Letter 389: It seems that my speech about my head — which I had been composing as a rhetorical exercise — was destined to come...

To Hygieinos. (355) That speech about my head, which I used to fashion at length, was destined, it seems, to come to fulfillment in fact, since the god was teaching me not to play the fop in such matters. For just as with my hair, on the tenth day a fit of dizziness assailed me, and Damalios advised me to drink a medicine. But I, not able to bear that the trouble should grow worse in the summer, in the autumn drink the one that Marcellus gave me, the one you call, I think, "the sacred remedy." And I kept drinking that one, at the tasting of which by others I used to be disturbed, and having received so great an aid, I passed through the winter with wondrous fear, while Olympius both praised my having drunk it and urged me to drink again in the spring. But just as the spring was beginning to dawn, a violent pain fell upon my kidneys, forcing me to seek a noose. Then, after leaving off for a month, it fell upon me more bitterly and created the necessity of a measure which I kept on putting off. For while the others thought it right to put the pains to sleep with oil, Panolbius cuts a vein for me, and I at once became easier, yet I cannot take heart for the whole. To one, then, who is here amid such ills, say how he might escape these things. But send for sophists from elsewhere, and just as I wish you to be present at the emperor's side, so do you wish me to be ill among my own people, since to be ill is a necessity.

Ὑγιεινῷ. (355) Ἔμελλεν ἄρα ὁ περὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς μοι λόγος, ὃν ἐπλατ- τόμην, εἰς ἔργον ἥξειν παιδεύοντος, οἶμαι, τοῦ θεοῦ μὴ τὰ τοιαῦτα κομψεύεσθαι. ὡς γὰρ κόμην, ἡμέρᾳ δεκάτῃ μοι προσέβαλεν ἴλιγγος καὶ παρῄνει Δαμάλιος πίνειν φάρμακον. ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἐνεγκὼν αὐξῆσαι ἐν τῷ θέρει τὸ κακὸν τοῦ φθινοπώρου πίνω Μαρκέλλου δόντος ἱερὰν αὐτήν, οἶμαι, κα- λεῖτε. καὶ ἔπινον ἐκείνης, ἦς γευομένων ἑτέρων ἐταραττόμην, καὶ τοσαύτην ἐπικουρίαν δεξάμενος μετὰ φόβου θαυμαστοῦ τὸν χειμῶνα διῆλθον Ὀλυμπίου τὸ πεπωκέναι τε ἐπαινοῦντος καὶ κελεύοντος αὖθις ἦρι πιεῖν. ἄρτι δὲ ὑπολάμποντος πό- νος ἰσχυρὸς προσέπεσε τοῖς νεφροῖς βρόχον ἀναγκάζων ζητεῖν. ἔπειτα μῆνα διαλιπὼν προσέπεσε πικρότερος καὶ ἐποίησεν ἀνάγ- κἠν πράγματος, ὃ διετέλουν ἀναβαλλόμενος. Πανόλβιος γὰρ τῶν ἄλλων ἐλαίῳ τὰς ἀλγηδόνας ἀξιούντων κοιμίζειν τέμνει μοι φλέβα, καὶ ῥᾴων μὲν εὐθὺς ἐγενόμην, θαρρεῖν δὲ ὑπὲρ τοῦ παντὸς οὐκ ἔχω. τῷ τοίνυν ἐνταῦθα ὄντι κακῶν, πῶς ἂν ταῦτα διαφύγοι, λέγε. σοφιστὰς δὲ ἑτέρωθεν μεταπέμπου καὶ ὥσπερ ἐγὼ σὲ βούλομαι παρεῖναι τῷ βασιλεῖ, οὕτως ἐμὲ σὺ νοσεῖν παρὰ τοῖς οἰκείοις, ἐπειδὴ νοσεῖν ἀνάγκη.