτων ἤκουσε ῥημάτων, οὐδὲ ποδῶν ἥψατο καὶ γονάτων, οὐ στόμα συνεῖλεν, οὐ καθεῖλεν ὀφθαλμοὺς μελλόντων αὐτῶν τελευτᾶν ἅπερ οὐ μικρὰ εἰς παραμυθίαν τοῖς παίδων χωριζομένοις πατράσιν· οὐδὲ τοὺς μὲν προέπεμψεν ἐπὶ τὸν τάφον, τοὺς δὲ ἐπανελθὼν εὗρε παραμυθίαν τῶν ἀπελθόντων· ἀλλ' ἐν καιρῷ συμποσίου, συμποσίου οὐ μέθην, ἀλλ' ἀγάπην βρύοντος, ἐν τραπέζῃ φιλαδελφίας, ἐπὶ στιβάδος κειμένους ἤκουσε πάντας κατακεχῶσθαι καὶ πάντα ὁμοῦ μιγῆναι, τὸ αἷμα, τὸν οἶνον, τὰς κύλικας, τὸν ὄροφον, τὴν τράπεζαν, τὴν κόνιν, τὰ μέλη τῶν παίδων. Ἀλλ' ὅμως ἡνίκα μὲν ταῦτα ἤκουσε, καὶ πρὸ τούτων τὰ ἄλλα καὶ αὐτὰ χαλεπά· καὶ γὰρ κἀκεῖνα χαλεπῶς ἀπολώλει· τά τε ποίμνια καὶ ὁλοκλήρους ἀγέλας, τὰς