§317καὶ ἐφέντος τοῦ θεοῦ μικρόν τι παρήλλαττον πίνων τοῦ μέτρου.
And when the god permitted it, I departed slightly from the measure in drinking.
καί τινα ἐπόθουν τρόπον τὴν ταμιείαν τὴν τότε.
And in a way I missed that former stewardship.
ἦν δέ τις χρόνος οὗτος, ὅτʼ ἐμψύχων τε ἀπειχόμην, πλὴν ἀλεκτρυόνος, καὶ λαχάνων ἁπάντων, πλὴν ἀγρίων καὶ θριδακίνης, καὶ τραγημάτων δʼ ἀπειχόμην πάντων.
This was a certain period when I abstained from living things, except chicken, and from all vegetables, except wild ones and lettuce, and I abstained from all sweetmeats.
ἤδη δή ποτε καὶ ὅλως ἑνὶ χρῆσθαι προσέταξε, καὶ ἐχρώμην ἀλεκτρυόνι, ᾧ καὶ μόλις καὶ τοῦτο ἐπετάττετο.
And indeed once he even ordered me to use only one thing entirely, and I used chicken, which even this was prescribed with difficulty.
καὶ τούτων τὰ μὲν σὺν ἀλουσίαις καὶ φλεβοτομίαις καὶ κλύσμασι διηνέγκαμεν, τὰ δʼ ὡς ἕκαστον τύχοι.
And of these things, some we endured with abstention from bathing, bloodletting, and enemas, and others as each happened.
ἰχθύων δὲ καὶ ἓξ ἔτη πάντων ἀπεσχόμην· ὑείων δὲ οὐκ οἶδα ὁπόσον τι.
And from fish of all kinds I abstained for six whole years; and from pork, I do not know for how long.
πάλιν δὲ συγχωρήσαντος ἐχρώμην ἀμφοτέροις.
But when he permitted it again, I used both.
εἶτʼ ἐν μέρει τὰ μὲν εἰργόμην ἂν, τὰ δʼ ἐχρώμην, ὡς ἑκάτερον ἐφʼ ἑκατέρου συμβαίνοι.
Then in turn I would be barred from some, and use others, as each happened in each case.
καὶ μὴν γάρου γε εἶρξε καθάπαξ· οὐ γὰρ εἶναι τῇ κεφαλῇ σωτήριον, ἥκιστα δὲ ὀδοῦσιν.
And indeed he barred me from garum once and for all; for he said it was not salutary for the head, and least of all for the teeth.
ἰάματα δὲ ὀδόντων ἔδωκε.
And he gave remedies for the teeth.
πρῶτον μὲν ἦν λέοντος ὀδόντα καῦσαι καὶ κόψαντα χρῆσθαι σμήγματι, δεύτερον δὲ ὀπῷ διακλύζειν τούτῳ δὴ τῷ χρήματι· μετὰ ταῦτα πέπερι, καὶ προσέθηκε θέρμης οὕνεκα· ἐφʼ ἅπασι δὲ στάχυς Ἰνδικὸς, σμῆγμα καὶ οὗτος.
First was to burn a lion's tooth and pound it and use it as a dentifrice; second, to rinse with sap, this very substance; after these, pepper, which he added for the sake of warmth; and over all, Indian spike, this also being a dentifrice.
καὶ ταῦτα μὲν τῶν νεωστὶ φανθέντων ἐστί· βοείων δὲ εἴρχθην τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον.
And these were among the things recently revealed; but from beef I was barred in the following manner.
χρησμὸν ἐδόκουν ἐκπεπτωκέναι Ζωσίμῳ, μέχρι τούτου βιώσεσθαι μέχρι ἂν ἡ βοῦς ἡ κατʼ ἀγρὸν ζῇ.
I dreamed that an oracle had been delivered to Zosimus, that he would live only so long as the cow in the field lived.
καὶ δῆτα φάναι πρὸς αὐτὸν, οἶσθʼ οὖν τὸν χρησμὸν ὅ τι νοεῖ;
And indeed, someone seemed to say to him: "Do you know then what the oracle means?
βοείων κρεῶν ἀπέχεσθαί σοι κελεύει. ὁ δʼ ἐλέγετο ὁ Ζώσιμος πρὸς τῇ ψύξει, ἐξ ἧς ἀπέθανε, καὶ βοείου τινὸς ἐκ θυσίας ἁψάμενος βλαβῆναι.
It orders you to abstain from beef." And he, Zosimus, was said, in addition to the chill from which he died, to have been harmed also by touching some beef from a sacrifice.
ἦν οὖν οἷα εἰκὸς ἀκρίβεια πολλὴ καὶ πρόνοια μηδʼ ἄκρῳ τῷ δακτύλῳ προσαψάμενον λαθεῖν.
Therefore there was, as is natural, great precision and caution, lest one should touch it even with the tip of one's finger unawares.
καὶ χρόνῳ ὕστερον οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ πυκνοὶ σεισμοὶ γίγνονται ἐπὶ Ἄλβου ἄρχοντος τῆς Ἀσίας, καὶ τοῦτο μὲν δὴ Μυτιλήνη κατηνέχθη μικροῦ πᾶσα, τοῦτο δὲ ἐν πολλαῖς τῶν ἄλλων πόλεων πολλὰ ἐκινήθη, κῶμαι δὲ ἄρδην ἀπώλοντο, Ἐφέσιοι δὲ καὶ Σμυρναῖοι παρʼ ἀλλήλους ἔθεον θορυβούμενοι, ἡ δὲ συνέχεια θαυμαστὴ καὶ τῶν σεισμῶν καὶ τῶν φόβων.
And sometime later, many and frequent earthquakes occurred when Albus was governor of Asia, and on the one hand, Mytilene was almost entirely thrown down, and on the other hand, in many of the other cities many things were shaken, and villages were utterly destroyed, and the Ephesians and Smyrnaeans ran to one another in confusion, and the continuity of both the earthquakes and the fears was amazing.
καὶ τοῦτο μὲν εἰς Κλάρον θεωροὺς ἔστελλον καὶ περιμάχητον ἦν τὸ μαντεῖον, τοῦτο δὲ ἱκετηρίας ἔχοντες περὶ τοὺς βωμοὺς καὶ τὰς ἀγορὰς καὶ τὰ κύκλῳ τῶν πόλεων §318περιῄεσαν, οὐδεὶς οἴκοι μένειν θαρρῶν· καὶ τελευτῶντες ἱκετεύοντες ἀπεῖπον.
And on the one hand, they sent sacred envoys to Claros and the oracle was eagerly sought after, and on the other hand, holding suppliant branches, around the altars and the marketplaces and the outskirts of the cities they went around, no one daring to remain at home; and in the end they grew exhausted from supplication.
τοιούτων δὲ ὄντων ὁ θεὸς κελεύει μοι διατρίβοντι τότε ἐν Σμύρνῃ, μᾶλλον δὲ ἐν τῷ πρὸ τῆς πόλεως χωρίῳ, θῦσαι βοῦν δημοσίᾳ τῷ Διὶ τῷ σωτῆρι.
Under such circumstances, the god ordered me, who was staying then in Smyrna, or rather in the estate before the city, to sacrifice a bull publicly to Zeus the Savior.
ἀναχωροῦντος δέ μου καὶ ὑποπτεύοντος, καὶ δεδιότος τὴν προτέραν ἐκείνην πρόρρησιν, ἐγένετο μέν τι καὶ τοιοῦτον ἐννοίας, ὡς οὐ θήλειάν γε μέλλοιμι θύσειν, καὶ ὡς οὐδʼ ἀνάγκη γεύεσθαι.
But as I hesitated and suspected, and feared that earlier prediction, some such thought also occurred to me, that I was not about to sacrifice a female cow, and that there was no necessity to taste of it.
σαφέστατον δὲ καὶ ᾧ θαρρήσας ἔθυσα τόδε γίγνεται.
But the clearest sign, and that relying on which I sacrificed, was the following.
ἔδοξα γὰρ ἑστῶτί μοι παρʼ αὐτὸν τὸν βωμὸν τοῦ Διὸς ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ καὶ δεομένῳ φῆναι σημεῖον εἰ λῷον θύσαι, ἀστέρα λαμπρὸν διᾷξαι διʼ ἀγορᾶς κυροῦντα τὴν θυσίαν.
For I dreamed that as I stood by the very altar of Zeus in the marketplace, and prayed him to show a sign if it were better to sacrifice, a bright star shot through the marketplace, confirming the sacrifice.
οὕτω θαρρήσας ἔθυσα.
Having thus gained confidence, I sacrificed.
τὸ δὴ μετὰ τοῦτο ὅτῳ μὲν φίλον πιστεύειν πιστευέτω, ὅτῳ δὲ μὴ, χαιρέτω.
As to what happened after this, let whoever wishes to believe it believe, and let whoever does not, bid it farewell.
ἔστη γὰρ ἅπαντα ἐκεῖνα καὶ οὐδὲν ἔτι ἠνώχλησε μετʼ ἐκείνην τὴν ἡμέραν, προνοίᾳ μὲν καὶ δυνάμει τῶν θεῶν, διακονίᾳ δʼ ἡμῶν ἀναγκαίᾳ.
For all those things stopped and nothing troubled us anymore after that day, by the providence and power of the gods, and by our necessary service.
οὐχ ἧττον τούτου θαυμαστὸν, εἰ μὴ καὶ μᾶλλον, ἕκτῃ γὰρ σχεδὸν ἢ ἑβδόμῃ ἡμέρᾳ πρότερον ἢ σεῖσαι τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐκέλευσε πέμψαντα εἰς τὴν ἀρχαίαν ἑστίαν, ἥ ἐστι πρὸς τῷ ἱερῷ τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ Ὀλυμπίου, ἱερά τε δὴ δρᾶσαι καὶ βωμοὺς ἱδρύσασθαι ἐν κορυφῇ τοῦ λόφου τοῦ Ἄτυος.
No less wonderful than this, if not even more so, was that about six or seven days before the earthquake originally occurred, he ordered me to send to the ancient hearth, which is near the temple of Olympian Zeus, to perform sacred rites and to establish altars on the summit of the hill of Atys.
καὶ ταῦτά τε ἀρτίως ἐπιτετέλεστο καὶ ὁ σεισμὸς ἐπελθὼν τῆς μὲν ἄλλης τῆς ἐν μέσῳ ἁπάσης χώρας οὕτως ἥψατο ὥστε μηδὲν τῶν καταγωγίων λιπεῖν, εἰ μή τί που μικρὸν ἐρείπιον· ἄνω δὲ Ἄτυος οὐ προὔβη, οὐδὲ τοῦ πρὸς μεσημβρίαν Ἄτυος ἡμετέρου χωρίου Λανείου, πλὴν ὅσον αἰσθέσθαι, πέρα δʼ οὐχ ἥψατο οὐδενός.
And these things had just been completed, and the earthquake, when it came, affected all the other intervening country in such a way as to leave none of the lodgings, except perhaps some small ruin; but up the Atys it did not advance, nor to our Laneion estate to the south of Atys, except as much as to be felt, but beyond that it did not touch anything.
καὶ γάρ τοι πρὸς τοσοῦτον ἧκον τοῦ θαρρεῖν ὥστε καὶ μεσούντων μάλιστα τῶν σεισμῶν ἐκ τῶν ὑδάτων τῶν θερμῶν ἐπανιὼν εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἐξ ἐνυπνίων ἰδὼν ἱκετεύοντας καὶ τεταραγμένους τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἐμέλλησα μὲν εἰπεῖν ὡς οὐδὲν δέοι δεδιέναι, οὐδὲν γὰρ ἔσεσθαι δυσχερές· οὐ γὰρ ἂν αὐτὸς ἐπὶ τούτοις εἰς
And indeed, I came to such a degree of confidence that, even when the earthquakes were at their height, returning from the hot waters to the city, having seen in dreams the people supplicating and in confusion, I was about to say that there was no need to fear, for nothing unpleasant would happen; for I myself would not under these circumstances go to...