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

To Hygieinus. (355) It seems that my speech about my head — which I had been composing as a rhetorical exercise — was destined to come true, the god teaching me, I suppose, not to be clever about such things. For on the tenth day after I began, dizziness struck me and Damalius advised me to take medicine. But unwilling to let the illness grow worse through the summer, I drank in autumn a potion given by Marcellus — the one you call hiera ["sacred remedy"], I believe. And I drank it, though I used to be disturbed when others merely tasted it. Having received such great relief, I got through the winter with remarkable anxiety, while Olympius praised me for having drunk it and ordered me to drink again in spring. But just as spring was dawning, a violent pain struck my kidneys, making me search for a noose. Then, after a month's interval, it struck again more bitterly and forced me to submit to a procedure I had been endlessly postponing. For while the other doctors thought the pain should be soothed with oil, Panolbius opened a vein. I felt better immediately, but I have no confidence about the long term. So tell me: for a man in such a state of misery, how might he escape these troubles? Send for sophists from elsewhere, and just as I want you to be at the emperor's side, so may you wish for me to be sick at home among my own people — since sick I must be.

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.