Letter 484: You reproach me for my silence — and this when the birds have been stirred to song by spring.

To Olympius. (356) You reproach me for keeping silent, and that too when the birds have been roused to song by the spring. Look then, I too am giving voice, since your letters have become spring for me. For you will grant me to call the fear about the transfer a winter, and to call the deliverance from that fear a favor of spring. This deliverance I hear was accomplished for me through many people, and may many good things befall all those who contributed anything to it. But if those who enjoy the rivers would, with good reason, render their gratitude to the springs, then all these things too must be reckoned yours. For from your judgment, I think, everything flowed. These matters, then, have been amply fulfilled for you; but to those evils which you knew were about my head another evil has been added, bitter and unremitting, which it would be in your power to stop, since the others have been overcome. And I now lie prostrate under my kidneys, looking to one single hope, your arrival. Or rather, even by letter, my good friend, come to my aid, and make your aid a book, so that it may be possible for me to be saved and for the physicians to learn in what manner the affliction is to be driven out.

Ὀλυμπίῳ. (356) Ὅτι σιγῶ, μέμφῃ καὶ ταῦτα τῶν ὀρνίθων εἰς ᾠδὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἦρος κεκινημένων. ἰδοὺ δή, φθέγγομαι καὶ αὐτός, ἐπειδή μοι τὰ γράμματα ἔαρ ὑπὸ σοῦ γεγένηται. δώσεις γάρ μοι τὸν μὲν περὶ τῆς μεταστάσεως φόβον χειμῶνα καλεῖν, τοῦ φόβου δὲ τὴν ἀπαλλαγὴν ἦρος χάριν. ἣν διὰ πολλῶν μὲν ἀκούω μοι πεπρᾶχθαι, καὶ πολλά γε ἀγαθὰ γένοιτο πᾶσιν ὁπόσοι τι συνεισήνεγκαν. εἰ δ’ οἱ τῶν ποταμῶν ἀπολαύ- οντες εἰς καλὸν ταῖς πηγαῖς ἂν εἰκότως εἰδεῖεν τὴν χάριν, καὶ τὰ τούτων ἁπάντων σὰ θετέον. ἀπὸ γὰρ τῆς σῆς, οἶμαι, γνώ- μης ἅπαντα ἐρρύη. ταυτὶ μὲν οὖν ἱκανῶς ἐκπεπλήρωταί σοι, τοἶς κακοῖς δὲ ἐκείνοις ἃ περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ᾔδεις ὄντα μοι προσετέθη κακὸν ἕτερον πικρόν τε καὶ συνεχές, ὃ παῦσαι τῆς σῆς ἂν εἴη χειρός, ὡς αἴ γε τῶν ἄλλων ἥττηνται. καὶ κεῖμαι νῦν ὑπὸ τῶν νεφρῶν εἰς ἐλπίδα μίαν τὴν σὴν ἄφιξιν ὁρῶν. μᾶλλον δέ, καὶ δι’ ἐπιστολῆς, ὦ δαιμόνιε, βοήθει καὶ ποίησον τὴν βοήθειαν βιβλίον, ὅπως ἐμοί τε ᾐ σωθῆναι καὶ τοῖς ἰατροῖς μαθεῖν, ὅτῳ τρόπῳ τὸ πάθος ἐξοριστέον.