Olympiodorus of Thebes


Olympiodorus of Thebes was a historical writer of classical education, a "poet by profession" as he says of himself, a politician, and "the first of a distinctive profession-of Byzantine diplomats". He was born at Thebes in Egypt, and was sent on a mission to the Huns on the Black Sea by Emperor Honorius about 412, and later lived at the court of Theodosius II, to whom his History was dedicated. The record of his diplomatic mission survives in a fragment among the forty-six in the epitome by the 9th century patriarch Photius: he considered Olympiodorus a "pagan", possibly because of his classical education:, though Treadgold describes him as a "convinced but discreet pagan"
For twenty years, Olympiodorus was accompanied on his travels by a pet parrot that could sing, dance, call people by their names, and do other tricks.
He was the author of a history in twenty-two books of the Western Empire from 407 to 425, which was used by Zosimus and Sozomen and probably Philostorgius, as J.F. Matthews has demonstrated. The original is lost, but an abstract is given by Photius, who also tells us Olympiodorus referred to himself as poietes, which means 'poet', though in the past this has also been taken as an indication that he may have been an alchemist.
From fragments of his History, it can be inferred that he spent a sojourn in Athens, traveled to the remote parts of Upper Egypt among the barbarian Blemmyes, and that he visited Rome towards the end of his career.