The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: By Edward Gibbon, Esq; ... [pt.4]

CHAP. XXII. Julian is declared Emperor by the Legions of Gaul.—His March and Success.—The Death of Constan|tius.—Civil Administration of Julian.

WHILE the Romans languished under the ignominious tyranny of eunuchs and bishops, the praises of Julian were * 1.1 repeated with transport in every part of the empire, except in the palace of Constantius. The Barbarians of Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the arms of the young Caesar; his sol|diers were the companions of his victory; the grateful provincials enjoyed the blessings of his reign; but the favourites, who had opposed his elevation, were offended by his virtues; and they justly considered the friend of the people as the enemy of the court. As long as the fame

of Julian was doubtful, the buffoons of the palace, who were skilled in the language of sa|tire, tried the efficacy of those arts which they had so often practised with success. They easily discovered, that his simplicity was not exempt from affectation: the ridiculous epithets of an hairy savage, of an ape invested with the purple, were applied to the dress and person of the phi|losophic warrior; and his modest dispatches were stigmatized as the vain and elaborate fictions of a loquacious Greek, a speculative soldier, who had studied the art of war amidst the groves of the academy 1 1.2. The voice of malicious folly was at length silenced by the shouts of victory; the conqueror of the Franks and Alemanni could no longer be painted as an object of contempt; and the monarch himself was meanly ambitious of stealing from his lieutenant the honourable reward of his labours. In the letters crowned with laurel, which, according to ancient custom, were addressed to the provinces, the name of Julian was omitted.

Constantius had made his dispositions in person; he had signalized his valour in the foremost ranks; his military

conduct had secured the victory; and the captive king of the Barbarians was presented to him on the field of battle,

from which he was at that time distant above forty days jour|ney 2 1.3. So extravagant a fable was incapable, however, of deceiving the public credulity, or even of satisfying the pride of the emperor him|self. Secretly conscious that the applause and favour of the Romans accompanied the rising fortunes of Julian, his discontented mind was prepared to receive the subtle poison of those artful sycophants, who coloured their mischiev|ous designs with the fairest appearances of truth and candour 3 1.4. Instead of depreciating the me|rits of Julian, they acknowledged, and even ex|aggerated, his popular fame, superior talents, and important services. But they darkly insi|nuated, that the virtues of the Caesar might in|stantly be converted into the most dangerous crimes; if the inconstant multitude should pre|fer their inclinations to their duty; or if the general of a victorious army should be tempted

from his allegiance by the hopes of revenge, and independent greatness. The personal fears of Constantius were interpreted by his council as * 1.5 a laudable anxiety for the public safety; whilst in private, and perhaps in his own breast, he disguised, under the less odious appellation of fear, the sentiments of hatred and envy, which he had secretly conceived for the inimitable virtues of Julian.

The apparent tranquillity of Gaul, and the * 1.6 imminent danger of the eastern provinces, offered a specious pretence for the design which was art|fully concerted by the Imperial ministers. They resolved to disarm the Caesar; to recall those faithful troops who guarded his person and dig|nity; and to employ in a distant war against the Persian monarch, the hardy veterans who had vanquished, on the banks of the Rhine, the fiercest nations of Germany. While Julian used the laborious hours of his winter-quarters at Paris in the administration of power, which, in his hands, was the exercise of virtue, he was surprised by the hasty arrival of a tribune and a notary; with positive orders from the emperor, which they were directed to execute, and he was commanded not to oppose. Constantius signified his pleasure, that four entire legions, the Celtae, and Petulants, the Heruli, and the Batavians, should be separated from the standard of Julian, under which they had acquired their fame and discipline; that in each of the remaining bands, three hundred of the bravest youths should be

selected; and that this numerous detachment, the strength of the Gallic army, should instantly begin their march, and exert their utmost dili|gence to arrive, before the opening of the cam|paign, on the frontiers of Persia 4 1.7. The Caesar foresaw, and lamented, the consequences of this fatal mandate. Most of the auxiliaries, who engaged their voluntary service, had stipulated, that they should never be obliged to pass the Alps. The public faith of Rome, and the per|sonal honour of Julian, had been pledged for the observance of this condition. Such an act of treachery and oppression would destroy the confidence, and excite the resentment, of the independent warriors of Germany, who consi|dered truth as the noblest of their virtues, and freedom as the most valuable of their possessions. The legionaries, who enjoyed the title and pri|vileges of Romans, were enlisted for the general defence of the republic; but those mercenary troops heard with cold indifference the anti|quated names of the republic and of Rome. Attached, either from birth or long habit, to the climate and manners of Gaul, they loved and admired Julian; they despised, and perhaps hated, the emperor; they dreaded the laborious march, the Persian arrows, and the burning de|serts

of Asia. They claimed, as their own, the country which they had saved; and excused their want of spirit, by pleading the sacred and more immediate duty of protecting their families and friends. The apprehensions of the Gauls were derived from the knowledge of the impending and inevitable danger. As soon as the provinces were exhausted of their military strength, the Germans would violate a treaty which had been imposed on their fears; and notwithstanding the abilities and valour of Julian, the general of a nominal army, to whom the public calamities would be imputed, must find himself, after a vain resistance, either a prisoner in the camp of the Barbarians, or a criminal in the palace of Constantius. If Julian complied with the orders which he had received, he subscribed his own destruction, and that of a people who deserved his affection. But a positive refusal was an act of rebellion, and a declaration of war. The in|exorable jealousy of the emperor, the peremp|tory, and perhaps insidious, nature of his com|mands, left not any room for a fair apology, or candid interpretation; and the dependent station of the Caesar scarcely allowed him to pause or to deliberate. Solitude encreased the perplexity of Julian; he could no longer apply to the faithful counsels of Sallust, who had been removed from his office by the judicious malice of the eunuchs: he could not even enforce his representations by the concurrence of the mi|nisters, who would have been afraid, or ashamed,

to approve the ruin of Gaul. The moment had been chosen, when Lupicinus, 5 1.8 the general of the cavalry, was dispatched into Britain, to re|pulse the inroads of the Scots and Picts; and Florentius was occupied at Vienna by the assess|ment of the tribute. The latter, a crafty and corrupt statesman, declining to assume a respon|sible part on this dangerous occasion, eluded the pressing and repeated invitations of Julian, who represented to him, that in every important mea|sure, the presence of the praefect was indispen|sable in the council of the prince. In the mean while the Caesar was oppressed by the rude and importunate solicitations of the Imperial messen|gers, who presumed to suggest, that if he ex|pected the return of his ministers, he would charge himself with the guilt of the delay, and reserve for them the merit of the execution. Unable to resist, unwilling to comply, Julian expressed, in the most serious terms, his wish, and even his intention, of resigning the purple, which he could not preserve with honour, but which he could not abdicate with safety.

After a painful conflict, Julian was compelled * 1.9 to acknowledge, that obedience was the virtue of the most eminent subject, and that the sove|reign

alone was entitled to judge of the public welfare. He issued the necessary orders for car|rying into execution the commands of Constan|tius; a part of the troops began their march for the Alps; and the detachments from the several garrisons moved towards their respective places of assembly. They advanced with difficulty through the trembling and affrighted crowds of provincials; who attempted to excite their pity by silent despair, or loud lamentations; while the wives of the soldiers, holding their infants in their arms, accused the desertion of their hus|bands in the mixed language of grief, of ten|derness, and of indignation. This scene of ge|neral distress afflicted the humanity of the Caesar; he granted a sufficient number of post-waggons to transport the wives and families of the sol|diers 6 1.10, endeavoured to alleviate the hardships which he was constrained to inflict, and en|creased, by the most laudable arts, his own po|pularity, and the discontent of the exiled troops. The grief of an armed multitude is soon con|verted into rage; their licentious murmurs, which every hour were communicated from tent to tent with more boldness and effect, prepared their minds for the most daring acts of sedition; and by the connivance of their tribunes, a sea|sonable libel was secretly dispersed, which paint|ed,

in lively colours, the disgrace of the Caesar, the oppression of the Gallic army, and the feeble vices of the tyrant of Asia. The servants of Constantius were astonished and alarmed by the progress of this dangerous spirit. They pressed the Caesar to hasten the departure of the troops; but they imprudently rejected the honest and judicious advice of Julian; who proposed that they should not march through Paris, and sug|gested the danger and temptation of a last in|terview.

As soon as the approach of the troops was * 1.11 announced, the Caesar went out to meet them, and ascended his tribunal, which had been erected in a plain before the gates of the city. After distinguishing the officers and soldiers, who by their rank or merit deserved a peculiar attention, Julian addressed himself in a studied oration to the surrounding multitude: he cele|brated their exploits with grateful applause; en|couraged them to accept, with alacrity, the honour of serving under the eyes of a powerful and liberal monarch; and admonished them, that the commands of Augustus required an in|stant and cheerful obedience. The soldiers, who were apprehensive of offending their general by an indecent clamour, or of belying their senti|ments by false and venal acclamations, main|tained an obstinate silence; and, after a short pause, were dismissed to their quarters. The principal officers were entertained by the Caesar, who professed, in the warmest language of friend|ship,

his desire and his inability to reward, ac|cording to their deserts, the brave companions of his victories. They retired from the feast, full of grief and perplexity; and lamented the hardship of their fate, which tore them from their beloved general and their native country. The only expedient which could prevent their separation was boldly agitated and approved; the popular resentment was insensibly moulded into a regular conspiracy; their just reasons of complaint were heightened by passion, and their passions were inflamed by wine; as on the eve of their departure, the troops were indulged in licentious festivity. At the hour of midnight, the impetuous multitude, with swords, and bowls, and torches, in their hands, rushed into the suburbs; encompassed the palace 7 1.12; and,

careless of future dangers, pronounced the fatal and irrevocable words, JULIAN AUGUSTUS! The prince, whose anxious suspence was interrupted by their disorderly acclamations, secured the doors against their intrusion; and, as long as it was in his power, secluded his person and dignity from the accidents of a nocturnal tumult. At the dawn of day, the soldiers, whose zeal was irritated by opposition, forcibly entered the pa|lace, seized, with respectful violence, the object of their choice, guarded Julian with drawn swords through the streets of Paris, placed him on the tribunal, and with repeated shouts sa|luted him as their emperor. Prudence, as well as loyalty, inculcated the propriety of resisting their treasonable designs; and of preparing for his oppressed virtue, the excuse of violence. Addressing himself by turns to the multitude and to individuals, he sometimes implored their mercy, and sometimes expressed his indignation; conjured them not to fully the fame of their im|mortal victories; and ventured to promise, that if they would immediately return to their alle|giance, he would undertake to obtain from the emperor, not only a free and gracious pardon, but even the revocation of the orders which had excited their resentment. But the soldiers, who were conscious of their guilt, chose rather to depend on the gratitude of Julian, than on the clemency of the emperor. Their zeal was in|sensibly turned into impatience, and their im|patience into rage. The inflexible Caesar sus|tained

till the third hour of the day, their prayers, their reproaches, and their menaces; nor did he yield, till he had been repeatedly assured, that if he wished to live, he must con|sent to reign. He was exalted on a shield in the presence, and amidst the unanimous acclama|tions, of the troops; a rich military collar, which was offered by chance, supplied the want of a diadem 8 1.13; the ceremony was concluded by the promise of a moderate donative 9 1.14; and the new emperor, overwhelmed with real or affected grief, retired into the most secret recesses of his apartment 10 1.15.

The grief of Julian could proceed only from his innocence; but his innocence must appear * 1.16 extremely doubtful 11 1.17 in the eyes of those who have learned to suspect the motives and the pro|fessions

of princes. His lively and active mind was susceptible of the various impressions of hope and fear, of gratitude and revenge, of duty and of ambition, of the love of fame and of the fear of reproach. But it is impossible for us to cal|culate the respective weight and operation of these sentiments; or to ascertain the principles of action, which might escape the observation, while they guided, or rather impelled, the steps of Julian himself. The discontent of the troops was produced by the malice of his enemies; their tumult was the natural effect of interest and of passion; and if Julian had tried to con|ceal a deep design under the appearances of chance, he must have employed the most con|summate artifice without necessity, and probably without success. He solemnly declares, in the presence of Jupiter, of the Sun, of Mars, of Minerva, and of all the other deities, that, till the close of the evening which preceded his ele|vation, he was utterly ignorant of the designs of the soldiers 12 1.18; and it may seem ungenerous to distrust the honour of a hero, and the truth of a philosopher. Yet the superstitious confidence that Constantius was the enemy, and that he himself was the favourite, of the gods, might prompt him to desire, to solicit, and even to hasten the auspicious moment of his reign, which was predestined to restore the ancient religion of

mankind. When Julian had received the intel|ligence of the conspiracy, he resigned himself to a short slumber; and afterwards related to his friends, that he had seen the Genius of the em|pire waiting with some impatience at his door, pressing for admittance, and reproaching his want of spirit and ambition 13 1.19. Astonished and perplexed, he addressed his prayers to the great Jupiter; who immediately signified, by a clear and manifest omen, that he should submit to the will of heaven and of the army. The conduct which disclaims the ordinary maxims of reason, excites our suspicion and eludes our enquiry. Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a noble mind, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles of virtue and veracity.

To moderate the zeal of his party, to protect * 1.20 the persons of his enemies 14 1.21, to defeat and to despise the secret enterprises which were formed against his life and dignity, were the cares which employed the first days of the reign of the new Emperor. Although he was firmly resolved to maintain the

station which he had assumed, he was still de|sirous of saving his country from the calamities of civil war, of declining a contest with the su|perior forces of Constantius, and of preserving his own character from the reproach of perfidy and ingratitude. Adorned with the ensigns of military and Imperial pomp, Julian shewed him|self in the field of Mars to the soldiers, who glowed with ardent enthusiasm in the cause of their pupil, their leader, and their friend. He recapitulated their victories, lamented their suf|ferings, applauded their resolution, animated their hopes, and checked their impetuosity; nor did he dismiss the assembly, till he had obtained a solemn promise from the troops, that if the emperor of the East would subscribe an equitable treaty, they would renounce any views of con|quest, and satisfy themselves with the tranquil possession of the Gallic provinces. On this foun|dation he composed, in his own name, and in that of the army, a specious and moderate epistle 15 1.22, which was delivered to Pentadius, his master of the offices, and to his chamberlain Eutherius; two ambassadors whom he appointed to receive the answer, and observe the disposi|tions of Constantius. This epistle is inscribed with the modest appellation of Caesar; but Ju|lian solicits in a peremptory, though respectful

manner, the confirmation of the title of Au|gustus. He acknowledges the irregularity of his own election, while he justifies, in some measure, the resentment and violence of the troops which had extorted his reluctant consent. He allows the supremacy of his brother Constantius; and engages to send him an annual present of Spanish horses, to recruit his army with a select number of Barbarian youths, and to accept from his choice a Praetorian praefect of approved discre|tion and fidelity. But he reserves for himself the nomination of his other civil and military officers, with the troops, the revenue, and the sovereignty of the provinces beyond the Alps. He admonishes the emperor to consult the dic|tates of justice; to distrust the arts of those venal flatterers, who subsist only by the discord of princes; and to embrace the offer of a fair and honourable treaty, equally advantageous to the republic, and to the house of Constantine. In this negociation Julian claimed no more than he already possessed. The delegated authority which he had long exercised over the provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was still obeyed under a name more independent and august. The sol|diers and the people rejoiced in a revolution which was not stained even with the blood of the guilty. Florentius was a fugitive; Lupici|nus a prisoner. The persons who were disaffected to the new government were disarmed and se|cured; and the vacant offices were distributed, according to the recommendation of merit, by a

prince, who despised the intrigues of the palace, and the clamours of the soldiers 16 1.23.

The negociations of peace were accompanied * 1.24 and supported by the most vigorous preparations for war. The army, which Julian held in rea|diness for immediate action, was recruited and augmented by the disorders of the times. The cruel persecution of the faction of Magnentius had filled Gaul with numerous bands of outlaws and robbers. They cheerfully accepted the offer of a general pardon from a prince whom they could trust, submitted to the restraints of mili|tary discipline, and retained only their impla|cable hatred to the person and government of Constantius 17 1.25. As soon as the season of the year permitted Julian to take the field, he ap|peared at the head of his legions; threw a bridge over the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Cleves; and prepared to chastise the perfidy of the At|tuarii, a tribe of Franks, who presumed that they might ravage, with impunity, the frontiers of a divided empire. The difficulty, as well as glory, of this enterprize, consisted in a laborious march; and Julian had conquered, as soon as he could penetrate into a country, which former

princes had considered as inaccessible. After he had given peace to the Barbarians, the emperor carefully visited the fortifications along the Rhine from Cleves to Basil; surveyed, with peculiar attention, the territories which he had recovered from the hands of the Alemanni, passed through Besançon 18 1.26, which had severely suffered from their fury, and fixed his head-quarters at Vienna for the ensuing winter. The barrier of Gaul was improved and strengthened with additional fortifications; and Julian entertained some hopes, that the Germans, whom he had so often van|quished, might, in his absence, be restrained, by the terror of his name. Vadomair 19 1.27 was the only prince of the Alemanni, whom he esteemed or feared; and while the subtle Barbarian affected to observe the faith of treaties, the progress of his arms threatened the state with an unseason|able and dangerous war. The policy of Julian condescended to surprise the prince of the Ale|manni by his own arts; and Vadomair, who, in the character of a friend, had incautiously ac|cepted an invitation from the Roman governors, was seized in the midst of the entertainment, and sent away prisoner into the heart of Spain.

Before the Barbarians were recovered from their amazement, the emperor appeared in arms on the banks of the Rhine, and, once more crossing the river, renewed the deep impressions of terror and respect which had been already made by four preceding expeditions 20 1.28.

The ambassadors of Julian had been instructed * 1.29 to execute, with the utmost diligence, their im|portant commission. But, in their passage through Italy and Illyricum, they were detained by the tedious and affected delays of the provincial go|vernors; they were conducted by slow journies from Constantinople to Caesarea in Cappadocia; and when at length they were admitted to the presence of Constantius, they found that he had already conceived, from the dispatches of his own officers, the most unfavourable opinion of the conduct of Julian, and of the Gallic army. The letters were heard with impatience; the trembling messengers were dismissed with indig|nation and contempt; and the looks, the ges|tures, the furious language of the monarch, ex|pressed the disorder of his soul. The domestic connection, which might have reconciled the brother and the husband of Helena, was recently dissolved by the death of that princess, whose pregnancy had been several times fruitless, and was at last fatal to herself 21 1.30. The empress Eu|sebia

had preserved to the last moment of her life the warm, and even jealous, affection which she had conceived for Julian; and her mild in|fluence might have moderated the resentment of a prince, who, since her death, was abandoned to his own passions, and to the arts of his eu|nuchs. But the terror of a foreign invasion obliged him to suspend the punishment of a pri|vate enemy; he continued his march towards the confines of Persia, and thought it sufficient to signify the conditions which might entitle Julian and his guilty followers to the clemency of their offended sovereign. He required, that the pre|sumptuous Caesar should expressly renounce the appellation and rank of Augustus, which he had accepted from the rebels; that he should descend to his former station of a limited and dependent minister; that he should vest the powers of the state and army in the hands of those officers who were appointed by the Imperial court; and that he should trust his safety to the assurances of pardon, which were announced by Epictetus, a Gallic bishop, and one of the Arian favourites of Constantius. Several months were ineffec|tually consumed in a treaty which was negociated at the distance of three thousand miles between

Paris and Antioch; and, as soon as Julian per|ceived that his moderate and respectful behaviour served only to irritate the pride of an implacable adversary, he boldly resolved to commit his life and fortune to the chance of a civil war. He gave a public and military audience to the quaestor Leonas: the haughty epistle of Constan|tius was read to the attentive multitude; and Julian protested, with the most flattering defe|rence, that he was ready to resign the title of Augustus, if he could obtain the consent of those whom he acknowledged as the authors of his elevation. The saint proposal was impetuously silenced; and the acclamations of

Julian Au|gustus, continue to reign, by the authority of the army, of the people, of the republic, which you have saved,

thundred at once from every part of the field, and terrified the pale ambassador of Constantius. A part of the letter was afterwards read, in which the emperor arraigned the ingratitude of Julian, whom he had invested with the honours of the purple; whom he had educated with so much care and tenderness; whom he had preserved in his in|fancy, when he was left a helpless orphan;

an orphan!

interrupted Julian, who justified his cause by indulging his passions:

Does the as|sassin of my family reproach me that I was left an orphan? He urges me to revenge those injuries, which I have long studied to forget.

The assembly was dismissed; and Leonas, who, with some difficulty, had been

protected from the popular fury, was sent back to his master, with an epistle, in which Julian expressed, in a strain of the most vehement elo|quence, the sentiments of contempt, of hatred, and of resentment, which had been suppressed and embittered by the dissimulation of twenty years. After this message, which might be con|sidered as a signal of irreconcilable war, Julian, who, some weeks before, had celebrated the Christian festival of the Epiphany, 22 1.31 made a public declaration that he committed the care of his safety to the IMMORTAL GODS; and thus pub|licly renounced the religion, as well as the friend|ship, of Constantius. 23 1.32

The situation of Julian required a vigorous * 1.33 and immediate resolution. He had discovered, from intercepted letters, that his adversary, sa|crificing the interest of the state to that of the

monarch, had again excited the Barbarians to invade the provinces of the West. The position of two magazines, one of them collected on the banks of the lake of Constance, the other formed at the foot of the Cottian Alps, seemed to indi|cate the march of two armies; and the size of those magazines, each of which consisted of six hundred thousand quarters of wheat, or rather flour, 24 1.34 was a threatening evidence of the strength and numbers of the enemy, who prepared to surround him. But the Imperial legions were still in their distant quarters of Asia; the Da|nube was feebly guarded; and if Julian could occupy, by a sudden incursion, the important provinces of Illyricum, he might expect that a people of soldiers would resort to his standard, and that the rich mines of gold and silver would contribute to the expences of the civil war. He proposed this bold enterprise to the assembly of the soldiers; inspired them with a just confidence in their general, and in themselves; and exhort|ed them to maintain their reputation, of being terrible to the enemy, moderate to their fellow|citizens, and obedient to their officers. His spirited discourse was received with the loudest acclamations, and the same troops which had taken up arms against Constantius, when he sum|moned them to leave Gaul, now declared with

alacrity, that they would follow Julian to the farthest extremities of Europe or Asia. The oath of fidelity was administered; and the soldiers, clashing their shields, and pointing their drawn swords to their throats, devoted themselves, with horrid imprecations, to the service of a leader whom they celebrated as the deliverer of Gaul, and the conqueror of the Germans 25 1.35. This solemn engagement, which seemed to be dictated by affection, rather than by duty, was singly opposed by Nebridius, who had been admitted to the office of Praetorian praefect. That faith|ful minister, alone and unassisted, asserted the rights of Constantius in the midst of an armed and angry multitude, to whose fury he had almost fallen an honourable, but useless, sacrifice. After losing one of his hands by the stroke of a sword, he embraced the knees of the prince whom he had offended. Julian covered the praefect with his Imperial mantle, and protecting him from the zeal of his followers, dismissed him to his own house, with less respect than was perhaps due to the virtue of an enemy 26 1.36. The high office of Nebridius was bestowed on Sallust; and the provinces of Gaul, which were now delivered from the intolerable oppression of taxes, enjoyed the mild and equitable administration of the friend of Julian, who was permitted to practise those

virtues which he had instilled into the mind of his pupil 27 1.37.

The hopes of Julian depended much less on * 1.38 the number of his troops, than on the celerity of his motions. In the execution of a daring en|terprise, he availed himself of every precaution, as far as prudence could suggest; and where prudence could no longer accompany his steps, he trusted the event to valour and to fortune. In the neighbourhood of Basil he assembled and divided his army 28 1.39. One body, which consisted of ten thousand men, was directed, under the command of Nevitta, general of the cavalry, to advance through the midland parts of Rhaetia and Noricum. A similar division of troops, under the orders of Jovius and Jovinus, prepared to follow the oblique course of the highways, through the Alps and the northern confines of Italy. The instructions to the generals were conceived with energy and precision: to hasten their march in close and compact columns, which, according to the disposition of the ground, might readily be changed into any order of battle; to secure themselves against the surprises of the night by strong posts and vigilant guards; to prevent resistance by their unexpected arrival; to elude

examination by their sudden departure; to spread the opinion of their strength, and the terror of his name; and to join their sovereign under the walls of Sirmium. For himself, Julian had reserved a more difficult and extraordinary part. He selected three thousand brave and active volunteers, resolved, like their leader, to cast behind them every hope of a retreat: at the head of this faithful band, he fearlessly plunged into the recesses of the Marcian, or black forest, which conceals the sources of the Danube 29 1.40; and, for many days, the fate of Julian was unknown to the world. The secrecy of his march, his dili|gence, and vigour, surmounted every obstacle; he forced his way over mountains and morasses, occupied the bridges or swam the rivers, pur|sued his direct course 30 1.41, without reflecting whe|ther he traversed the territory of the Romans or of the Barbarians, and at length emerged, be|tween Ratisbon and Vienna, at the place where he designed to embark his troops on the Danube. By a well-concerted stratagem, he seized a fleet

of light brigantines 31 1.42, as it lay at anchor; secured a supply of coarse provisions sufficient to satisfy the indelicate, but voracious, appetite of a Gal|lic army; and boldly committed himself to the stream of the Danube. The labours of his ma|riners, who plied their oars with incessant dili|gence, and the steady continuance of a favourable wind, carried his fleet above seven hundred miles in eleven days 32 1.43; and he had already disembarked his troops at Bononia, only nineteen miles from Sirmium, before his enemies could receive any certain intelligence that he had left the banks of the Rhine. In the course of this long and rapid navigation, the mind of Julian was fixed on the object of his enterprise; and though he accepted the deputation of some cities, which hastened to claim the merit of an early submission, he passed before the hostile stations, which were placed along the river, without indulging the temptation of signalizing an useless and ill-timed valour. The banks of the Danube were crowded on either side with spectators, who gazed on the military pomp, anticipated the importance of the event, and diffused through the adjacent country the same of a young hero, who advanced with more

than mortal speed at the head of the innumerable forces of the West. Lucilian, who, with the rank of general of the cavalry, commanded the military powers of Illyricum, was alarmed and perplexed by the doubtful reports, which he could neither reject nor believe. He had taken some slow and irresolute measures for the purpose of collecting his troops; when he was surprised by Dagalaiphus, an active officer, whom Julian, as soon as he landed at Bononia, had pushed forwards with some light infantry. The captive general, uncertain of his life or death, was hastily thrown upon a horse, and conducted to the pre|sence of Julian; who kindly raised him from the ground, and dispelled the terror and amazement which seemed to stupify his faculties. But Lu|cilian had no sooner recovered his spirits, than he betrayed his want of discretion, by presuming to admonish his conqueror, that he had rashly ventured, with a handful of men, to expose his person in the midst of his enemies.

Reserve for your master Constantius these timid remon|strances, replied Julian, with a smile of con|tempt; when I gave you my purple to kiss, I received you not as a counsellor, but as a suppliant.

Conscious that success alone could justify his attempt, and that boldness only could command success, he instantly advanced, at the head of three thousand soldiers, to attack the strongest and most populous city of the Illyrian provinces. As he entered the long suburb of Sirmium, he was received by the joyful accla|mations of the army and people; who, crowned

with flowers, and holding lighted tapers in their hands, conducted their acknowledged sovereign to his Imperial residence. Two days were de|voted to the public joy, which was celebrated by the games of the Circus; but, early on the morning of the third day, Julian marched to occupy the narrow pass of Succi, in the defiles of Mount Haemus; which, almost in the mid-way between Sirmium and Constantinople, separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia, by an abrupt descent towards the former, and a gentle decli|vity on the side of the latter 33 1.44. The defence of this important post was entrusted to the brave Nevitta; who, as well as the generals of the Italian division, successfully executed the plan of the march and junction which their master had so ably conceived 34 1.45.

The homage which Julian obtained, from the * 1.46 fears or the inclination of the people, extended far beyond the immediate effect of his arms 35 1.47. The praefectures of Italy and Illyricum were ad|ministered by Taurus and Florentius, who united that important office with the vain honours of the consulship; and as those magistrates had retired

with precipitation to the court of Asia, Julian, who could not always restrain the levity of his temper, stigmatized their flight by adding, in all the Acts of the Year, the epithet of fugitive to the names of the two consuls. The provinces which had been deserted by their first magistrates acknowledged the authority of an emperor, who, conciliating the qualities of a soldier with those of a philosopher, was equally admired in the camps of the Danube, and in the cities of Greece. From his palace, or, more properly, from his head-quarters of Sirmium and Naissus, he distri|buted to the principal cities of the empire, a laboured apology for his own conduct; published the secret dispatches of Constantius; and solicited the judgment of mankind between two compe|titors, the one of whom had expelled, and the other had invited, the Barbarians 36 1.48. Julian, whose mind was deeply wounded by the reproach of ingratitude, aspired to maintain, by argument as well as by arms, the superior merits of his cause; and to excel, not only in the arts of war, but in those of composition. His epistle to the senate and people of Athens 37 1.49 seems to have been

dictated by an elegant enthusiasm; which prompted him to submit his actions and his motives to the degenerate Athenians of his own times, with the same humble deference, as if he had been plead|ing, in the days of Aristides, before the tribunal of the Areopagus. His application to the senate of Rome, which was still permitted to bestow the titles of Imperial power, was agreeable to the forms of the expiring republic. An assembly was summoned by Tertullus, praefect of the city; the epistle of Julian was read; and as he appeared to be master of Italy, his claims were admitted without a dissenting voice. His oblique censure of the innovations of Constantine, and his pas|sionate invective against the vices of Constantius, were heard with less satisfaction; and the senate, as if Julian had been present, unanimously ex|claimed,

Respect, we beseech you, the author of your own fortune 38 1.50.

An artful expression, which, according to the chance of war, might be differently explained; as a manly reproof of the ingratitude of the usurper, or as a flattering confession, that a single act of such benefit to the state ought to atone for all the failings of Con|stantiüs.

The intelligence of the march and rapid pro|gress of Julian was speedily transmitted to his rival, who, by the retreat of Sapor, had obtained * 1.51 some respite from the Persian war. Disguising the anguish of his soul under the semblance of contempt, Constantius professed his intention of returning into Europe, and of giving chace to Julian; for he never spoke of this military expe|dition in any other light than that of a hunting party 39 1.52. In the camp of Hierapolis, in Syria, he communicated this design to his army; slightly mentioned the guilt and rashness of the Caesar; and ventured to assure them, that if the muti|neers of Gaul presumed to meet them in the field, they would be unable to sustain the fire of their eyes, and the irresistible weight of their shout of onset. The speech of the emperor was received with military applause, and Theodotus, the president of the council of Hierapolis, re|quested, with tears of adulation, that his city might be adorned with the head of the vanquished rebel 40 1.53. A chosen detachment was dispatched away in post-waggons, to secure, if it were yet possible, the pass of Succi; the recruits, the horses, the arms, and the magazines which had been prepared against Sapor, were appropriated to the service of the civil war; and the domestic

victories of Constantius inspired his partisans with the most sanguine assurances of success. The notary Gaudentius had occupied in his name the provinces of Africa; the subsistence of Rome was intercepted; and the distress of Julian was increased, by an unexpected event, which might have been productive of fatal consequences. Julian had received the submission of two legions and a cohort of archers, who were stationed at Sirmium; but he suspected, with reason, the fide|lity of those troops, which had been distin|guished by the emperor; and it was thought expedient, under the pretence of the exposed state of the Gallic frontier, to dismiss them from the most important scene of action. They ad|vanced, with reluctance, as far as the confines of Italy; but as they dreaded the length of the way, and the savage fierceness of the Germans, they resolved, by the instigation of one of their tribunes, to halt at Aquileia, and to erect the banners of Constantius on the walls of that im|pregnable city. The vigilance of Julian per|ceived at once the extent of the mischief, and the necessity of applying an immediate remedy. By his order, Jovinus led back a part of the army into Italy; and the siege of Aquileia was formed with diligence, and prosecuted with vigour. But the legionaries, who seemed to have rejected the yoke of discipline, conducted the defence of the place with skill and perseverance; invited the rest of Italy to imitate the example of their cou|rage and loyalty; and threatened the retreat of

Julian, if he should be forced to yield to the superior numbers of the armies of the East 41 1.54.

But the humanity of Julian was preserved from the cruel alternative, which he pathetically la|ments, * 1.55 of destroying, or of being himself destroy|ed: and the seasonable death of Constantius delivered the Roman empire from the calamities of civil war. The approach of winter could not detain the monarch at Antioch; and his favou|rites durst not oppose his impatient desire of revenge. A slight fever, which was perhaps occasioned by the agitation of his spirits, was encreased by the fatigues of the journey; and Constantius was obliged to halt at the little town of Mopsucrene, twelve miles beyond Tarsus, where he expired, after a short illness, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign 42 1.56. His genuine character, which was composed of pride and weakness, of super|stition and cruelty, has been fully displayed in

the preceding narrative of civil and ecclesiastical events. The long abuse of power rendered him a considerable object in the eyes of his con|temporaries; but as personal merit can alone deserve the notice of posterity, the last of the sons of Constantine may be dismissed from the world with the remark, that he inherited the defects, without the abilities, of his father. Be|fore Constantius expired, he is said to have named Julian for his successor; nor does it seem impro|bable, that his anxious concern for the fate of a young and tender wife, whom he left with child, may have prevailed, in his last moments, over the harsher passions of hatred and revenge. Eusebius, and his guilty associates, made a faint attempt to prolong the reign of the eunuchs, by the election of another emperor: but their intrigues were rejected with disdain by an army which now abhorred the thought of civil dis|cord; and two officers of rank were instantly dispatched, to assure Julian, that every sword in the empire would be drawn for his service. The military designs of that prince, who had formed three different attacks against Thrace, were pre|vented by this fortunate event. Without shed|ding the blood of his fellow-citizens, he escaped the dangers of a doubtful conflict, and acquired the advantages of a complete victory. Impatient to visit the place of his birth, and the new capital of the empire, he advanced from Naissus through the mountains of Haemus, and the cities of Thrace. When he reached Heraclea, at the

distance of sixty miles, all Constantinople was poured forth to receive him; and he made his triumphal entry, amidst the dutiful acclamations * 1.57 of the soldiers, the people, and the senate. An innumerable multitude pressed around him with eager respect; and were perhaps disappointed when they beheld the small stature, and simple garb, of a hero, whose unexperienced youth had vanquished the Barbarians of Germany, and who had now traversed, in a successful career, the whole continent of Europe, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Bosphorus. 43 1.58 A few days afterwards, when the remains of the deceased emperor were landed in the harbour, the subjects of Julian applauded the real or affected humanity of their sovereign. On foot, without his diadem, and clothed in a mourning habit, he accompanied the funeral as far as the church of the Holy Apostles, where the body was deposited: and if these marks of respect may be interpreted as a selfish tribute to the birth and dignity of his Im|perial kinsman, the tears of Julian professed to the world, that he had forgot the injuries, and remembered only the obligations, which he had received from Constantius. 44 1.59 As soon as the

legions of Aquileia were assured of the death of the emperor, they opened the gates of the city, and, by the sacrifice of their guilty leaders, ob|tained an easy pardon from the prudence or lenity of Julian; who, in the thirty-second year of his * 1.60 age, acquired the undisputed possession of the Roman empire. 45 1.61

Philosophy had instructed Julian to compare * 1.62 the advantages of action and retirement; but the elevation of his birth, and the accidents of his life, never allowed him the freedom of choice. He might perhaps sincerely have preferred the groves of the academy, and the society of Athens; but he was constrained, at first by the will, and afterwards by the injustice, of Constantius, to expose his person and fame to the dangers of Imperial greatness; and to make himself account|able to the world, and to posterity, for the hap|piness of millions. 46 1.63 Julian recollected with terror the observation of his master Plato, 47 1.64 that the government of our flocks and herds is always

committed to beings of a superior species; and that the conduct of nations requires and deserves the celestial powers of the Gods or of the Genii. From this principle he justly concluded, that the man who presumes to reign, should aspire to the perfection of the divine nature; that he should purify his soul from her mortal and terrestrial part; that he should extinguish his appetites, en|lighten his understanding, regulate his passions, and subdue the wild beast, which, according to the lively metaphor of Aristotle, 48 1.65 seldom fails to ascend the throne of a despot. The throne of Julian, which the death of Constantius fixed on an independent basis, was the seat of reason, of virtue, and perhaps of vanity. He despised the honours, renounced the pleasures, and dis|charged with incessant diligence the duties, of his exalted station; and there were few among his subjects who would have consented to relieve him from the weight of the diadem, had they been obliged to submit their time and their ac|tions to the rigorous laws which their philosophic emperor imposed on himself. One of his most intimate friends, 49 1.66 who had often shared the frugal simplicity of his table, has remarked, that his light and sparing diet (which was usually of

the vegetable kind) left his mind and body always free and active, for the various and important business of an author, a pontiff, a magistrate, a general, and a prince. In one and the same day, he gave audience to several ambassadors, and wrote, or dictated, a great number of letters to his generals, his civil magistrates, his private friends, and the different cities of his dominions. He listened to the memorials which had been received, considered the subject of the petitions, and signified his intentions more rapidly than they could be taken in short-hand by the dili|gence of his secretaries. He possessed such flex|ibility of thought, and such firmness of attention, that he could employ his hand to write, his ear to listen, and his voice to dictate; and pursue at once three several trains of ideas, without hesi|tation, and without error. While his ministers reposed, the prince flew with agility from one labour to another, and, after a hasty dinner, retired into his library, till the public business, which he had appointed for the evening, sum|moned him to interrupt the prosecution of his studies. The supper of the emperor was still less substantial than the former meal; his sleep was never clouded by the fumes of indigestion; and, except in the short interval of a marriage, which was the effect of policy rather than love, the chaste Julian never shared his bed with a female companion. 50 1.67 He was soon awakened by the

entrance of fresh secretaries, who had slept the preceding day; and his servants were obliged to wait alternately, while their indefatigable master allowed himself scarcely any other refreshment than the change of occupations. The predecessors of Julian, his uncle, his brother, and his cousin, indulged their puerile taste for the games of the circus, under the specious pretence of complying with the inclinations of the people; and they frequently remained the greatest part of the day, as idle spectators, and as a part of the splendid spectacle, till the ordinary round of twenty-four races 51 1.68 was completely finished. On solemn festivals, Julian, who felt and professed an un|fashionable dislike to these frivolous amusements, condescended to appear in the circus; and after bestowing a careless glance on five or six of the races, he hastily withdrew, with the impatience of a philosopher, who considered every moment

as lost, that was not devoted to the advantage of the public, or the improvement of his own mind 52 1.69. By this avarice of time, he seemed to protract the short duration of his reign; and if the dates were less securely ascertained, we should refuse to believe, that only sixteen months elapsed between the death of Constantius and the de|parture * 1.70 of his successor for the Persian war. The actions of Julian can only be preserved by the care of the historian; but the portion of his vo|luminous writings, which is still extant, remains as a monument of the application, as well as of the genius, of the emperor. The Misopogon, the Caesars, several of his orations, and his ela|borate work against the Christian religion, were composed in the long nights of the two winters, the former of which he passed at Constantinople, and the latter at Antioch.

The reformation of the Imperial court was * 1.71 one of the first and most necessary acts of the government of Julian 53 1.72. Soon after his entrance into the palace of Constantinople, he had oc|casion for the service of a barber. An officer, magnificently dressed, immediately presented him|self.

It is a barber, exclaimed the prince,

with affected surprise, that I want, and not a receiver-general of the finances 54 1.73.

He ques|tioned the man concerning the profits of his employment; and was informed, that besides a large salary, and some valuable perquisites, he enjoyed a daily allowance for twenty servants, and as many horses. A thousand barbers, a thousand cup-bearers, a thousand cooks, were distributed in the several offices of luxury; and the number of eunuchs could be compared only with the insects of a summer's day 55 1.74. The mo|narch who resigned to his subjects the superiority of merit and virtue, was distinguished by the oppressive magnificence of his dress, his table, his buildings, and his train. The stately palaces erected by Constantine and his sons, were deco|rated with many coloured marbles, and orna|ments of massy gold. The most exquisite dain|ties were procured, to gratify their pride, rather than their taste; birds of the most distant cli|mates, fish from the most remote seas, fruits out of their natural season, winter roses, and summer snows 56 1.75. The domestic crowd of the palace

surpassed the expence of the legions; yet the smallest part of this costly multitude was subser|vient to the use, or even to the splendor, of the throne. The monarch was disgraced, and the people was injured, by the creation and sale of an infinite number of obscure, and even titular employments; and the most worthless of man|kind might purchase the privilege of being maintained, without the necessity of labour, from the public revenue. The waste of an enormous household, the encrease of fees and perquisites, which were soon claimed as a lawful debt, and the bribes which they extorted from those who feared their enmity, or solicited their favour, suddenly enriched these haughty menials. They abused their fortune, without considering their past, or their future, condition; and their rapine and venality could be equalled only by the ex|travagance of their dissipations. Their silken robes were embroidered with gold, their tables were served with delicacy and profusion; the houses which they built for their own use, would have covered the farm of an ancient consul; and the most honourable citizens were obliged to dismount from their horses, and respectfully to salute an eunuch whom they met on the public highway. The luxury of the palace excited the contempt and indignation of Julian, who usually slept on the ground, who yielded with reluctance

to the indispensable calls of nature; and who placed his vanity, not in emulating, but in de|spising, the pomp of royalty. By the total ex|tirpation of a mischief which was magnified even beyond its real extent, he was impatient to re|lieve the distress, and to appease the murmurs, of the people; who support with less uneasiness the weight of taxes, if they are convinced that the fruits of their industry are appropriated to the service of the state. But in the execution of this salutary work, Julian is accused of proceed|ing with too much haste and inconsiderate seve|rity. By a single edict, he reduced the palace of Constantinople to an immense desert, and dis|missed with ignominy the whole train of slaves and dependents 57 1.76, without providing any just, or at least benevolent, exceptions, for the age, the services, or the poverty, of the faithful do|mestics of the Imperial family. Such indeed was the temper of Julian, who seldom recollected the fundamental maxim of Aristotle, that true virtue is placed at an equal distance between the opposite vices. The splendid and effeminate dress of the Asiatics, the curls and paint, the collars and bracelets, which had appeared so ri|diculous in the person of Constantine, were con|sistently rejected by his philosophic successor.

But with the sopperies, Julian affected to re|nounce the decencies, of dress; and seemed to value himself for his neglect of the laws of clean|liness. In a satirical performance, which was designed for the public eye, the emperor descants with pleasure, and even with pride, on the length of his nails, and the inky blackness of his hands; protests, that although the greatest part of his body was covered with hair, the use of the razor was confined to his head alone; and celebrates, with visible complacency, the shaggy and popu|lous 58 1.77 beard, which he fondly cherished, after the example of the philosophers of Greece. Had Julian consulted the simple dictates of reason, the first magistrate of the Romans would have scorned the affectation of Diogenes, as well as that of Darius.

But the work of public reformation would * 1.78 have remained imperfect, if Julian had only cor|rected the abuses, without punishing the crimes, of his predecessor's reign.

We are now de|livered, says he, in a familiar letter to one of his intimate friends, we are now surprisingly delivered from the voracious jaws of the Hy|dra 59 1.79.

I do not mean to apply that epithet to my brother Constantius. He is no more; may the earth lie light on his head! But his artful and cruel favourites studied to deceive and exasperate a prince, whose natural mild|ness cannot be praised without some efforts of adulation. It is not, however, my intention, that even those men should be oppressed: they are accused, and they shall enjoy the benefit of a fair and impartial trial.

To conduct this enquiry, Julian named six judges of the highest rank in the state and army; and as he wished to escape the reproach of condemning his personal enemies, he fixed this extraordinary tribunal at Chalcedon, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; and transferred to the commissioners an absolute power to pronounce and execute their final sentence, without delay, and without appeal. The office of president was exercised by the venerable praefect of the East, a second Sallust 60 1.80, whose virtues conciliated the esteem of Greek sophists, and of Christian bishops. He

was assisted by the eloquent Mamertinus 61 1.81, one of the consuls elect, whose merit is loudly cele|brated by the doubtful evidence of his own ap|plause. But the civil wisdom of two magis|trates was overbalanced by the ferocious violence of four generals, Nevitta, Agilo, Jovinus, and Arbetio. Arbetio, whom the public would have seen with less surprise at the bar than on the bench, was supposed to possess the secret of the commission; the armed and angry leaders of the Jovian and Herculian bands encompassed the tribunal; and the judges were alternately swayed by the laws of justice, and by the clamours of faction 62 1.82.

The chamberlain Eusebius, who had so long * 1.83 abused the favour of Constantius, expiated, by an ignominious death, the insolence, the corrup|tion, and cruelty of his servile reign. The exe|cutions of Paul and Apodemius (the former of whom was burnt alive) were accepted as an in|adequate atonement by the widows and orphans of so many hundred Romans, whom those legal tyrants had betrayed and murdered. But Justice herself (if we may use the pathetic expression of Ammianus 63 1.84) appeared to weep over the fate

of Ursulus, the treasurer of the empire; and his blood accused the ingratitude of Julian, whose distress had been seasonably relieved by the in|trepid liberality of that honest minister. The rage of the soldiers, whom he had provoked by his indiscretion, was the cause and the excuse of his death; and the emperor, deeply wounded by his own reproaches and those of the public, of|fered some consolation to the family of Ursulus, by the restitution of his consiscated fortunes. Before the end of the year in which they had been adorned with the ensigns of the prefecture and consulship 64 1.85, Taurus and Florentius were reduced to implore the clemency of the inex|orable tribunal of Chalcedon. The former was banished to Vercellae in Italy, and a sentence of death was pronounced against the latter. A wise prince should have rewarded the crime of Tau|rus: the faithful minister, when he was no longer able to oppose the progress of a rebel, had taken refuge in the court of his benefactor and his lawful sovereign. But the guilt of Flo|rentius justified the severity of the judges; and his escape served to display the magnanimity of Julian; who nobly checked the interested dili|gence of an informer, and refused to learn what place concealed the wretched fugitive from his

just resentment 65 1.86. Some months after the tri|bunal of Chalcedon had been dissolved, the prae|torian vicegerent of Africa, the notary Gauden|tius, and Artemius 66 1.87 duke of Egypt, were exe|cuted at Antioch. Artemius had reigned the cruel and corrupt tyrant of a great province; Gaudentius had long practised the arts of ca|lumny against the innocent, the virtuous, and even the person of Julian himself. Yet the circumstances of their trial and condemnation were so unskilfully managed, that these wicked men obtained, in the public opinion, the glory of suffering for the obstinate loyalty with which they had supported the cause of Constantius. The rest of his servants were protected by a ge|neral act of oblivion; and they were left to enjoy with impunity the bribes which they had ac|cepted, either to defend the oppressed, or to oppress the friendless. This measure, which, on the soundest principles of policy, may deserve our approbation, was executed in a manner which seemed to degrade the majesty of the throne. Julian was tormented by the importunities of a multitude, particularly of Egyptians, who loudly redemanded the gifts which they had imprudently

or illegally bestowed; he foresaw the endless prosecution of vexatious suits; and he engaged a promise, which ought always to have been sacred, that if they would repair to Chalcedon, he would meet them in person, to hear and determine their complaints. But as soon as they were landed, he issued an absolute order, which prohibited the watermen from transporting any Egyptian to Constantinople; and thus detained his disappointed clients on the Asiatic shore, till their patience and money being utterly exhausted, they were obliged to return with indignant mur|murs to their native country. 67 1.88.

The numerous army of spies, of agents, and * 1.89 informers, enlisted by Constantius to secure the repose of one man, and to interrupt that of mil|lions, was immediately disbanded by his gene|rous successor. Julian was slow in his suspicions, and gentle in his punishments; and his contempt of treason was the result of judgment, of vanity, and of courage. Conscious of superior merit, he was persuaded that few among his subjects would dare, to meet him in the field, to attempt his life, or even to seat themselves on his vacant throne. The philosopher could excuse the hasty sallies of discontent; and the hero could despise the ambitious projects, which surpassed the for|tune or the abilities of the rash conspirators. A citizen of Ancyra had prepared for his own use

a purple garment; and this indiscreet action, which, under the reign of Constantius, would have been considered as a capital offence 68 1.90, was reported to Julian by the officious importunity of a private enemy. The monarch, after mak|ing some inquiry into the rank and character of his rival, dispatched the informer with a present of a pair of purple slippers, to complete the magnificence of his Imperial habit. A more dangerous conspiracy was formed by ten of the domestic guards, who had resolved to assassinate Julian in the field of exercise near Antioch. Their intemperance revealed their guilt; and they were conducted in chains to the presence of their injured sovereign, who, after a lively re|presentation of the wickedness and folly of their enterprise, instead of a death of torture, which they deserved and expected, pronounced a sen|tence of exile against the two principal offenders. The only instance in which Julian seemed to de|part from his accustomed clemency, was the exe|cution of a rash youth, who with a feeble hand had aspired to seize the reins of empire. But that youth was the son of Marcellus, the general of cavalry, who, in the first campaign of the

Gallic war, had deserted the standard of the Cae|sar, and the republic. Without appearing to indulge his personal resentment, Julian might easily confound the crime of the son and of the father; but he was reconciled by the distress of Marcellus, and the liberality of the emperor en|deavoured to heal the wound which had been inflicted by the hand of justice 69 1.91.

Julian was not insensible of the advantages of * 1.92 freedom 70 1.93. From his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes: his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection, that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects, were not worthy to applaud his vir|tues 71 1.94. He sincerely abhorred the system of Oriental despotism, which Diocletian, Constan|tine, and the patient habits of fourscore years, had established in the empire. A motive of su|perstition prevented the execution of the design which Julian had frequently meditated, of re|lieving his head from the weight of a costly dia|dem 72 1.95:

but he absolutely refused the title of Dominus, or Lord 73 1.96, a word which was grown so familiar to the ears of the Romans, that they no longer remembered its servile and humiliating origin. The office, or rather the name, of con|sul, was cherished by a prince who contemplated with reverence the ruins of the republic; and the same behaviour which had been assumed by the prudence of Augustus, was adopted by Julian from choice and inclination. On the calends of * 1.97 January, at break of day, the new consuls, Ma|mertinus and Nevitta, hastened to the palace to salute the emperor. As soon as he was informed of their approach, he leaped from his throne, eagerly advanced to meet them, and compelled the blushing magistrates to receive the demon|strations of his affected humility. From the palace they proceeded to the senate. The empe|ror, on foot, marched before their litters; and the gazing multitude admired the image of an|cient times, or secretly blamed a conduct, which, in their eyes, degraded the majesty of the pur|ple 74 1.98.

But the behaviour of Julian was uni|formly supported. During the games of the Circus, he had, imprudently or designedly, per|formed the manumission of a slave in the pre|sence of the consul. The moment he was re|minded that he had trespassed on the jurisdiction of another magistrate, he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold; and embraced this public occasion of declaring to the world, that he was subject, like the rest of his fellow|citizens, to the laws 75 1.99, and even to the forms, of the republic. The spirit of his administra|tion, and his regard for the place of his nativity, induced Julian to confer on the senate of Con|stantinople, the same honours, privileges, and authority, which were still enjoyed by the senate of ancient Rome 76 1.100. A legal fiction was intro|duced, and gradually established, that one half of the national council had migrated into the East: and the despotic successors of Julian, ac|cepting the title of Senators, acknowledged them|selves the members of a respectable body, which

was permitted to represent the majesty of the Roman name. From Constantinople, the atten|tion of the monarch was extended to the muni|cipal senates of the provinces. He abolished, by repeated edicts, the unjust and pernicious ex|emptions, which had withdrawn so many idle citizens from the service of their country; and by imposing an equal distribution of public du|ties, he restored the strength, the splendour, or, according to the glowing expression of Liba|nius 77 1.101, the soul of the expiring cities of his empire. The venerable age of Greece excited * 1.102 the most tender compassion in the mind of Ju|lian; which kindled into rapture when he recol|lected the gods; the heroes; and the men, su|perior to heroes and to gods; who had bequeathed to the latest posterity the monuments of their genius, or the example of their virtues. He re|lieved the distress, and restored the beauty, of the cities of Epirus and Peloponnesus 78 1.103. Athens acknowledged him for her benefactor; Argos, for her deliverer. The pride of Corinth, again rising from her ruins with the honours of a Ro|man

colony, exacted a tribute from the adjacent republics, for the purpose of defraying the games of the Isthmus, which were celebrated in the amphitheatre with the hunting of bears and pan|thers. From this tribute the cities of Elis, of Delphi, and of Argos, which had inherited from their remote ancestors the sacred office of perpe|tuating the Olympic, the Pythian, and the Ne|mean games, claimed a just exemption. The immunity of Elis and Delphi was respected by the Corinthians; but the poverty of Argos tempted the insolence of oppression; and the feeble complaints of its deputies were silenced by the decree of a provincial magistrate, who seems to have consulted only the interest of the capital, in which he resided. Seven years after this sentence, Julian 79 1.104 allowed the cause to be referred to a superior tribunal; and his eloquence was interposed, most probably with success, in the defence of a city, which had been the royal seat of Agamemnon 80 1.105, and had given to Mace|donia a race of kings and conquerors 81 1.106.

The laborious administration of military and civil affairs, which were multiplied in proportion to the extent of the empire, exercised the abi|lities * 1.107 of Julian; but he frequently assumed the two characters of Orator 82 1.108 and of Judge 83 1.109, which are almost unknown to the modern sovereigns of Europe. The arts of persuasion, so diligently cultivated by the first Caesars, were neglected by the military ignorance and Asiatic pride of their successors; and if they condescended to harangue the soldiers, whom they feared, they treated with silent disdain the senators, whom they de|spised. The assemblies of the senate, which Constantius had avoided, were considered by Ju|lian as the place where he could exhibit, with the most propriety, the maxims of a republican,

and the talents of a rhetorician. He alternately practised, as in a school of declamation, the se|veral modes of praise, of censure, of exhortation; and his friend Libanius has remarked, that the study of Homer taught him to imitate the simple, concise style of Menelaus, the copiousness of Nestor, whose words descended like the flakes of a winter's snow, or the pathetic and forcible eloquence of Ulysses. The functions of a judge, which are sometimes incompatible with those of a prince, were exercised by Julian, not only as a duty, but as an amusement; and although he might have trusted the integrity and discernment of his Praetorian prefects, he often placed him|self by their side on the seat of judgment. The acute penetration of his mind was agreeably oc|cupied in detecting and defeating the chicanery of the advocates, who laboured to disguise the truth of facts, and to pervert the sense of the laws. He sometimes forgot the gravity of his station, asked indiscreet or unseasonable questions, and betrayed, by the loudness of his voice, and the agitation of his body, the earnest vehemence with which he maintained his opinion against the judges, the advocates, and their clients. But his knowledge of his own temper prompted him to encourage, and even to solicit, the reproof of his friends and ministers; and whenever they ventured to oppose the irregular sallies of his passions, the spectators could observe the shame, as well as the gratitude, of their monarch. The decrees of Julian were almost always founded on

the principles of justice; and he had the firmness to resist the two most dangerous temptations, which assault the tribunal of a sovereign, under the specious forms of compassion and equity. He decided the merits of the cause without weighing the circumstances of the parties; and the poor, whom he wished to relieve, were con|demned to satisfy the just demands of a noble and wealthy adversary. He carefully distin|guished the judge from the legislator 84 1.110; and though he meditated a necessary reformation of the Roman jurisprudence, he pronounced sen|tence according to the strict and literal in|terpretation of those laws, which the magistrates were bound to execute, and the subjects to obey.

The generality of princes, if they were stripped * 1.111 of their purple, and cast naked into the world, would immediately sink to the lowest rank of society, without a hope of emerging from their obscurity. But the personal merit of Julian was, in some measure, independent of his fortune. Whatever had been his choice of life; by the force of intrepid courage, lively wit, and intense application, he would have obtained, or at least

he would have deserved, the highest honours of his profession; and Julian might have raised himself to the rank of minister, or general, of the state in which he was born a private citizen. If the jealous caprice of power had disappointed his expectations; if he had prudently declined the paths of greatness, the employment of the same talents in studious solitude, would have placed, beyond the reach of kings, his present happiness and his immortal fame. When we inspect, with minute, or perhaps malevolent at|tention, the portrait of Julian, something seems wanting to the grace and perfection of the whole figure. His genius was less powerful and sub|lime than that of Caesar; nor did he possess the consummate prudence of Augustus. The virtues of Trajan appear more steady and natural, and the philosophy of Marcus is more simple and consistent. Yet Julian sustained adversity with firmness, and prosperity with moderation. After an interval of one hundred and twenty years from the death of Alexander Severus, the Romans beheld an emperor who made no distinction be|tween his duties and his pleasures; who laboured to relieve the distress, and to revive the spirit, of his subjects; and who endeavoured always to connect authority with merit, and happiness with virtue. Even faction, and religious faction, was constrained to acknowledge the superiority of his genius, in peace as well as in war; and to con|fess, with a sigh, that the apostate Julian was a

lover of his country, and that he deserved the empire of the world 85 1.112.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The jea|lousy of Constan|tius against Julian.
• 1 1.2

  Omnes qui plus poterant in palatio, adulandi professores jam docti, recte consulta, prospereque completa vertebant in deridicu|lum: talia sine modo strepentes insulse; in odium venit cum vic|toriis suis; capella, non homo; ut hirsutum Julianum carpentes, appellantesque loquacem talpam, et purpuratam simiam, et litterio|nem Graecum: et his congruentia plurima atque vernacula principi resonantes, audire haec taliaque gestienti, virtutes ejus obruere verbis impudentibus conabantur, ut segnem incessentes et timidum et um|bratilem, gestaque secus verbis comptioribus exornantem. Ammi|anus, xvii. 11.
• 2 1.3

  Ammian. xvi. 12. The orator Themistius (iv. p. 56, 57.) believed whatever was contained in the Imperial letters, which were addressed to the senate of Constantinople. Aurelius Victor, who published his Abridgment in the last year of Constantius, ascribes the German victories to the wisdom of the emperor, and the fortune of the Caesar. Yet the historian, soon afterwards, was indebted to the favour or esteem of Julian for the honour of a brass statue; and the important offices of consular of the second Pannonia, and praefect of the city. Ammian. xxi. 10.
• 3 1.4

  Callido nocendi artificio, accusatoriam diritatem laudum titulis peragebant. . . Hae voces fuerunt ad inslammanda odia probris om|nibus potentiores. See Mamertin. in Actione Gratiarum in Vet. Panegyr. xi. 5, 6.
• * 1.5

  Fears and envy of Constan|tius.
• * 1.6

  The le|gions of Gaul are ordered to march into the East, A. D. 360, April.
• 4 1.7

  The minute interval, which may be interposed between the byeme adultâ and the primo vere of Ammianus (xx. 1. 4.), instead of allowing a sufficient space for a march of three thousand miles, would render the orders of Constantius as extravagant as they were unjust. The troops of Gaul could not have reached Syria till the end of autumn. The memory of Ammianus must have been inac|curate, and his language incorrect.
• 5 1.8

  Ammianus, xx. 1. The valour of Lupicinus, and his mili|tary skill, are acknowledged by the historian, who, in his affected language, accuses the general of exalting the horns of his pride, bellowing in a tragic tone, and exciting a doubt, whether he was more cruel or avaricious. The danger from the Scots and Picts was so serious, that Julian himself had some thoughts of passing over into the island.
• * 1.9

  Their dis|contents.
• 6 1.10

  He granted them the permission of the cursus clavularis, or clabu|laris. These post-waggons are often mentioned in the Code, and were supposed to carry fifteen hundred pounds weight. See Vales. 2d Ammian. xx. 4.
• * 1.11

  They pro|claim Ju|lian empo|ror.
• 7 1.12

  Most probably the palace of the baths (Thermarum), of which a solid and lofty hall still subsists in the rue de la Harpe. The buildings covered a considerable space of the modern quarter of the univer|sity; and the gardens, under the Merovingian kings, communi|cated with the abbey of St. Germain des Prez. By the injuries of time and the Normans, this ancient palace was reduced, in the twelfth century, to a maze of ruins; whose dark recesses were the scene of licentious love.

  Explicat aula sinus montemque amplectitur alis; Multiplici latebrâ scelerum tersura ruborem. —pereuntis saepe pudoris Celatura nefas, Venerisque accommoda furtis.

  (These lines are quoted from the Architrenius, l. iv. c. 8., a poe|tical work of John de Hauteville, or Hanville, a Monk of St. Albans, about the year 1190. See Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. i. dissert. ii.) Yet such thefts might be less pernicious to mankind, than the theological disputes of the Sorbonne, which have been since agitated on the same ground. Bonamy, Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xv. p. 678—682.
• 8 1.13

  Even in this tumultuous moment, Julian attended to the forms of superstitious ceremony; and obstinately refused the inauspicious use of a female necklace, or a horse-collar, which the impatient soldiers would have employed in the room of a diadem.
• 9 1.14

  An equal proportion of gold and silver, five pieces of the for|mer, one pound of the latter; the whole amounting to about five pounds ten shillings of our money.
• 10 1.15

  For the whole narrative of this revolt, we may appeal to au|thentic and original materials; Julian himself (ad S. P. Q. Athe|niensem, p. 282, 283, 284.), Libanius (Orat. Parental. c. 44—48. in Fabricius Bibliot. Graec. tom. vii. p. 269—273.), Ammianus (xx. 4.), and Zosimus (l. iii. p. 151, 152, 153.), who, in the reign of Julian, appears to follow the more respectable authority of Eunapius. With such guides, we might neglect the abbreviators and ecclesiastical historians.
• * 1.16

  His pro|testations of inno|cence.
• 11 1.17

  Eutropius, a respectable witness, uses a doubtful expression, "consensu militum" (x. 15.). Gregory Nazianzen, whose igno|rance might excuse his fanaticism, directly charges the apostate with presumption, madness, and impious rebellion, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Orat. iii. p. 67.
• 12 1.18

  Julian. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 284. The devout Abbé de la Bleterie (Vie de Julien, p. 159.) is almost inclined to respect the devout protestations of a Pagan.
• 13 1.19

  Ammian. xx. 5. with the note of Lindenbrogius on the Genius of the empire. Julian himself, in a confidential letter to his friend and physician, Oribasius (Epist. xvii. p. 384.), mentions another dream, to which, before the event, he gave credit; of a stately tree thrown to the ground, of a small plant striking a deep root into the earth. Even in his sleep, the mind of the Caesar must have been agitated by the hopes and fears of his fortune. Zosimus (l. iii. p. 155.) relates a subsequent dream.
• * 1.20

  His em|bassy to Constan|tius.
• 14 1.21

  The difficult situation of the prince of a rebellious army is finely described by Tacitus (Hist. 1. 80—85.). But Otho had much more guilt, and much less abilities, than Julian.
• 15 1.22

  To this ostensible epistle he added, says Ammianus, private letters, objurgatorias et mordaces, which the historian had not seen, and would not have published. Perhaps they never existed.
• 16 1.23

  See the first transactions of his reign, in Julian ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 285, 286. Ammianus, xx. 5. 8. Liban. Orat. Parent. c. 49, 50. p. 273—275.
• * 1.24

  His fourth and fifth expedi|tions be|yond the Rhine, A. D. 360, 361.
• 17 1.25

  Liban. Orat. Parent. c. 50. p. 275, 276. A strange disorder, since it continued above seven years. In the factions of the Greek republics, the exiles amounted to 20,000 persons; and Isocrates assures Philip, that it would be easier to raise an army from the va|gabonds than from the cities. See Hume's Essays, tom. i. p. 426, 427.
• 18 1.26

  Julian (Epist. xxxviii. p. 414.) gives a short description of Vesontio, or Besançon: a rocky peninsula almost encircled by the river Doux; once a magnificent city, filled with temples, &c. now reduced to a small town, emerging however from its ruins.
• 19 1.27

  Vadomair entered into the Roman service, and was promoted from a Barbarian kingdom to the military rank of duke of Phae|nicia. He still retained the same artful character (Ammian. xxi. 4.); but, under the reign of Valens, he signalised his valour in the Armenian war (xxix. 1.).
• 20 1.28

  Ammian. xx. 10. xxi. 3, 4. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 155.
• * 1.29

  Fruitless treaty and declaration of war, A. D. 361.
• 21 1.30

  Her remains were sent to Rome, and interred near those of her sister Constantina, in the suburb of the Via Nomentana. Am|mian. xxi. 1. Libanius has composed a very weak apology to justify his hero from a very absurd charge; of poisoning his wife, and rewarding her physician with his mother's jewels. (See the seventh of seventeen new orations, published at Venice 1754, from a MS. in St. Mark's library, p. 117—127.) Elpidius, the Prae|torian praefect of the East, to whose evidence the accuser of Julian appeals, is arraigned by Libanius, as effeminate and ungrateful; yet the religion of Elpidius is praised by Jerom (tom. i. p. 243.), and his humanity by Ammianus (xxi. 6.).
• 22 1.31

  Feriarum die quem celebrantes mense Januario, Christiani Epiphania dictitant, progressus in eorum ecclesiam, solemniter numine orato discessit. Ammian. xxi. 2. Zonaras observes, that it was on Christmas-day, and his assertion is not inconsistent; since the churches of Egypt, Asia, and perhaps Gaul, celebrated on the same day (the sixth of January), the nativity and the baptism of their Saviour. The Romans, as ignorant as their brethren of the real date of his birth, fixed the solemn festival to the 25th of De|cember, the Brumalia, or winter solstice, when the Pagans annually celebrated the birth of the Sun. See Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, l. xx. c. 4. and Beausobre Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 690—700.
• 23 1.32

  The public and secret negociations between Constantius and Julian, must be extracted, with some caution, from Julian himself (Orat. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286.), Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 51. p. 276.), Ammianus (xx. 9.), Zosimus (l. iii. p. 154.), and even Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 20, 21, 22.), who, on this occasion, appears to have possessed and used some valuable mate|rials.
• * 1.33

  Julian pre|pares to attack Constan|tius.
• 24 1.34

  Three hundred myriads, or three millions of medimni, a corn|measure familiar to the Athenians, and which contained six Roman modii. Julian explains, like a soldier and a statesman, the danger of his situation, and the necessity and advantages of an offensive war (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286, 287.).
• 25 1.35

  See his oration, and the behaviour of the troops, in Am|mian. xxi. 5.
• 26 1.36

  He sternly refused his hand to the suppliant praefect, whom he sent into Tuscany (Ammian. xxi. 5.). Libanius, with savage fury, insults Nebridius, applauds the soldiers, and almost censures the humanity of Julian (Orat. Parent. c. 53. p. 278.).
• 27 1.37

  Ammian. xxi. 8. In this promotion, Julian obeyed the law which he publicly imposed on himself. Neque civilis quisquam judex nec militaris rector, alio quodam praeter merita suffragante, ad potiorum veniat gradum (Ammian. xx. 5.). Absence did not weaken his regard for Sallust, with whose name (A. D. 363.) he honoured the consulship.
• * 1.38

  His march from the Rhine into Illyricum.
• 28 1.39

  Ammianus (xxi. 8.) ascribes the same practice, and the same motive, to Alexander the Groat, and other skilful generals.
• 29 1.40

  This wood was a part of the great Hercynian forest, which, in the time of Caesar, stretched away from the country of the Rau|raci (Basil) into the boundless regions of the North. See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, l. iii. c. 47.
• 30 1.41

  Compare Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 53. p. 278, 279, with Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 68. Even the saint admires the speed and secrecy of this march. A modern divine might apply to the progress of Julian, the lines which were originally designed for another apostate: —So eagerly the fiend, O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
• 31 1.42

  In that interval the Notitia places two or three fleets, the Lau|riacensis (at Lauriacum, or Lorch), the Arlapensis, the Maginensis; and mentions five legions, or cohorts, of Liburnarii, who should be a sort of marines. Sect. lviii. edit. Labb.
• 32 1.43

  Zosimus alone (l. iii. p. 156.) has specified this interesting circumstance. Mamertinus (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 6, 7, 8.), who accompanied Julian, as count of the sacred largesses, describes this voyage in a florid and pictoresque manner, challenges Triptolemus and the Argonauts of Greece, &c.
• 33 1.44

  The description of Ammianus, which might be supported by collateral evidence, ascertains the precise situation of the Angustiae Succorum, or passes of Succi. M. d'Anville, from the trifling resem|blance of names, has placed them between Sardica and Naissus. For my own justification, I am obliged to mention the only error which I have discovered in the maps or writings of that admirable geographer.
• 34 1.45

  Whatever circumstances we may borrow elsewhere, Ammia|nus (xxi. 8, 9, 10.) still supplies the series of the narrative.
• * 1.46

  He justifies his cause.
• 35 1.47

  Ammian. xxi. 9, 10. Libanius, Orat. Parent, c. 54. p. 279, 280. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 156, 157.
• 36 1.48

  Julian (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286.) positively asserts, that he intercepted the letters of Constantius to the Barbarians: and Liba|nius as positively affirms, that he read them on his march to the troops and the cities. Yet Ammianus (xxi. 4.) expresses himself with cool and candid hesitation, si famae solius admittenda est fides. He specifies, however, an intercepted letter from Vadomair to Con|stantius, which supposes an intimate correspondence between them: "Caesar tuus disciplinam non habet."
• 37 1.49

  Zosimus mentions his epistles to the Athenians, the Corin|thians, and the Lacedaemonians. The substance was probably the same, though the address was properly varied. The epistle to the Athenians is still extant (p. 268-287.), and has afforded much valuable information. It deserves the praises of the Abbé de la Bleterie. (Pref. à l'Histoire de Jovien, p. 24, 25.), and is one of the best manifestoes to be found in any language.
• 38 1.50

  Auctori tuo reverentiam rogamus. Ammian. xxi. 10. It is amus|ing enough to observe the secret conflicts of the senate between flattery and fear. See Tacit. Hist. i. 85.
• * 1.51

  Hostile preparati|ons
• 39 1.52

  Tanquam venaticiam praedam caperet: hoc enim ad leniendum suorum metum subinde praedicabat. Ammian. xxi. 7.
• 40 1.53

  See the speech and preparations in Ammianus, xxi. 13. The vile Theodotus afterwards implored and obtained his pardon from the merciful conqueror, who signified his wish of diminishing his enemies, and increasing the number of his friends (xxii. 14.).
• 41 1.54

  Ammian. xxi. 7. 11, 12. He seems to describe, with super|fluous labour, the operations of the siege of Aquileia, which, on this occasion, maintained its impregnable fame. Gregory Nazi|anzen (Orat. iii. p. 68.) ascribes this accidental revolt to the wisdom of Constantius, whose assured victory he announces with some ap|pearance of truth. Constantio quem credebat proculdubio fore vic|torem: nemo enim omnium tunc ab hac constanti sententia discre|pebat. Ammian. xxi. 7.
• * 1.55

  and death of Con|stantius, A. D. 361, Nov. 3.
• 42 1.56

  His death and character are faithfully delineated by Ammia|nus (xxi. 14, 15, 16.); and we are authorised to despise and detest the foolish calumny of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 68.), who accuses Julian of contriving the death of his benefactor. The private re|pentance of the emperor, that he had spared and promoted Julian (p. 69. and Orat. xxi. p. 389.), is not improbable in itself, nor incompatible with the public verbal testament, which prudential considerations might dictate in the last moments of his life.
• * 1.57

  Julian en|ters Con|stantino|ple, Dec. 11.
• 43 1.58

  In describing the triumph of Julian, Ammianus (xxii. 1, 2.) assumes the lofty tone of an orator or poet; while Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 56. p. 281.) sinks to the grave simplicity of an historian.
• 44 1.59

  The funeral of Constantius is described by Ammianus (xxi. 16.), Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iv. p. 119.), Mamertinus (in Pa|negyr. Vet. xi. 27.), Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. lvi. p. 283.), and Philostorgius (l. vi. c. 6. with Godefroy's Dissertations, p. 265.). These writers, and their followers, Pagans, Catholics, Arians, be|held with very different eyes both the dead and the living emperor.
• * 1.60

  and is ac|knowledg|ed by the whole em|pire.
• 45 1.61

  The day and year of the birth of Julian are not perfectly as|certained. The day is probably the sixth of November, and the year must be either 331 or 332. Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 693. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 50. I have pre|ferred the earlier date.
• * 1.62

  His civil govern|ment, and private life.
• 46 1.63

  Julian himself (p. 253—267.) has expressed these philosophical ideas, with much eloquence, and some affectation, in a very elabo|rate epistle to Themistius. The Abbé de la Bleterie (tom. ii. p. 146—193.), who has given an elegant translation, is inclined to believe that it was the celebrated Themistius, whose orations are still extant.
• 47 1.64

  Julian ad Themist. p. 258. Petavius (not. p. 95.) observes, that this assage is taken from the fourth book de Legibus; but either Julian quoted from memory, or his MSS. were different from ours. Xenophon opens the Cyropaedia with a similar reflection.
• 48 1.65

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Aristot. ap Julian. p. 261. The MS. of Vossius, unsatisfied with a single beast, affords the stronger reading of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which the experience of despotism may warrant.
• 49 1.66

  Libanius (Orat. Parentalis, c. lxxxiv. lxxxv. p. 310, 311, 312.) has given this interesting detail of the private life of Julian. He himself (in Misopogon, p. 350.) mentions his vegetable diet, and upbraids the gross and sensual appetite of the people of Antioch.
• 50 1.67

  Lectulus . . . Vestalium toris purior, is the praise which Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 13.) addresses to Julian himself. Libanius affirms, in sober peremptory language, that Julian never knew a woman before his marriage, or after the death of his wife (Orat. Parent. c. lxxxviii. p. 313.). The chastity of Julian is confirmed by the impartial testimony of Ammianus (xxv. 4.), and the partial silence of the Christians. Yet Julian ironically urges the reproach of the people of Antioch, that he almost always (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in Misopogon. p. 345.) lay alone. This suspicious expression is explained by the Abbé de la Bleterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 103—109.) with candour and ingenuity.
• 51 1.68

  See Salmasius ad Sueton. in Claud. c. xxi. A twenty-fifth race, or missus, was added, to complete the number of one hundred chariots, four of which, the four colours, started each heat.

  Centum quadrijugos agitabo ad flumina currus.

  It appears, that they ran five or seven times round the Meta (Sueton, in Domitian. c. 4.); and (from the measure of the Circus Max|imus at Rome, the Hippodrome at Constantinople, &c.) it might be about a four-mile course.
• 52 1.69

  Julian. in Misopogon, p. 340. Julius Caesar had offended the Roman people by reading his dispatches during the actual race. Augustus indulged their taste, or his own, by his constant attention to the important business of the circus, for which he professed the warmest inclination. Sueton. in August. c. xlv.
• * 1.70

  December, A. D. 361. March, A. D. 363.
• * 1.71

  Reforma|tion of the palace.
• 53 1.72

  The reformation of the palace is described by Ammianus (xxii. 4.), Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. lxii. p. 288, &c.), Mamer|tinus (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 11.), Socrates (l. iii. c. 1.), and Zo|naras (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 24.)
• 54 1.73

  Ego non rationalem jussi sed tonsorem acciri. Zonaras uses the less natural image of a senator. Yet an officer of the finances, who was satiated with wealth, might desire and obtain the honours of the senate.
• 55 1.74

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, are the original words of Libanius, which I have faithfully quoted, lest I should be suspected of magnifying the abuses of the royal house|hold.
• 56 1.75

  The expressions of Mamertinus are lively and forcible. Quin etiam prandiorum et caenarum laboratas magnitudines Romanus po|pulus sensit; cum quaesitissimae dapes non gustu sed difficultatibus aestimarentur; miracula avium, longinqui maris pisces, alieni tem|poris poma, aestivae nives, hybernae rosae.
• 57 1.76

  Yet Julian himself was accused of bestowing whole towns on the eunuchs (Orat. vii. against Polyclet. p. 117—127.). Libanius contents himself with a cold but positive denial of the fact, which seems indeed to belong more properly to Constantius. This charge, however, may allude to some unknown circumstance.
• 58 1.77

  In the Misopogon (p. 338, 339.) he draws a very singular picture of himself, and the following words are strangely characteristic; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The friends of the Abbé de la Bleterie adjured him, in the name of the French nation, not to translate this passage, so offensive to their delicacy (Hist, de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 94.). Like him, I have contented myself with a transient allusion; but the little animal, which Julian names, is a beast samiliar to man, and signifies love.
• * 1.78

  Chamber of justice.
• 59 1.79

  Julian, epist. xxiii. p. 389. He uses the words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in writing to his friend Hermogenes, who, like himself, was conversant with the Greek poets.
• 60 1.80

  The two Sallusts, the praefect of Gaul, and the praefect of the East, must be carefully distinguished (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 696). I have used the surname of Secundus, as a convenient epithet. The second Sallust extorted the esteem of the Christians themselves; and Gregory Nazianzen, who condemned his religion, has celebrated his virtues (Orat. iii. p. 90.). See a curious note of the Abbé de la Bleterie, Vie de Julien, p. 363.
• 61 1.81

  Mamertinus praises the emperor (xi. 1.) for bestowing the offices of Treasurer and Praefect on a man of wisdom, firmness, in|tegrity, &c. like himself. Yet Ammianus ranks him (xxi. 1.) among the ministers of Julian, quorum merita nôrat et fidem.
• 62 1.82

  The proceedings of this chamber of justice are related by Am|mianus (xxii. 3.), and praised by Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 74. p. 299, 300.).
• * 1.83

  Punish|ment of the innocent and the guilty.
• 63 1.84

  Ursuli vero necem ipsa mihi videtur flêsse justitia. Libanius, who imputes his death to the soldiers, attempts to criminate the count of the largesses.
• 64 1.85

  Such respect was still entertained for the venerable names of the commonwealth, that the public was surprised and scandalized to hear Taurus summoned as a criminal under the consulship of Taurus. The summons of his colleague Florentius was probably delayed till the commencement of the ensuing year.
• 65 1.86

  Ammian. xx. 7.
• 66 1.87

  For the guilt and punishment of Artemius, see Julian (Epist. x. p. 379.), and Ammianus (xxii. 6. and Vales. ad loc.). The merit of Artemius, who demolished temples, and was put to death by an apostate, has tempted the Greek and Latin churches to ho|nour him as a martyr. But as ecclesiastical history attests, that he was not only a tyrant, but an Arian, it is not altogether easy to justify this indiscreet promotion. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1319.
• 67 1.88

  See Ammian. xxii. 6. and Vales. ad locum; and the Codex Theodosianus, l. ii. tit. xxxix. leg. 1.; and Godefroy's Commen|tary, tom. i. p. 218, ad locum.
• * 1.89

  Clemency of Julian.
• 68 1.90

  The president Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur, &c. des Romains, c. xiv. in his works, tom. iii. p. 448, 449.) excuses this minute and absurd tyranny, by supposing, that actions the most indifferent in our eyes might excite, in a Roman mind, the idea of guilt and danger. This strange apology is supported by a strange misapprehension of the English laws,

  chez une na|tion . . . où il est defendû de boire à la santé d'une certaine personne.
• 69 1.91

  The clemency of Julian, and the conspiracy which was formed against his life at Antioch, are described by Ammianus (xxii. 9, 10. and Vales. ad loc.), and Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 99. p. 323.).
• * 1.92

  His love of freedom, and the republic.
• 70 1.93

  According to some, says Aristotle (as he is quoted by Julian ad Themist. p. 261.), the form of absolute government, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is contrary to nature. Both the prince and the philosopher chuse, however, to involve this eternal truth in artful and laboured obscurity.
• 71 1.94

  That sentiment is expressed almost in the words of Julian him|self. Ammian. xxii. 10.
• 72 1.95

  Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 95. p. 320.), who mentions the wish and design of Julian, insinuates, in mysterious language (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉), that the emperor was re|strained by some particular revelation.
• 73 1.96

  Julian in Misopogon, p. 343. As he never abolished, by any public law, the proud appellations of Despot, or Dominus, they are still extant on his medals (Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 38, 39.): and the private displeasure which he affected to express, only gave a different tone to the servility of the court. The Abbé de la Ble|terie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 99—102.) has curiously traced the origin and progress of the word Dominus under the Imperial go|vernment.
• * 1.97

  A. D. 363, Jan. 1.
• 74 1.98

  Ammian. xxii. 7. The consul Mamertinus (in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 28, 29, 30.) celebrates the auspicious day, like an elo|quent slave, astonished and intoxicated by the condescension of his master.
• 75 1.99

  Personal satire was condemned by the laws of the twelve tables: Si male condiderit in quem quis carmina, jus est, Judiciumque.—

  Julian (in Misopogon, p. 337.) owns himself subject to the law; and the Abbé de la Bleterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 92.) has eagerly embraced a declaration so agreeable to his own system, and indeed to the true spirit, of the Imperial constitution.
• 76 1.100

  Zosimus, l. iii. p. 158.
• 77 1.101

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. See Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 71. p. 296), Ammianus (xxii. 9.), and the Theodosian Code (l. xii. tit. i. leg. 50—55), with Godefroy's Commentary (tom. iv. p. 390—402.). Yet the whole subject of the Curiae, notwithstanding very ample materials, still remains the most obscure in the legal history of the empire.
• * 1.102

  His care of the Gre|cian cities.
• 78 1.103

  Quae paulo ante arida et siti anhelantia visebantur, ea nunc perlui, mundari, madere; Fora, Deambulacra, Gymnasia, laetis et gaudentibus populis frequentari; dies festos, et celebrari veteres, et novos in honorem principis consecrari (Mamertin. xi. 9.). He particularly restored the city of Nicopolis, and the Actiac games, which had been instituted by Augustus.
• 79 1.104

  Julian. Epist. xxxv. p. 407-411. This epistle, which illus|trates the declining age of Greece, is omitted by the Abbé de la Bleterie; and strangely disfigured by the Latin translator, who, by rendering 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, tributum, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, populus, directly contradicts the sense of the original.
• 80 1.105

  He reigned in Mycenae, at the distance of fifty stadia, or six miles, from Argos: but those cities which alternately flourished, are confounded by the Greek poets. Strabo, l. viii. p. 579. edit. Amstel. 1707.
• 81 1.106

  Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 421. This pedigree from Te|menus and Hercules may be suspicious; yet it was allowed, after a strict enquiry by the judges of the Olympic games (Herodot. l. v. c. 22.), at a time when the Macedonian kings were obscure and unpopular in Greece. When the Achaean league declared against Philip, it was thought decent that the deputies of Argos should re|tire (T. Liv. xxxii. 22.).
• * 1.107

  Julian, an orator and a judge.
• 82 1.108

  His eloquence is celebrated by Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 75, 76. p. 300, 301.), who distinctly mentions the orators of Homer. Socrates (l. iii. c. 1.) has rashly asserted that Julian was the only prince, since Julius Caesar, who harangued the senate. All the predecessors of Nero (Tacit. Annal. xiii. 3.), and many of his successors, possessed the faculty of speaking in public; and it might be proved by various examples, that they frequently exercised it in the senate.
• 83 1.109

  Ammianus (xxii. 10.) has impartially stated the merits and defects of his judicial proceedings. Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 90, 91. p. 315, &c.) has seen only the fair side, and his picture, if it flatters the person, expresses at least the duties, of the Judge. Gre|gory Nazianzen (Orat. iv. p. 120.), who suppresses the virtues, and exaggerates even the venial faults, of the apostate; triumphantly asks, Whether such a judge was fit to be seated between Minos and Rhadamanthus, in the Elysian fields?
• 84 1.110

  Of the laws which Julian enacted in a reign of sixteen months, fifty-four have been admitted into the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian. (Gothofred. Chron. Legum, p. 64—67.) The Abbé de la Bleterie (tom. ii. p. 329—336.) has chosen one of these laws to give an idea of Julian's Latin style, which is forcible and elabo|rate, but less pure than his Greek.
• * 1.111

  His cha|racter.
• 85 1.112

  —Ductor fortissimus armis; Conditor et legum celeberrimus; ore manûque Consultor patriae; sed non consultor habendae Religionis; amans tercentûm millia Divûm. Perfidus ille Deo, sed non et perfidus orbi.

  Prudent. Apotheosis, 450, &c. The consciousness of a generous sentiment seems to have raised th•• Christian poet above his usual mediocrity.