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to be zealous and not to be distressed by those who are zealous, but to sleep without fear, since even when awake I am awake not for my own sake more than for all others, as is likely. Perhaps I have chattered on and talked nonsense to you, suffering something stupid (for I have praised myself like Astydamas), but I have written this in order to persuade you that your presence, as that of a sensible man, will do us more service than take away any of our time. Hurry, therefore, as I said, using the public post. And after spending as much time with us as you wish, sent by us to wherever you may want, you shall go as is fitting.
40.t JULIAN TO BASIL
40.1 By displaying the calmness and philanthropy that have been innate in me from childhood, I have up to the present time won as subjects those who dwell under the sun. For behold, every race of barbarians to the borders of the Ocean has come bringing me gifts. Likewise also the Sagadares who were reared about the Danube, the well-formed-variously-and-purely-shaped, for whom there is not the appearance of men, but a savage form, even they roll before my footsteps promising to do for me those things which are fitting for my empire. But you yourself have thought beyond their power, saying that you are clothed in piety, but having acquired shamelessness to proclaim everywhere that I have become unworthy of the Roman empire. Or do you not know? I happen to be a descendant of the most excellent Constans, and although these things have been said by you about me, not even now do I depart from the disposition toward you which both I and you shared when we were still young, [studying] the best literature together. And now behold, with a calm mind I decree that a thousand pounds of gold be sent to me from you, as I am about to proceed to the Persian war, while I am still on the highway. Therefore, having counted and weighed out the aforementioned gold, send it through a faithful servant of yours, sealed with your own ring, so that, even if late, you may at some point be calmer about the things sent, since I am ready to uproot the whole city of Caesar and to overthrow its well-wrought structures which have been raised up, and to raise up temples and altars in their place, and to persuade those dwelling in it to yield to the emperor of the Romans and not to exalt themselves. For what I have read, I have condemned.
41.t BASIL TO JULIAN
41.1 Small are the valiant deeds of your present fortune, and paltry are the exploits which you yourself have achieved, not against us, but against yourself. For I am seized with great trembling whenever I consider that you are clothed in purple, and that your dishonored head is adorned with a crown, which without piety renders the empire not honored, but dishonored. And no one has ever beheld anything more ridiculous than you, so that you, having returned and become exceedingly great, from where wicked and beauty-hating demons have dragged you, should not only think beyond all nature, but also exalt yourself against God, and attempt to insult the mother-nurse of all, the Church, by sending a message to me, the most humble, that ten hundreds of pounds of gold be sent to you from us. And the weight of the gold did not astonish my mind, even though it is very great, but it prepared me to weep bitterly over your very swift destruction. For I have remembered how both I and you learned the finest literature, and together we went through the divinely-inspired Scriptures, and then
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τε σπουδάζειν καὶ σπουδάζουσι μὴ ταλαιπωρεῖσθαι, καθεύδειν δὲ ἀδεῶς, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐγρηγορὼς οὐχ ὑπὲρ ἑαυτοῦ μᾶλλον ἢ καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων, ὡς εἰκός, ἐγρή γορα. Ταῦτα ἴσως κατηδολέσχησά σου καὶ κατελήρησα παθών τι βλακῶδες (ἐπῄνεσα γὰρ ἐμαυτὸν ὥσπερ Ἀστυ δάμας), ἀλλ' ἵνα σε πείσω προὔργου τι μᾶλλον ἡμῖν τὴν σὴν παρουσίαν, ἅτε ἀνδρὸς ἔμφρονος, ποιήσειν ἢ παραιρή σεσθαί τι τοῦ καιροῦ ταῦτα ἐπέστειλα. Σπεῦδε οὖν, ὅπερ ἔφην, δημοσίῳ χρησόμενος δρόμῳ. Συνδιατρίψας δὲ ἡμῖν ἐφ' ὅσου σοι φίλον, οἵπερ ἂν θέλῃς ὑφ' ἡμῶν πεμπόμενος, ὡς προσῆκόν ἐστι, βαδιῇ.
40.τ ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩ
40.1 Τὸ ἔμφυτόν μοι ἐκ παιδόθεν γαληνὸν καὶ φιλάνθρωπον ἐπιδεικνύμενος
μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος ὑπηκόους ἐκομισάμην τοὺς οἰκοῦντας τὴν ὑφ' ἥλιον. Ἰδοὺ γὰρ πᾶν γένος βαρβά ρων μέχρις ὁρίων Ὠκεανοῦ δῶρά μοι κομίζον ἧκεν. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οἱ Σαγάδαρες οἱ περὶ τὸν ∆ανούβιον ἐκτρα φέντες, οἱ εὐμορφοποικιλοκαθαρόμορφοι, οἷς οὐκ ἔστι θέα ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλὰ μορφὴ ἀγριαίνουσα, καὶ αὐτοὶ προκυλιν δοῦνται τοῖς ἴχνεσι τοῖς ἐμοῖς ὑπισχνούμενοί μοι ἐκεῖνα ποιεῖν ἅπερ τῇ ἐμῇ βασιλείᾳ ἁρμόζει. Αὐτὸς δὲ ἐπέκεινα τῆς τούτων δυνάμεως πεφρόνηκας εὐλάβειαν μὲν λέγων ἐνδεδύσθαι, ἀναίδειαν δὲ προσλαβόμενος πανταχοῦ διαφη μίζειν ἀνάξιόν με τῆς Ῥωμαίων βασιλείας γεγονέναι. Ἦ οὐκ οἶδας; Κῶνστα τοῦ κρατίστου ἀπόγονος τυγχάνω καὶ τούτων λεχθέντων μοι σοῦ ἕνεκα οὐδὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἐξίσταμαι τῆς πρὸς σὲ διαθέσεως ἧς ἐγώ τε καὶ σὺ ἔτι νέοι ὄντες ἅμα μετεσχήκαμεν τὰ βέλτιστα γράμματα. Καὶ νῦν ἰδοὺ γαληνῷ τῷ φρονήματι θεσπίζω χιλιάδα λιτρῶν χρυσίου ἐξαποσταλῆναί μοι παρὰ σοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν Περσικὸν μέλλοντι διοδεύειν πόλεμον, ἔτι μου κατὰ τὴν λεωφόρον ὑπάρχοντος. Τοῦ οὖν ἐξονομασθέντος χρυσίου ἐξαριθμοκαμπανοτρυ τανίσας ἔκπεμψον δι' οἰκείου σου πιστοῦ δακτυλίῳ τῷ σῷ ἐκσφραγισάμενος, ὥστε, κἂν ὀψέ, ποτε γαληνότερόν σοι γενέσθαι περὶ τὰ ἀπεσταλμένα, ἑτοίμως ἔχοντός μου ἐξανασκαλεῦσαι πᾶσαν τὴν Καίσαρος πόλιν καὶ κατα στρέψαι αὐτῆς τὰ ἐγηγερμένα καλλιεργήματα καὶ κατὰ τόπον ναοὺς καὶ βωμοὺς ἐξαναστῆσαι καὶ πεῖσαι τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ οἰκοῦντας εἴκειν βασιλεῖ Ῥωμαίων καὶ μὴ ὑπεραί ρεσθαι. Ἃ γὰρ ἀνέγνων κατέγνων.
41.τ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝΟΝ
41.1 Μικρά σου τὰ τῆς παρούσης τύχης ἀνδραγαθήματα, καὶ φαῦλα τὰ τῆς
ἀριστείας ἧς αὐτὸς ἠρίστευσας οὐ καθ' ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ καθ' ἑαυτοῦ. Ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ τρόμῳ πολλῷ συν έχομαι ὅταν λάβω κατὰ νοῦν πορφυρίδα σε περιβεβλῆσθαι, στεφάνῳ δέ σου κοσμεῖσθαι τὴν ἄτιμον κεφαλήν, ὅπερ δίχα εὐσεβείας οὐκ ἔντιμον, ἀλλ' ἄτιμον τὴν βασιλείαν καθίστησιν. Καταγελαστότερον δέ σου οὐδεὶς τεθέαται πώποτε, ὥστε σε ἐπανελθόντα καὶ ὑπερμεγέθη γεγονότα, ὅθεν φαῦλοι καὶ μισόκαλοι δαίμονες εἵλκυσάν σε εἰς τοῦτο μὴ μόνον τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν φύσιν φρονεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς Θεὸν ὑπεραίρεσθαι, καὶ τὴν πάντων μητέρα τιτθίον Ἐκκλησίαν παρυβρίζειν ἐπιχειρεῖν, μηνύσει χρησάμενος πρός με τὸν εὐτελέστατον δέκα σοι ἑκατοντάδας λιτρῶν χρυσίου ἐξαποσταλῆναι παρ' ἡμῶν. Καὶ ἡ ὁλκὴ τοῦ χρυ σίου οὐκ ἐξέπληξέ μου τὴν διάνοιαν, εἰ καὶ μάλα πολλὴ καθέστηκε, δακρῦσαι δέ με πικρῶς παρεσκεύασεν ἐπὶ τῇ ταχίστῃ σου ἀπωλείᾳ. Ἐντεθύμημαι γὰρ ἐγὼ πῶς ἐγώ τε καὶ σὺ ἀναμεμαθήκαμεν τὰ κάλλιστα γράμματα, κοινῇ δὲ διεξήλθομεν τὰς θεοπνεύστους Γραφάς, καὶ τότε