- Olympiodoros of Thebes
- Historian, traveler, and poet. He was the first traveler to have written an account of a personal visit to the Huns (q.v.), which occurred through an embassy he undertook to the Hunnic king Donatus in 412. Indeed, his account is all that is known about Donatus. Unfortunately, his general history (originally covering the years 407-425) survives only in fragments. Fortunately, Philostorgios, Sozomenos, and Zosimos (qq.v.) all used his work. It is Olympiodoros who, in one of the surviving fragments of his work, relates the legend that in 410 Alaric (q.v.) received a miraculous warning by a statue that impeded his attempt to cross from Italy to North Africa (qq.v).
Historical Dictionary of Byzantium . John H. Rosser .