Letters of Julian/Letter 10

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search

From The Works of the Emperor Julian, volume III (1913) Loeb Classical Library.

1408844Letters — 10. To EutheriusEmily Wilmer Cave WrightJulian

10. To Eutherius[1]

[edit]

[361 About December 1. From Naissa]

I am alive, and have been saved by the gods. Therefore offer sacrifices to them on my behalf, as thank-offerings. Your sacrifice will be not for one man only, but for the whole body of Hellenes.[2] If you have time to travel as far as Constantinople I shall feel myself highly honoured by your presence.

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. Eutherius, an Armenian eunuch, was a pagan who had been kidnapped, sold into slavery, and finally attained to the office of court chamberlain and confidential adviser to Constans and Julian; see Ammianus 16. 7. 4. He was employed by Julian in Gaul as a trusted messenger to Constantius at Milan; Ammianus 20. 8. 19.
  2. In the fourth century this word has lost some of its national meaning, and is used of pagans as opposed to Christians, especially by Julian. The sophists of that period called themselves and all students of rhetoric "Hellenes."