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| Julian to Basil.
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Letter XL.2053
| 2053 If genuine,
which is exceedingly doubtful, this letter would be placed in the
June or July of 362. |
Julian to Basil.
While showing up to the
present time the gentleness and benevolence which have been natural to
me from my boyhood, I have reduced all who dwell beneath the sun to
obedience. For lo! every tribe of barbarians to the shores of
ocean has come to lay its gifts before my feet. So too the
Sagadares who dwell beyond the Danube, wondrous with their bright
tattooing, and hardly like human beings, so wild and strange are they,
now grovel at my feet, and pledge themselves to obey all the behests my
sovereignty imposes on them. I have a further object. I
must as soon as possible march to Persia and rout and make a tributary
of that Sapor, descendant of Darius. I mean too to devastate the
country of the Indians and the Saracens until they all acknowledge my
superiority and become my tributaries. You, however, profess a
wisdom above and beyond these things; you call yourself clad with
piety, but your clothing is really impudence and everywhere you slander
me as one unworthy of the imperial dignity. Do you not know that
I am the grandson of the illustrious Constantius?2054
| 2054 i.e. of
Constantius Chlorus. Vide pedigree prefixed to
Theodoret in this edition, p. 32. Julian was the youngest son
of Julius Constantius, half-brother of Constantine the
Great. | I know this of you, and yet I do not
change the old feelings which I had to you, and you to me in the days
when we were both young.2055
| 2055 The fact
of the early acquaintance of Basil and Julian does not rest wholly
on the authority of this doubtful letter. cf. Greg.
Naz., Orat. iv. | But of my
merciful will I command that a thousand pounds of gold be sent me from
you, when I pass by Cæsarea; for I am still on the march, and with
all possible dispatch am hurrying to the Persian campaign. If you
refuse I am prepared to destroy Cæsarea, to overthrow the
buildings that have long adorned it; to erect in their place temples
and statues; and so to induce all men to submit to the Emperor of the
Romans and not exalt themselves. Wherefore I charge you to send
me without fail by the hands of some trusty messenger the stipulated
gold, after duly counting and weighing it, and sealing it with your
ring. In this way I may show mercy to you for your errors, if you
acknowledge, however late, that no excuses will avail. I have
learned to know, and to condemn, what once I read.2056
| 2056 A strong
argument against the genuineness of this letter is the silence of
Gregory of Nazianzus as to this demand on Basil (Or. v.
39). For Julian’s treatment of Cæsarea, vide
Sozomen v. 4. Maran (Vita S. Bas. viii.) remarks that
when Julian approached Cæsarea Basil was in his Pontic
retreat. On the punning conclusion, vide
note on Letter xli. (ἃ ἀνέγνων
ἔγνων καὶ
κατέγνων.) | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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