Julian the Apostate
Flavius Claudius Iulianus Augustus
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All letters (83)
The story goes that Syloson [a man from Samos who once gave the future Persian king Darius a cloak, and later asked...
It happened that when you sent me your map, I had just recovered from illness — but I was no less delighted to...
Everything crowds into my mind at once and chokes my speech — one thought refuses to let another go first.
To my Uncle Julian.
This entry contains only scholarly footnotes and cross-references, not a letter.
To the High-priest Theodorus.
There is abundant evidence that you have reached the first rank in the art of medicine, and that your moral...
To the High-priest Theodorus.
To the People of Alexandria.
Some men have a passion for horses, others for birds, others for wild animals.
To the Alexandrians, an Edict.
A small estate of four fields in Bithynia was given to me by my grandmother, and I now give it to you as a token of...
To Basil [most scholars identify this as Basil of Caesarea, later one of the great Cappadocian Fathers of the...
On behalf of the city of Argos.
To the priestess Theodora.
To the most reverend Theodora.
Must you really wait for a formal invitation?
Rescript on Christian Teachers.
I swear by the gods: I do not wish the Galileans [Christians] to be put to death, or beaten unjustly, or harmed in...
The library of George [the Arian Bishop of Alexandria, lynched by a pagan mob in 361] was very large and...
If you are planning to visit me, make your plans now — with the gods' help — and get moving.
Homer says there are two gates of dreams and that we cannot trust them equally when it comes to the future.
I had just recovered, by the providence of the All-Seeing One [Helios-Mithras, the sun god Julian especially...
To Hecebolius [apparently an official of Edessa, capital of Osroene in northern Mesopotamia].
"Time alone proves the just man," as the ancients teach.
The proverb about "an honest man" [from Euripides: "An honest man, though he dwell far away and I never set eyes on...
"Entreat kindly the guest in your house, but speed him when he would be going" [Homer, Odyssey 15.
As the proverb says, "You told me my own dream" [the equivalent of "Queen Anne is dead" — telling someone what they...
As soon as I received your letter I sent Archelaus off with letters and a passport [an official travel document,...
If anyone has told you there is something more delightful or more profitable for the human race than pursuing...
Even if you do not write to me about other matters, you ought at least to have written about that enemy of the gods,...
To the Alexandrians.
To the Alexandrians.
If anything deserves our fostering care, it is the sacred art of music.
Your earlier silence was more creditable than your current defense.
To the community of the Jews.
To Libanius [the greatest living Greek rhetorician, based in Antioch].
The wise Hesiod recommends that we invite our neighbors to our feasts, since they share in our sorrows and should...
To Photinus [a heretical Christian bishop who denied Christ's divinity from a different angle than the Arians].
Make haste, Arsacius, to meet the enemy's battle line.
I traveled as far as Litarbe — a village of Chalcis — and found a road that still bore the remains of Antioch's...
The myth tells us that the eagle, when he wants to test which of his young are genuine, carries them still unfledged...
We are told that Daedalus dared to defy nature through his art, fashioning wings of wax for Icarus.
The joy is doubled when you can address friends through a mutual intimate — because then it is not only your written...
When did you ever really leave me, that I should need to write?
Herodotus said that men's ears are less trustworthy than their eyes.
There is a tradition that Alexander of Macedon slept with Homer's poems under his pillow, so that night and day he...
Let me borrow the language of the dramatic orators: How little hope I had of surviving!
To Prohaeresius [an Armenian Christian rhetorician who taught in Athens; by this point in his late eighties].
Pindar calls the Muses "silvery," as though comparing the clarity and brilliance of their art to the most luminous...
Not only do I write to you, but I demand payment in kind.
Even a short letter gives great pleasure when the writer's affection can be measured by the greatness of his soul...
Very well — let us grant that Echo is a goddess, as you say.
"You have come, Telemachus!
I am almost in tears — and yet the very sound of your name ought to bring good fortune.
I could not read without tears the letter you wrote after your wife's death.
Your son Diogenes, whom I saw after you left, told me you were very angry with him for something that would...
Even a short letter from you is enough to make me very happy.
I have issued a general order lifting the sentences of exile imposed by Constantius of blessed memory on all those...
To a Priest.
The Hellenic religion does not yet thrive as I wish, and the fault lies with those who profess it.
To the Thracians.
To my Uncle Julian.
I call the gods to witness that even when I was still Caesar I wrote to you — more than once, I think.
I received your letter telling me of the beautiful and blessed promises and gifts the gods have given us.
You have repaid Aristophanes for his devotion to the gods and his loyalty to you by transforming what was once a...
My physical health is reasonably good, and my state of mind is no less satisfactory.
I have given orders for ships to be ready at Cenchreae [a port town southwest of the Isthmus of Corinth].
To Iamblichus [a series of letters to the philosopher Iamblichus — or written as if to him — expressing intense...
Zeus, how can this be right?
I confess I have already paid a full penalty for leaving you — not only in the hardships I encountered on my...
"You have come! Well done!
I appreciate the sweet-tempered way you reproach me.
When Odysseus tried to convince his son that he was not a god, it was enough for him to say: "I am no god — why do...
To the most illustrious Sarapion.
To Basil [this letter is widely considered spurious — a later forgery attributed to Julian].
What luck that the travel permit arrived late!