OLYMPIC'S

OLYMPIC'S

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to inform against others, were beaten almost todeath with clubs. When Alaric was on thepoint of entering Italy, and was threateningHome, it was owing to Olympius that Honorius,relying, says Zosimus scornfully, on the prayersof his minister, refused at the same time boththe powerful military aid of Sarus and his bar-barians to repel the enemy, and the moderatedemands which were then made by Alaric onbehalf of peace ; and when, after raising theblockade of Rome, Alaric allowed the senateto send commissioners to Ravenna to obtain theconsent of Honorius to the terms proposed byhim, it was Olympius who persuaded his weakmaster to refuse them, and to send back thecommissioners under an escort only numerousenough to provoke destruction. One of the veryfew who escaped, Valens, the commander,reached Rome in safety, and was able to counter-act in some degree the cruel system of confisca-tion promoted by Olympius towards all thefriends of Stilicho. He succeeded in gainingwith the Hunnish auxiliaries a trifling successover the invading Goths, but his ascendencywas soon to come to an end, for being denouncedby the eunuchs to the emperor as the cause of thepublic disasters, he was dismissed from his office,and, fearing for his safety, left Ravenna, and fled toDalmatia, a.d. 409. According to Olympiodorus,he returned and was again displaced a secondand third time, and then, after being deprivedof his ears, was beaten to death with clubs byorder of Constantius, the husband of Placidia.(Zos. v. 32-46 ; Olympiod. ap. Photium, Bibl.80, p. 57 ; Honorius, Vol. III. pp. 144, 147.)These details, which belong more to generalthan to special church history, are neverthelessimportant in this latter respect so far as theybear witness to the character of Olympius inhis relation to St. Augustine, from whom twoletters addressed to him are extant, both of themexpressing warm admiration and friendship, andbelief in the sincerity of his Christian professions.The first of them was written soon after his pro-motion to the post of master of the offices, onwhich it congratulates him, but with the hopeand belief that he will not be unduly elatedthereby. Its purpose is to request his kindinterference on behalf of Boniface bishopof Cataqua in Numidia, who was in trouble asto the possession of some land purchased byPaul, his predecessor, under fraudulent condi-tions. At a time when he was deeply in debt tothe imperial treasury, Paul made a surrender ofhis property, but reserving privately a certainportion, which he placed on bond in the handsof a person at that time in high office, possiblyas Tillemont suggests, Bathanarius, brother-in-law of Stilicho, to be laid out in buying byauction some land, nominally on behalf of thechurch, but really to provide himself with amaintenance, and made an arrangement with thenominal purchaser that, without paying thedebt due to the treasury, he should not be mo-lested by the tax-gatherer. When Paul died,Boniface succeeded in due course to the pro-perty as bishop, and, as belonging to the church,might have held it without disturbance, but hadscruples of conscience as to his right of enjoy-ment ; and though he might probably haveobtained this securely by simply petitioning thetmperor to remit the small amount of payment

which had become due since the purchase, hepreferred to lay the whole case before him, beingready to abandon the property rather than enjoyit clandestinely. To his application on thispoint no answer had been received, and Augus-tine wrote to Olympius, as his friend, and in hisopinion a sincere Christian, to request him tointercede on behalf of this small boon, suggestingthat Olympius might perhaps arrange the matterby obtaining a grant of the land to himself, andthat he, in his Christian piety, should bestow itupon the church {Ep. 96). The success of thisletter may perhaps be inferred from a second,which Augustine wrote to Olympius soon after-wards on another matter. The bishops of Pro-consular Africa were much disturbed by theunruly behaviour both of idolaters and ofheretics (Donatists), after the death of Stilicho[Evodius (3), Nectarius (5)], and sent a depu-tation to the emperor, to request that the lawsagainst the disturbers of peace and of religionshould be put in force. Augustine had not seenthe members of this deputation, but took advan-tage of a presbyter from Mileum passing throughHippo on his way to Rome, though it was nowwinter time, to send a letter by him to Olympius,pressing the matter on his attention ( Ep. 97).Edicts for the repression of Donatists and othersectaries were issued at various times froma.d. 405 to 407, during the lifetime of Stilicho{Cod. 1'heodos, xvi. 5, 38-41). Stilicho wasmurdered in August, 408, and the decree ofHonorius to Olympius, master of the offices,and Valens, forbidding pagans from being em-ployed in military service within the palace, isdated Nov. 14 in the same year {ib. 42). Suc-cessive edicts against Donatists and others ap-peared on Nov. 15, 24, and 27, a.d. 408, and oneon Jan. 16, 409, which last may perhaps re-present the result of this appeal {Cod. Theod.xvi. 5, 43-46). The point at issue is the extentof St. Augustine’s knowledge of the true cha-racter of Olympius. According to Zosimus, abitter opponent of Christianity, his religiousprofession was nothing but a cloak for his ini-quity. According to Olympiodorus, whose de-scription consists of a few epithets, his behaviourtowards Stilicho was u murderous and inhuman,’*and if any credit at all is to be given to thenarrative of Zosimus, his unrelenting persecu-tion of the friends of Stilicho after his deathappears to justify this character. In the opinionof Baronius and Tillemont, the favourable men-tion of him by St. Augustine outweighs any un-favourable judgment on the part of Zosimus,but there is no evidence to shew that Augustinehad any personal acquaintance with him; andwhile, as both Baronius and Tillemont remark,some deduction must be made from the opinionof Zosimus, who never misses an ill-word againstChristians, some allowance on the other side isalso due on the ground (1) of the exaggeratedcomplimentary phraseology of the day, attri-buting to Olympius in any case a higher rank ofmerit than he probably deserved, and (2) of thevery natural, though not entirely excusable,warmth of expression on Augustine’s part to-wards a man undoubtedly a Christian by pro-fession, probably up to that time in outwardappearance sincere, and now appointed to a highoffice in the place of one whose Christianity wasat the best doubtful, and who, whatever th«