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
by me the other day; and so excited were they in mind and so exalted in
spirit that they even attacked those who were offending against the gods
with more violence than I could have wished.)
Τὰ δ᾽ ὑμέτερα· πολλοὶ μὲν ἐγειρομένους ἄρτι τοὺς βωμοὺς ἀνέτρεψαν, οὓς ἡ
πρᾳότης ἡμῶν ἐδίδαξε μόλις ἡσυχάζειν. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀπεπεμψάμεθα τὸν νεκρὸν τῆς
Δάφνης, οἱ μὲν ἀφοσιούμενοι τὰ πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς ἐξ ὑμῶν ἀντέδωκαν τοῖς ὑπὲρ
τῶν λειψάνων ἠγανακτηκόσι [C] τοῦ νεκροῦ τὸ τέμενος τοῦ Δαφναίου θεοῦ, οἱ
δὲ εἴτε λαθόντες εἴτε μὴ τὸ πῦρ ἐνεῖσαν(768) ἐκεῖνο, τοῖς μὲν ἐπιδημοῦσι
τῶν ξένων φρικῶδες, ὑμῶν δὲ τῷ δήμῳ μὲν ἡδονὴν παρασχόν, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς βουλῆς
ἀμεληθὲν καὶ εἰσέτι ἀμελούμενον. ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν ἐδόκει καὶ πρὸ τοῦ πυρὸς
ἀπολελοιπέναι τὸν νεὼν ὁ θεός, ἐπεσήμηνε γὰρ εἰσελθόντι μοι πρῶτον τὸ
ἄγαλμα, καὶ τούτου μάρτυρα καλῶ τὸν μέγαν Ἥλιον πρὸς τοὺς ἀπιστοῦντας,
ὑμᾶς δὲ ὑπομνῆσαι βούλομαι καὶ ἄλλης ἀπεχθείας εμῆς, [D] ἔπειτα, ὅπερ
εἴωθα ποιεῖν ἐπιεικῶς, ὀνειδίσαι ἐμαυτῷ καὶ ὑπὲρ ταύτης καὶ κατηγορῆσαι
καὶ μέμψασθαι.
(But now consider your own behaviour. Many of you overturned the altars of
the gods which had only just been erected, and with difficulty did my
indulgent treatment teach you to keep quiet. And when I sent away the body
from Daphne,(769) some of you, in expiation of your conduct towards the
gods, handed over the shrine of the god of Daphne to those who were
aggrieved about the relics of the body, and the rest of you, whether by
accident or on purpose, hurled against the shrine that fire which made the
strangers who were visiting your city shudder, but gave pleasure to the
mass of your citizens and was ignored and is still ignored by your Senate.
Now, in my opinion, even before that fire the god had forsaken the temple,
for when I first entered it his holy image gave me a sign thereof. I call
mighty Helios to bear me witness of this before all unbelievers. And now I
wish to remind you of yet another reason for your hatred of me, and then
to abuse myself—a thing which I usually do fairly well—and both to accuse
and blame myself with regard to that hatred.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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