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
Ἀλλ᾽ ὁπόσα μὲν κοινῇ πρὸς πάντας πεποίηται τοὺς ἀρχομένους ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ,
πρέποι ἂν σιωπᾶν, ἵνα μὴ δοκοίην ὥσπερ [B] ἐξεπίτηδες αὐτοπρόσωπος
ἐπαίνους ᾄδειν ἐμαυτοῦ, καὶ ταῦτα ἐπαγγειλάμενος πολλὰς καὶ ἀσελγεστάτας
ὕβρεις καταχέαι· τὰ δὲ ἰδίᾳ μοι πρὸς ὑμᾶς πεποιημένα προπετῶς μὲν καὶ
ἀνοήτως, ἥκιστα δὲ ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν ἄξια ἀχαριστεῖσθαι, πρέποι ἂν οἶμαι προφέρειν
ὥσπερ τινὰ ἐμὰ ὀνείδη τοσούτῳ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν χαλεπώτερα, τοῦ τε αὐχμοῦ τοῦ
περὶ τὸ πρόσωπον καὶ τῆς ἀναφροδισίας, ὅσῳ καὶ ἀληθέστερα ὄντα τῇ ψυχῇ
μάλιστα προσήκει. [C] καὶ δὴ πρότερον ἐπῄνουν ὑμᾶς ὡς ἐνεδέχετό μοι
φιλοτίμως οὐκ ἀναμείνας τὴν πεῖραν οὐδ᾽ ὅπως ἕξομεν πρὸς ἀλλήλους
ἐνθυμηθείς, ἀλλὰ νομίσας ὑμᾶς μὲν Ἑλλήνων παῖδας, ἐμαυτὸν δέ, εἰ καὶ γένος
ἐστί μοι Θρᾴκιον, Ἕλληνα τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν ὑπελάμβανον, ὅτι μάλιστα
ἀλλήλους ἀγαπήσομεν. ἓν μὲν δὴ τοῦτο ἔστω μοι τῆς προπετείας ὄνειδος.
ἔπειτα πρεσβευσαμένοις ὑμῖν παρ᾽ ἐμὲ καὶ ἀφικομένοις ὑστέροις οὐ τῶν ἄλλων
μόνον, [D] ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἀλεξανδρέων τῶν ἐπ᾽ Αἰγύπτῳ, πολὺ μὲν ἀνῆκα χρυσύον,
πολὺ δ᾽ ἀργύριον, φόρους δὲ παμπληθεῖς ἰδίᾳ παρὰ τὰς ἄλλας πόλεις, ἔπειτα
τοῦ βουλευτηρίου τὸν κατάλογον διακοσίοις βουλευταῖς ἀνεπλήρωσα φεισάμενος
οὐδενός. ἐσκόπουν γὰρ ὅπως ἡ πόλις ὑμῶν ἔσται μείζων καὶ δυνατωτέρα.
(However, it becomes me to be silent about all that I have done for all my
subjects in common, lest it should seem that I am purposely as it were
singing my praises with my own lips, and that too after announcing that I
should pour down on my own head many most opprobrious insults. But as for
my actions with respect to you as individuals, which, though the manner of
them was rash and foolish, nevertheless did not by any means deserve to be
repaid by you with ingratitude, it would, I think, be becoming for me to
bring them forward as reproaches against myself; and these reproaches
ought to be more severe than those I uttered before, I mean those that
related to my unkempt appearance and my lack of charm, inasmuch as they
are more genuine since they have especial reference to the soul. I mean
that before I came here I used to praise you in the strongest possible
terms, without waiting to have actual experience of you, nor did I
consider how we should feel towards one another; nay, since I thought that
you were sons of Greeks, and I myself, though my family is Thracian, am a
Greek in my habits, I supposed that we should regard one another with the
greatest possible affection. This example of my rashness must therefore be
counted as one reproach against me. Next, after you had sent an embassy to
me—and it arrived not only later than all the other embassies, but even
later than that of the Alexandrians who dwell in Egypt,—I remitted large
sums of gold and of silver also, and all the tribute money for you
separately apart from the other cities; and moreover I increased the
register of your Senate by two hundred members and spared no man;(785) for
I was planning to make your city greater and more powerful.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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