having to endure clouds of dust and a strange dialect and the cracking of whips, it was my lot to travel at leisure by a road arched over with trees and well-shaded, a road that had numerous springs and resting-places suitable to the summer season for a traveller who seeks relief from his weariness on the way; and where I always found a good place to stop, airy and shaded by plane trees or cypresses, while in my hand I held the Phaedrus or some other of Plato's dialogues. Now all this profit, O beloved, I gained from the freedom with which I travelled; therefore I considered that it would be unnatural not to communicate this also to you, and announce it.1

1 The journey of Eustathius is probably that for which Julian gave his permission in Letter 44.

FRAGMENTA BREVIORA1

1

Τίς οὖν ἀγνοεῖ τὸν Αἰθιόπων ὑπὲρ τοῦ παρ ἡμῖν τροφιμωτάτου σιτίου λόγον ; ἁψάμενοι γὰρ τῆς μάζης θαυμάζειν ἔφασαν, ὅπως κόπρια σιτούμενοι ζῶμεν, εἴ τῳ πιστὸς ὁ Θούριος εἶναι λογοποιὸς δοκεῖ. ἰχθυοφάγων δὲ καὶ σαρκοφάγων ἀνθρώπων γένη μηδ ̓ ὄναρ ἰδόντα τὴν παρ' ἡμῖν δίαιταν οἱ τὴν οἰκουμένην περιηγούμενοι γῆν ἱστοροῦσιν. ὧν εἴ τις παρ' ἡμῖν ζηλῶσαι τὴν δίαιταν ἐπιχειρήσει, οὐδὲν ἄμεινον διακείσεται τῶν τὸ κώνειον προσενεγκαμένων ἢ τὴν ἀκόνιτον ἢ τὸν ἑλλέβορον.

2

2

Πρὸς τὴν Ερκυνίαν ὕλην ἐθέομεν, καὶ εἶδον ἐγὼ χρῆμα ἐξαίσιον. ἰδοὺ γοῦν σοι θαρρῶν ἐγὼ ἐγγυῶμαι, μήποτε ὦφθαι τοιοῦτον μηδέν, ὅσα γε ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν, ἐν τῇ Ῥωμαίων. ἀλλ ̓ εἴτε τὰ Θετταλικὰ Τέμπη δύσβατα νομίζει τις, εἴτε τὰς

1 Hertlein Fragments 1 and 3 have been restored to their proper context in Letter 16, pp. 38 and 36.

2 Hertlein frag. 2. Quoted by Suidas under 'Ηρόδοτος and ὧν . . . ἑλλέβορον again under Ζηλῶσαι.

1 Herodotus 3. 22 describes the amazement of the Ethiopians, who lived on boiled meat, at the diet of the Persians.

THE SHORTER FRAGMENTS

1

THEN who does not know the saying of the Ethiopians about the food that with us is held to be most nutritious? For when they first handled bread they said they wondered how we manage to live on a diet of dung, that is if one may believe the Thurian chronicler.1 And those who write descriptions of the world relate that there are races of men who live on fish and flesh 2 and have never even dreamed of our kind of diet. But if anyone in our country tries to adopt their diet, he will be no better off than those who take a dose of hemlock or aconite or hellebore.

2

WE hastened to the Hercynian forest and it was a strange and monstrous thing that I beheld. At any rate I do not hesitate to engage that nothing of the sort has ever been seen in the Roman Empire, at least as far as we know. But if anyone considers Thessalian Tempe or Thermopylae or the

They said they were not surprised that men who lived on such food attained to a maximum of only eighty years. For the different temperaments and customs of different peoples cf. Against the Galilaeans, 143E.

2 Cf. vol. 2, Oration 6. 191c for Julian's remarks on diet.

Θερμοπύλας, εἴτε τὸν μέγαν καὶ διωλύγιον Ταῦρον, ἐλάχιστα ἴστω χαλεπότητος ἕνεκα πρὸς τὸ Ερκύνιον ὄντα.

3

Ἰουλιανὸς Κορινθίοις

2

πατρῴα μοι πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὑπάρχει φιλία· καὶ γὰρ ᾤκησε παρ' ὑμῖν ὁ ἐμὸς πατήρ, καὶ ἀναχθεὶς ἔνθεν, ὥσπερ ἐκ Φαιάκων Οδυσσεύς, τῆς πολυχρονίου πλάνης ἀπηλλάγη . . . ἐνταῦθα ὁ πατὴρ ἀνεπαύσατο.3

...

4

...

καὶ ὁ κλεινὸς 4 ἡμῖν ἔδειξε ἱεροφάντης Ιάμβλιχος

ἡμεῖς δὲ Εμπεδοτίμῳ καὶ Πυθαγόρα πιστεύοντες οἷς τε ἐκεῖθεν λαβὼν Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικὸς ἔφη. . . .

1 Hertlein 4. Quoted by Suidas under Χρῆμα.

2 ἐνθένδε Hertlein.

* Hertlein 5. Quoted by Libanius, Oration 14, 29, 30. For Aristophanes (of Corinth). 4 ἥρως Asmus adds.

5 Hertlein 6. Quoted by Suidas from the Kronia, under Εμπεδότιμος and Ἰουλιανός. This fragment is all that survives of Julian's Kronia or Saturnalia, written in 361 ; see Vol. 1, Oration 4. 157c. We know nothing more as to its contents.

1 Julian, Oration 2. 101 D. The Greek word is Platonic, cf. Theaetetus 161 D.

2 For Julian's knowledge of the Hercynian forest, which in ancient Germany extended from the Black Forest on the north-east to the Hartz Mountains, cf. Vol. 2, Misopogon 359в; Ammianus, 17. 1. 8 Cum prope silvam venisset squalore tenebrarum horrendam i.e. in his German campaign in 357 ; Zosimus, 3. 4. 3 ἄχρι τῶν Ερκυνίων δρυμῶν τοὺς φεύγοντας ὁ Καῖσαρ ἐπιδιώξας.

great and far-flung1 Taurus to be impassable, let me tell him that for difficulty of approach they are trivial indeed compared with the Hercynian forest.2

3

To the Corinthians 3

... My friendship with you dates from my father's 4 time. For indeed my father lived in your city, and embarking thence, like Odysseus from the land of the Phaeacians, had respite from his longprotracted wanderings 5. there my father found

repose.

4

and the famous hierophant Iamblichus showed it to us . . . and we, since we believed the account of Empedotimus 6 and Pythagoras, as well as that of Heracleides of Pontus who derived it from them."...

This is all that remains of the manifesto sent to the Corinthians by Julian in 361, when he sought to justify his defection from Constantius.

4 Julius Constantius was murdered by his nephew, the Emperor Constantius, in 337.

5 Libanius says that Julian here spoke briefly about the "wicked stepmother" of Julius, the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, see Zosimus 2. 8 and 9.

For this famous Syracusan, who claimed to be immortal, see Vol. 2, 295B.

'Geffcken points out that Julian's statement is derived from a commentary on Plato and quotes Proclus, On Plato's Republic 2. 119. 18. "The human soul may learn the sacred truth about the affairs of the underworld and report them to mankind. This is shown by the account of Empedotimus, which Heracleides of Pontus relates." Then follows the vision of Empedotimus in Hades; cf. Rohde, Psyche, p. 385.