πρέσβεις, ὑπομιμνήσκων αὐτοὺς ἥκειν, εἰ βού 402 λοιντο. ἓν μὲν δὴ τοιοῦτον· ἕτερον δέ, λίαν ἐγρηγορότας ὡς ἐνεδέχετο τοὺς παραφυλάξοντας ἐξέπεμψα, μή τις ἐνθένδε πρὸς τοὺς πολεμίους ἐξέλθῃ λαθών, ἐσόμενος αὐτοῖς ὡς κεκινήμεθα μηνυτής. ἐκεῖθεν ἐδίκασα δίκην στρατιωτικήν, ὡς ἐμαυτὸν πείθω, πραότατα καὶ δικαιότατα. ἵππους περιττοὺς καὶ ἡμιόνους παρεσκεύασα, τὸ Β στρατόπεδον εἰς ταὐτὸ συναγαγών. ναῦς πληροῦνται ποτάμιαι πυροῦ, μᾶλλον δὲ ἄρτων ξηρῶν καὶ ὄξους. καὶ τούτων ἕκαστον ὅπως ἐπράχθη καὶ τίνες ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ γεγόνασι λόγοι, πόσου μήκους ἐστὶ συγγράφειν ἐννοεῖς. ἐπιστολαῖς δὲ ὅσαις ὑπέγραψα καὶ βίβλοις· ἑπόμενα γὰρ ώσπερεί σκιά μοι καὶ ταῦτα συμπερινοστεί πανταχοῦ· τί δεῖ νῦν πράγματα ἔχειν ἀπαριθμού

μενον ;

383

59 2

Μαξίμῳ φιλοσόφῳ

Ὁ μὲν μῦθος ποιεῖ τὸν ἀετόν, ἐπειδὰν τὰ γνήσια C τῶν κυημάτων βασανίζῃ, φέρειν ἄπτιλα πρὸς τὸν

1 ὥσπερ σκιά Cobet; ὥσπερ αἴσια MSS. ; ὡσπερεὶ σκιά Hertlein.

2 Letters 59-73 cannot be dated, even approximately, from their contents.

* Hertlein 16; the preceding letter, Hertlein 15, was addressed to Maximus, hence his title τῷ αὐτῷ.

1 This is Julian's last extant letter. On leaving Hierapolis he marched to Carrhae, which place he left on March 25th. He crossed the Tigris in May, declined the siege of Ctesiphon,

That is one affair For another, I des

they could come if they wished. of the sort I have mentioned. patched men as wide-awake as I could obtain that they might guard against anyone's leaving here secretly to go to the enemy and inform them that we are on the move. After that I held a court martial and, I am convinced, showed in my decision the utmost clemency and justice. I have procured excellent horses and mules and have mustered all my forces together. The boats to be used on the river are laden with corn, or rather with baked bread and sour wine. You can understand at what length I should have to write in order to describe how every detail of this business was worked out and what discussions arose over every one of them. As for the number of letters I have signed, and papers,—for these too follow me everywhere like my shadow,— why should I take the trouble to enumerate them now? 1

59

To Maximus the Philosopher 2

WE are told in the myth that the eagle,3 when he would test which of his brood are genuine, carries the Persian capital, burnt his fleet on the Tigris early in June, and was killed in a skirmish on June 26th, somewhere between Ctesiphon and Samarra on the Tigris. His body was carried back and buried at Tarsus in Cilicia, where he had told the people of Antioch he should spend the winter; Ammianus 25. 10. 5.

2 Cumont and Geffcken reject, without good grounds, Schwarz defends, the authenticity of this sophistic letter, which was probably written from Gaul.

3 A rhetorical commonplace; cf. To Iamblichus, p. 259, note; Lucian, The Fisherman 46.

209

αἰθέρα καὶ ταῖς ἡλίου προσάγειν ἀκτῖσιν, ὥσπερ ὑπὸ μάρτυρι τῷ θεῷ πατέρα τε ἀληθοῦς νεοττοῦ γινόμενον καὶ νόθου γονῆς ἀλλοτριούμενον· ἡμεῖς δέ σοι καθάπερ Ἑρμῇ λογίῳ τοὺς ἡμετέρους λόΟ γους ἐγχειρίζομεν. κἂν μὲν ὑπομείνωσι τὴν ἀκοὴν τὴν σήν, ἐπὶ σοὶ τὸ κρῖναι περὶ αὐτῶν, εἰ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους εἰσὶ πτήσιμοι· εἰ δὲ μή, ῥῖψον εἰκῆ 1 καθάπερ Μουσῶν ἀλλοτρίους, ἢ ποταμῷ κλύσον ὡς νόθους. πάντως οὐδὲ ὁ Ρῆνος ἀδικεῖ τοὺς Κελτούς, ὃς τὰ μὲν νόθα τῶν βρεφῶν ὑποβρύχια ταῖς δίναις ποιεῖ, καθάπερ ἀκολάστου λέχους τιμωρὸς πρέπων· ὅσα δ ̓ ἂν ἐπιγνῷ καθαροῦ σπέρ ματος, ὑπεράνω τοῦ ὕδατος αἰωρεῖ, καὶ τῇ μητρὶ τρεμούσῃ πάλιν εἰς χεῖρας δίδωσιν, ὥσπερ ἀδέκα384 στόν τινα μαρτυρίαν αὐτῇ καθαρῶν καὶ ἀμέμπτων γάμων τὴν τοῦ παιδὸς σωτηρίαν ἀντιδωρούμενος.

386

60

Εὐγενίῳ φιλοσόφῳ 2

Δαίδαλον μὲν Ικάρῳ 3 φασὶν ἐκ κηροῦ πτερὰ Β συμπλάσαντα τολμῆσαι τὴν φύσιν βιάσασθαι τῇ τέχνῃ. ἐγὼ δὲ ἐκεῖνον μὲν εἰ καὶ τῆς τέχνης

1 εἰκῇ Ambrosianus L 73, ἐκεῖ Vossianus, Hertlein ; Hercher regards as dittography of ei kal above.

2 Hertlein 18.

3 Ικάρῳ Hertlein suggests, Ικαρίῳ MSS.

1 The allusion to Julian's writings is too vague to be used to date this letter.

2 A commonplace of rhetoric; cf. Julian, Vol. 1, Oration 2. 81D; Claudian, In Rufinum 2. 112, et quos nascentes

י

1

them still unfledged into the upper air and exposes them to the rays of the sun, to the end that he may become, by the testimony of the god, the sire of a true nursling and disown any spurious offspring. Even so I submit my speeches 1 to you as though to Hermes the god of eloquence; and, if they can bear the test of being heard by you, it rests with you to decide concerning them whether they are fit to take flight to other men also. But if they are not, then fling them away as though disowned by the Muses, or plunge them in a river as bastards. Certainly the Rhine does not mislead the Celts,2 for it sinks deep in its eddies their bastard infants, like a fitting avenger of an adulterous bed; but all those that it recognises to be of pure descent it supports on the surface of the water and gives them back to the arms of the trembling mother, thus rewarding her with the safety of her child as incorruptible evidence that her marriage is pure and without reproach.

60

To Eugenius 3 the Philosopher

WE are told that Daedalus dared to do violence to nature by his art, and moulded wings of wax for Icarus. But for my part, though I applaud him

explorat gurgite Rhenus; Galen 6. 51 Kühn, says that the ordeal was to strengthen their bodies as well as to test their legitimacy; cf. Voltaire, Essai sur les mœurs 146.

A philosopher named Eugenius was the father of the sophist and philosopher Themistius, an older contemporary of Julian, but this letter with its familiar tone cannot have been addressed to a man of advanced age. Schwarz, Cumont and Geffcken reject it on the ground of its sophistic mannerisms, but see Introduction.

211

ἐπαινῶ, τῆς γνώμης οὐκ ἄγαμαι· μόνος γὰρ κηρῷ λυσίμῳ τοῦ παιδὸς ὑπέμεινε τὴν σωτηρίαν πιστεῦ‐ σαι. εἰ δέ μοι θέμις ἦν κατὰ τὸν Τήιον ἐκεῖνον μελοποιὸν τὴν τῶν ὀρνίθων ἀλλάξασθαι φύσιν, οὐκ ἂν δήπου πρὸς Ὄλυμπον οὐδὲ ὑπὲρ μέμψεως C ἐρωτικῆς, ἀλλ ̓ εἰς αὐτοὺς ἂν τῶν ὑμετέρων ὁρῶν τοὺς πρόποδας ἔπτην, ἵνα σὲ τὸ μέλημα τοὐμόν, ὥς φησιν ἡ Σαπφώ, περιπτύξωμαι. ἐπεὶ δέ με ἀνθρωπίνου σώματος δεσμῷ κατακλείσασα ἡ φύσ σις οὐκ ἐθέλει πρὸς τὸ μετέωρον ἁπλῶσαι, τῶν λόγων οἷς ἔχω σε πτεροῖς μετέρχομαι, καὶ γράφω, καὶ σύνειμι τὸν δυνατὸν τρόπον. πάντως που καὶ Ομηρος αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἄλλου του χάριν ἢ τούτου πτερόεντας ὀνομάζει, διότι δύνανται πανταχοῦ D φοιτᾶν, ὥσπερ οἱ ταχύτατοι τῶν ὀρνίθων ᾗ ἂν ἐθέλωσιν ἄττοντες. γράφε δὲ καὶ αὐτός, ὦ φίλος· ἴση γὰρ δήπου σοι τῶν λόγων, εἰ μὴ καὶ μείζων, ὑπάρχει πτέρωσις, ᾗ τοὺς ἑταίρους μεταβῆναι 1 δύνασαι καὶ πανταχόθεν ὡς παρὼν εὐφραίνειν.

61

Σωπάτρῳ 2

Ἔστι τις ἡδονῆς ἀφορμὴ πλείων, ὅταν ἐξῇ δι' ἀνδρὸς οἰκείου τοὺς φίλους προσφωνεῖν· οὐ γὰρ

1 μεταβῆναι Ambrosianus L73; μεταθεῖν Wyttenbach, Hertlein ; μεταθεῖναι Vossianus.

2 Hertlein_67. Σωσιπάτρῳ Hertlein, but prefers Σωπάτρῳ Fabricius. See Introduction, under Sopater.

1 Anacreon frag. 22, Bergk 'Aναπέτομαι δὴ πρὸς ̓́Ολυμπον πτερύγεσσι κουφαῖς διὰ τὸν Ἔρωτ'. 2 Frag. 126, Bergk.