Letter 5

To Priscus. I had just recovered, by the providence of the All-Seeing One [Helios-Mithras, the sun god Julian especially venerated], from a very severe attack of illness when your letters reached me — on the very day I took my first bath. It was already evening when I read them, and you cannot imagine how my strength began to return when I felt your pure and sincere affection. May I become worthy of it, so that I never shame your love for me. Your letters I read at once, though I was barely able to. The letters from Antonius to Alexander I saved for the next day. On the seventh day after receiving them I began writing this, since my strength is improving reasonably well, thanks to Divine Providence. May the All-Seeing God preserve you, my dearest and best beloved brother. May I see you — my treasure! [Added in his own hand:] I swear by your well-being and my own, by the All-Seeing God, that I truly feel as I have written. Best of men, when will I see you and embrace you? Already, like a lovesick fool, I worship your very name.

To Priscus 2 [358-9, Winter, Paris] I had only just recovered by the providence of the All-Seeing One 3 from a very severe and sharp attack of sickness, when your letters reached my hands, on the very day when I took my first bath. It was already evening when I read them, and it would be hard for you to tell how my strength began to return when I realised your pure and sincere affection. May I become worthy of it, that I may not shame your love for me! Your letters I read at once, though I was not very well able to do so, but those of Antonius to Alexander I stored up for the next day. On the seventh day from their receipt I began to write this to you, since my strength is improving reasonably well, thanks to Divine Providence. May the All-Seeing god preserve you, my dearest and best beloved brother. May I see you, my treasure! Added with his own hand. I swear by your well-being and my own, by the All-Seeing god, that I really feel as I have written. Best of men, when can I see you and embrace you? For already, like doting lovers, I adore your very name. 2 So Cumont, following the ascription of MS. Baroccianus. Hertlein with hesitation addressed it to Libanius. So, too, Schwarz, who accordingly gives the date as 362 A.D. But as assigned to Priscus, it should be connected with the foregoing invitation to that sophist to come to Gaul, and the illness to which Julian refers is almost certainly his semi-asphyxiation in Paris described in Misopogon 340-342A. 3 i. e. Helios-Mithras.