76

OLYMPIUS

OLYMPIUS

chasing away the poverty which had been hishome-companion and the helper of his studiesby his generous gifts {Ep. 4 [169]). In a.d.375, when the people of Neocaesarea were load-ing Basil with insult and ridicule, he wrote toOlympius to thank him for his friendly letter,and still more for the sight of his sons who hadconveyed it, whose company had cheered himand made him forget his trials. He had writtensome letters to the people of Neocaesarea toexculpate himself and to warn them of thedangers of their line of conduct, and wouldwrite again if any good was likely to come ofit. {Ep. 211 [170]; 63 [207]; 64 [210].) ^

OLYMPIUS (6), a solitary of Antioch, afriend of Gregory Nyssen, at whose desire hewrote the life of his sister Macrina (Greg. Nyss.

Vit. Macr. pp. 177, 178). Olympius’s requestthat he would give him some rules for attainingChristian perfection was also the cause ofGregory’s writing his treatise De Perfeotione,in which he proposes Christ Himself as the onlymodel of the perfect life. {Ibid. p. 275, ed.Migne, vol. iii. 251-286.) [E. V.]

OLYMPIUS (7), governor of CappadociaSecunda in the year 382, for whom GregoryNazianzen entertained a high esteem, and whoseChristian virtues, as well as the manner inwhich he fulfilled the duties of his office, hetakes every occasion of extolling highly. Olympiuson his side shewed an equally affectionate reve-rence for Gregory, to whom he offered manythoughtful attentions especially valuable to oneenfeebled by old age and sickness, which Gregorygratefully commemorates. Fourteen letterswritten by Gregory to him are still extant.The greater part of these are petitions in behalfof persons who had either some favour to askfrom the governor, or some punishment todeprecate. The number of these is an evidenceof Gregory’s influence over Olympius, and ofthe readiness with which his requests weregranted. He writes on behalf of Aurelius, adeserter {Ep. 78); of Leontius, a presbyter whohad been deposed for his offences, and was indanger of punishment {Ep. 175); of a kinsmanof his own, Eustratius {Ep. 177); of Paulus{Ep. 173); of the citizens of Caesarea, who hadcommitted some grievous offence, for which thegovernor had threatened to rase the city to theground {Ep. 49); of his niece’s husband Nicobu-lus, who wished to exchange his place as post-master for some lighter and more agreeableoffice ( Epp . 178, 179); of Philumena, a childlesswidow {Ep. 174); of Verianus’ daughter, whomher father was desiring against her own will todivorce from her husband {Epp. 176, 211).In another letter Gregory excuses himself forneglecting the emperor's commands conveyed byOlympius to attend the Council at Constantinoplein 382, on account of age and weakness, andrequests Olympius to act as his mediator, recall-ing the fact, that the same cause had hinderedhim from paying his respects to him on enteringon his office {Ep. 76); on his retirement fromwhich he writes a grateful and highly pane-gyrical letter (Ep. 50). The only angry letterin the whole series is one in which he calls uponOlympius to use his authority as governor topunish the Apollinarian party at^Nazianzus,

who had taken advantage of Gregory’s beino- atthe warm baths to elect a bishop of their ownand get him consecrated {Ep. 77). The corre-spondence otherwise gives a very pleasing pictureof the relations between Gregory and the pro-vincial governor. [E. v.]

OLYMPIUS (8), (Olympus), heathen philo-sopher at Alexandria, c. A.D. 389, said by Vale-sius to have come from Cilicia. When theAlexandrians rose in tumult against the Chris-tians and the imperial authority, at the destruc-tion of the temple of Bacchus, and held that ofSerapis as a fortress, Olympius encouraged theidolaters in their revolt, by assuring them thatthey should prefer death to the neglect of theirancestral gods, and that the destruction of thestatues in the temple was no warrant for for-saking the worship, as the statues were perish-able materials, but the gods, therein worshipped,had only removed to heaven. This was thephilosophical view of all idol-worship, when theheathen were pressed by the Christian argument.When Theodosius issued an edict favourable tothe Christians, and inviting the pagans toChristianity and peace, and when Olympius sawthat the temple of Serapis was about to besurrendered, he fled to Italy, but explained hisflight by saying that he had heard a voice inthe Serapion singing, Alleluia. Sozomen {II. E.vii. c. 15) is the only authority for the storyof Olympius; but Ruffinus and other authorsdescribe the destruction of the temples at Alex-andria (Baronius, Annal, a.d. 389, cc. 76 sq.;Fleury, H. E. xix. cc. 28, 29 ; Tillemont, Hist,des Emp. v. 136 sq, ed. 1732.) [J. G.]

OLYMPIUS (9), the name of variouspersons addressed by Nilus; a scholasticus(lib. i. epp. 152, 153), monk (ii. 77), a bishop(ii. 190), a quaestor (ii. 305, 306). [C. H.]

OLYMPIUS (10), a native of a province onthe borders of the Euxine Sea, who by the favourof Honorius held an important military com-mand in the imperial palace. He professed tobe a Christian, but in the opinion of Zosimus,whose evidence must perhaps be taken withsome qualification, his profession was only amask to conceal depravity. It was he w r ho in-formed Honorius, on his way from Bologna toPavia, of the ambitious designs of Stilicho, May408, and having ingratiated himself withthe soldiers there by visiting the sick in themilitary hospitals, made use of the opportunityto influence their minds against him. When,after the mutiny at Pavia, Stilicho went to Ra-venna, it was again Olympius who obtained anorder from Honorius that he should be arrested.He took refuge in a Christian church, but havingleft his asylum under a promise of safety, hewas again seized and put to death by Heradian.Olympius succeeded to his post of master of theoffices, and devoted himself to the task of de-stroying or persecuting all the friends of Stilicho.Eucherius, his son, escaped for a time by takingrefuge in a church at Rome, but was afterwardsovertaken and put to death. Deuterius, im-perial chamberlain (praepositus cubiculi), audPeter, tribune or chief of the notaries (primi-

cerius notariorum), having refused to acknowledge

for themselves any complicity with Stff.icho, or