Olympiodorus of Thebes (; born c. 380, fl. c. 412–425 AD) was an Egyptian historian, poet, philosopher and diplomat of the early fifth century. He produced a History in twenty-two volumes, written in Greek, dedicated to the Emperor Theodosius II, detailing events in the Western Roman Empire between 407 and 425. The history is lost, but much of it is known from its use by other writers.
His friends included philosophers, provincial governors and rhetoricians. He made several journeys in an official capacity, accompanied for twenty years by a parrot. He was a "convinced but discreet" pagan, who flourished in a Christian court, and whose work influenced several subsequent historians, including writers of ecclesiastical history.
Life Olympiodorus was born between 365 and 380 in Thebes (modern Luxor, Egypt), in the Roman province of Thebaïd, into a curial family. Thebes at that point was a flourishing centre of literary learning, and a cradle of politicians and public figures. He received a classical education, learning Greek and Latin, as well as the vernacular Coptic. This education provided access to a career in public life. He went to study philosophy at Athens around 385–90, at about fifteen, and would have stayed there for four years. It was probably at Athens that he made friends with the sophist Leontius and the grammarian Philtatius, whose knowledge of the amount of glue to use in book-binding caused a statue of him to be erected at Athens. Another friend, Valerius, was governor of Thrace in 421, and may have been the son of Leontius and brother of the future Augusta Eudocia.
After his studies, he seems to have returned to Thebes, where there was a thriving community of poets writing in Greek, and embarked on the poetry that came to define him. At this time, according to Treadgold, he may have married and adopted a son, possibly an orphaned relative. Around 399/400 he acquired a pet parrot, his faithful companion for the next twenty years, which spoke beautiful Greek and could "dance, sing, call its owner's name, and do many other tricks". At some point he moved, with his family and parrot, to Constantinople, where he established himself at the court of Theodosius II, enabled by his classical education. (Latin was the language of official business, and proficiency in this language was necessary, even in the east, for any important government appointment.) He probably also benefitted from his connection with the future Empress. During his several journeys over the next thirteen years, he recorded a wide variety of facts, statistics, geographical observations, etymological musings, and opinions on the political situation in the west.
Travels His first recorded visit was on an embassy to the Huns in 412/3. Olympiodorus discourses about "Donatus and the Huns, and the skilfulness of their kings in shooting with the bow. The author relates that he himself was sent on a mission to them and Donatus, and gives a tragic account of his wanderings and perils by the sea. How Donatus, being deceived by an oath, was unlawfully put to death. How Charaton, the first of the kings, being incensed by the murder, was appeased by presents from the emperor."
A school of thought says that he was sent by the Western Roman Emperor, but Treadgold finds this implausible, all the evidence pointing to Olympiodorus's living in, and working for, the eastern Empire during his professional life. During this journey, Olympiodorus learned sufficient Hunnish to include some technical terms in his writing. He also picked up a few words of Vandal, telling us that the Vandals called the Goths Truli, because, when pressed by famine, they bought a trula of wheat for a gold coin, though it was only one third of a pint.
Around 416, he went on a visit to Athens. There, through his "support and efforts" he caused his friend Leontius to be installed in the Chair of Rhetoric at the university (a position that Leontius apparently did not want). This was perhaps to settle a dispute between rival candidates, ensuring the choice of the Emperor. Or to support an official programme of copying classical texts following Visigothic invasions. He gives a vivid account of the student rituals in the city: "All newcomers (novices), young and old, were taken to the public baths. Those who were by age fit to wear the cloak were brought forward by the scholastics who escorted them; then, while some ran in front pushed them back, others, running behind, pushed them forward and resisted them, amid shouts of 'Stop, stop, he must not wash.' Those who pushed back those who tried to hinder the progress of the novice were considered to be victorious in the contest. After a considerable time, and after a long disputation had taken place in accordance with custom, he who was being escorted was taken into a warm room and washed. Having dressed himself, he received permission to wear the cloak on his way from the bath, being accompanied by a numerous and distinguished throng."
In the same year (416), and probably as part of the same trip, he visited the oases of the Egyptian desert. His description of the journey ends with the assertion that Homer's family were natives of the Thebaïd. The official purpose of the visit may have been to gather information about the Blemmyes of Nubia, a group of barbarians living south of the Great Oasis and the Thebaïd, who frequently raided both.
In about 419/20, he undertook an actual mission to the Blemmyes, probably in his official capacity. He gives another account of a harrowing sea-voyage: "While talking of a marvellous star (called Urania by the sailors), he was leaning heavily against the mast, which nearly gave way and precipitated him into the water."
His parrot seems to have perished, as his writing at this time contains what looks like an obituary. At the border town of Syene (now Aswan), a request was sent to the ethnarchs (leaders) of the Blemmyes, requesting permission to meet them. They referred the decision to their "prophets", who applied divination to the question, and decided in favour of allowing Olympiodorus into their territory: they "were eager to meet him owing to his reputation." He was urged to visit the emerald mines of the Pharaohs, but official permission was withheld. This is read as the local kings' refusal, in Freese's translation of Photius, but Treadgold thinks it much more likely that it was the Emperor's decision: Olympiodorus was commissioned to travel for five days and no further, and the emerald mines could obviously not be reached within this time. (As further evidence, Treadgold points out that Olympiodorus uses the word basileus (βασιλεύς), the proper title of the Roman Emperor, to refer to the withholder.) On his return journey, he stopped off at his native Thebes, where he learned of the death of his son. He continued his journey to Alexandria, where he met his friend Hierocles.
His final recorded journey was to Rome in 424/5, in the company of the magister officiorum Helion, for the installation of the six year old Valentinian III as Western Emperor, in place of the usurper Johannes (423–5). Though there is no direct evidence that Olympiodorus went on this trip, there are several compelling reasons to think he did: his detailed knowledge of affairs since 407; his observations on the coastline of Italy; the citing of facts and statistics that would have been available in the city archives at Rome; and his amazement at the actual grandeur of Rome and the wealth of its aristocracy. One hexameter, presumably his own, appears in the description of the residences of the wealthy on his visit to Rome, which contained hippodromes, fountains, shrines, and many of the other attributes of a town: "One house is a town; a city has ten thousand towns" (Εΐς δόμος ά συ πέλει πόλις ά οτεα μυρία κεύθει)
Writing
The history itself is now lost, but many of its structures and features can be established from the works of other writers. Its twenty-two books were organised into two decads. The first started with an account of Stilicho's career from 395, with the history proper beginning in 407, and ended (in Book X) with the voyage to the Huns in 412. The second decad began with events in Gaul that can be dated to the same year (412), and ended with the expedition to Rome for Valentinian's installation in 425.
The history dealt almost exclusively with the Western Empire, and provides much of what we know of its affairs in the early fifth century (particularly around 410 when Rome fell to the Visigoths). Events in the east are only introduced when they impacted on affairs in the West, or were relevant to Olympiodorus himself. He describes eastern affairs in western terms: Theodosius II is the "nephew of Honorius and Placidia" (the western Emperor and his sister), as well as the son of Arcadius (the eastern Emperor).
He provides detailed chronologies, using consular dating: the usurpation of Constantine III, in 406, is given as "before the seventh consulship of Honorius and the second of Theodosius", and the whole history covers the period from the seventh consulship of Honorius to the accession of Valentinian III. We are told that the marriage of Placidia and the Goth Ataulf occurred in the month of January, and her marriage to Constantius III was in the eleventh consulship of Honorius and the second of Constantius.
Though written in Greek, the work included many Latinisms, including inscriptions and acclamations in the Roman alphabet: e.g. the response to Stilicho's request to the Senate for the money to pay off Alaric I: ("This is not a peace, but a bond of servitude"). Or the cry of the starving population in the Circus Maximus, faced with a grain blockade from Africa, exploitation by the grain merchants, and the prospect of eating each other: ("Fix a certain price on human flesh"). Olympiodorus "jestingly" suggests that the name (soldiers) derives from the (dry bread, biscuit) which they ate.
He gave distances in Roman miles (), as well as stades: e.g. (Rimini), "thirty miles from Ravenna".; or "two hundred and ten stadia distant from Ravenna". Olympiodorus transliterated every Roman title into Greek, an unusual practice: Greek historians avoided transliteration, often by leaving out the officials' titles altogether.
The history includes detailed accounts of people, e.g. his account of Constantius III: "Constantius, as he rode along, had a dejected and sullen appearance, with his great eyes and neck and broad head; his whole body was bent over his horse and he looked askance on either side, in order as the old expression has it, "to appear worthy of empire." At feasts and banquets, however, he was agreeable and sociable, and often even condescended to vie with the mimes who performed at table."
The accuracy of personal details was often corroborated: Stilicho's nemesis, "the cruel and inhuman Olympius", is described as a pious Christian; this is confirmed by letters from Saint Augustine of Hippo. He narrates the motivations of various characters with clarity, showing how they manoeuvered through the volatile political landscape of the times. The history provided statistical and cultural details: e.g. the sizes of armies; "the emperor called ten thousand Huns to his assistance in the war against Alaric"; the buying-off of Alaric, in which the city agreed to "give five thousand pounds of gold, and thirty thousand of silver, four thousand silk robes, three thousand scarlet fleeces, and three thousand pounds of pepper"; the relative sizes of the baths (there were 1600 seats in the Antonine baths, and twice that number in the Baths of Diocletian). Olympiodorus was able to calculate the annual income of Roman senators, and the immense sums spent by them during their, and the families', public offices.