83. Eustathius[1] the Philosopher to Julian edit
What an advantage it was for me that the token[2] came late! For instead of riding, in fear and trembling, in the public[3] carriage and, in encounters with drunken mule-drivers and mules made restive, as Homer[4] says, from idleness and overfeeding, having to endure clouds of dust and a strange dialect and the cracking of whips, it was my lot to travel at leisure by a road arched over with trees and well-shaded, a road that had numerous springs and resting-places suitable to the summer season for a traveller who seeks relief from his weariness on the way; and where I always found a good place to stop, airy and shaded by plane trees or cypresses, while in my hand I held the Phaedrus or some other of Plato's dialogues. Now all this profit, Ο beloved, I gained from the freedom with which I travelled; therefore I considered that it would be unnatural not to communicate this also to you, and announce it.[5]
Footnotes edit
- ↑ See Introduction, under Eustathius.
- ↑ The "tessera," whether ring, coin or document, served as a passport.
- ↑ The epithet δημόσιος is used (1) of the public carriage, (2) of the "state," or reserved, carriage. The first is meant here.
- ↑ Iliad 6. 506.
- ↑ The journey of Eustathius is probably that for which Julian gave his permission in Letter 44.