The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 2Julian, Emperor of Rome
Philosophy
The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 2
Julian, Emperor of Rome
Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek -- Translations into English
Καὶ ὅτι μὲν τὰ πρὸς πατρὸς ἡμῖν ἐντεῦθεν ὅθενπερ καὶ Κωνσταντίῳ τὰ πρὸς
πατρὸς ὥρμηται, φανερόν. τὼ γὰρ ἡμετέρω πατέρε γεγόνατον ἀδελφὼ πατρόθεν.
οὕτω δὲ πλησίον ἡμᾶς ὄντας συγγενεῖς ὁ φιλανθρωπότατος οὗτος βασιλεὺς οἷα
εἰργάσατο, ἓξ μὲν ἀνεψιοὺς ἐμοῦ τε καὶ ἑαυτοῦ, πατέρα δὲ τὸν ἐμόν,(431)
ἑαυτοῦ δὲ θεῖον, [D] καὶ προσέτι κοινὸν ἕτερον τὸν πρὸς πατρὸς θεῖον
ἀδελφόν τε ἐμὸν τὸν πρεσβύτατον ἀκρίτους κτεῖνας, ἐμὲ δὲ καὶ ἕτερον
ἀδελφὸν ἐμὸν ἐθελήσας μὲν κτεῖναι, τέλος δὲ ἐπιβαλὼν φυγήν, ἀφ᾽ ἧς ἐμὲ μὲν
ἀφῆκεν, ἐκεῖνον δὲ ὀλίγῳ πρότερον τῆς σφαγῆς ἐξέδυσε(432) τὸ τοῦ Καίσαρος
ὄνομα, τί με δεῖ νῦν ὥσπερ ἐκ τραγῳδίας τὰ ἄρρητα ἀναμετρεῖσθαι;
μετεμέλησε γὰρ αὐτῷ, φασί, καὶ ἐδήχθη δεινῶς, [271] ἀπαιδίαν τε ἐντεῦθεν
νομίζει δυστυχεῖν, τά τε ἐς τοὺς πολεμίους τοὺς Πέρσας οὐκ εὐτυχῶς
πράττειν ἐκ τούτων ὑπολαμβάνει. ταῦτα ἐθρύλουν οἱ περὶ τὴν αὐλὴν τότε καὶ
τὸν μακαρίτην ἀδελφὸν ἐμὸν Γάλλον, τοῦτο νῦν πρῶτον ἀκούοντα τὸ ὄνομα·
κτείνας γὰρ αὐτὸν παρὰ τοὺς νόμους οὐδὲ τῶν πατρῴων μεταλαχεῖν εἴασε τάφων
οὐδὲ τῆς εὐαγοῦς ἠξίωσε μνήμης.
(That on the father’s side I am descended from the same stock as
Constantius on his father’s side is well known. Our fathers were brothers,
sons of the same father. And close kinsmen as we were, how this most
humane Emperor treated us! Six of my cousins and his, and my father who
was his own uncle and also another uncle of both of us on the father’s
side, and my eldest brother, he put to death without a trial; and as for
me and my other brother,(433) he intended to put us to death but finally
inflicted exile upon us; and from that exile he released me, but him he
stripped of the title of Caesar just before he murdered him. But why
should I “recount,” as though from some tragedy, “all these unspeakable
horrors?”(434) For he has repented, I am told, and is stung by remorse;
and he thinks that his unhappy state of childlessness is due to those
deeds, and his ill success in the Persian war he also ascribes to that
cause. This at least was the gossip of the court at the time and of those
who were about the person of my brother Gallus of blessed memory, who is
now for the first time so styled. For after putting him to death in
defiance of the laws he neither suffered him to share the tombs of his
ancestors nor granted him a pious memory.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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