Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part V

The esteem of an enemy is most sincerely expressed by his fears;
and the degree of fear may be accurately measured by the joy with
which he celebrates his deliverance. The welcome news of the
death of Julian, which a deserter revealed to the camp of Sapor,
inspired the desponding monarch with a sudden confidence of
victory. He immediately detached the royal cavalry, perhaps the
ten thousand _Immortals_, 104 to second and support the pursuit;
and discharged the whole weight of his united forces on the
rear-guard of the Romans. The rear-guard was thrown into
disorder; the renowned legions, which derived their titles from
Diocletian, and his warlike colleague, were broke and trampled
down by the elephants; and three tribunes lost their lives in
attempting to stop the flight of their soldiers. The battle was
at length restored by the persevering valor of the Romans; the
Persians were repulsed with a great slaughter of men and
elephants; and the army, after marching and fighting a long
summer’s day, arrived, in the evening, at Samara, on the banks of
the Tigris, about one hundred miles above Ctesiphon. 105 On the
ensuing day, the Barbarians, instead of harassing the march,
attacked the camp, of Jovian; which had been seated in a deep and
sequestered valley. From the hills, the archers of Persia
insulted and annoyed the wearied legionaries; and a body of
cavalry, which had penetrated with desperate courage through the
Prætorian gate, was cut in pieces, after a doubtful conflict,
near the Imperial tent. In the succeeding night, the camp of
Carche was protected by the lofty dikes of the river; and the
Roman army, though incessantly exposed to the vexatious pursuit
of the Saracens, pitched their tents near the city of Dura, 106
four days after the death of Julian. The Tigris was still on
their left; their hopes and provisions were almost consumed; and
the impatient soldiers, who had fondly persuaded themselves that
the frontiers of the empire were not far distant, requested their
new sovereign, that they might be permitted to hazard the passage
of the river. With the assistance of his wisest officers, Jovian
endeavored to check their rashness; by representing, that if they
possessed sufficient skill and vigor to stem the torrent of a
deep and rapid stream, they would only deliver themselves naked
and defenceless to the Barbarians, who had occupied the opposite
banks, Yielding at length to their clamorous importunities, he
consented, with reluctance, that five hundred Gauls and Germans,
accustomed from their infancy to the waters of the Rhine and
Danube, should attempt the bold adventure, which might serve
either as an encouragement, or as a warning, for the rest of the
army. In the silence of the night, they swam the Tigris,
surprised an unguarded post of the enemy, and displayed at the
dawn of day the signal of their resolution and fortune. The
success of this trial disposed the emperor to listen to the
promises of his architects, who propose to construct a floating
bridge of the inflated skins of sheep, oxen, and goats, covered
with a floor of earth and fascines. 107 Two important days were
spent in the ineffectual labor; and the Romans, who already
endured the miseries of famine, cast a look of despair on the
Tigris, and upon the Barbarians; whose numbers and obstinacy
increased with the distress of the Imperial army. 108

104 (return) [ Regius equitatus. It appears, from Irocopius, that
the Immortals, so famous under Cyrus and his successors, were
revived, if we may use that improper word, by the Sassanides.
Brisson de Regno Persico, p. 268, &c.]

105 (return) [ The obscure villages of the inland country are
irrecoverably lost; nor can we name the field of battle where
Julian fell: but M. D’Anville has demonstrated the precise
situation of Sumere, Carche, and Dura, along the banks of the
Tigris, (Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 248 L’Euphrate et le
Tigre, p. 95, 97.) In the ninth century, Sumere, or Samara,
became, with a slight change of name, the royal residence of the
khalifs of the house of Abbas. * Note: Sormanray, called by the
Arabs Samira, where D’Anville placed Samara, is too much to the
south; and is a modern town built by Caliph Morasen.
Serra-man-rai means, in Arabic, it rejoices every one who sees
it. St. Martin, iii. 133.—M.]

106 (return) [ Dura was a fortified place in the wars of
Antiochus against the rebels of Media and Persia, (Polybius, l.
v. c. 48, 52, p. 548, 552 edit. Casaubon, in 8vo.)]

107 (return) [ A similar expedient was proposed to the leaders of
the ten thousand, and wisely rejected. Xenophon, Anabasis, l.
iii. p. 255, 256, 257. It appears, from our modern travellers,
that rafts floating on bladders perform the trade and navigation
of the Tigris.]

108 (return) [ The first military acts of the reign of Jovian are
related by Ammianus, (xxv. 6,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 146,
p. 364,) and Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 189, 190, 191.) Though we may
distrust the fairness of Libanius, the ocular testimony of
Eutropius (uno a Persis atque altero prœlio victus, x. 17) must
incline us to suspect that Ammianus had been too jealous of the
honor of the Roman arms.]

In this hopeless condition, the fainting spirits of the Romans
were revived by the sound of peace. The transient presumption of
Sapor had vanished: he observed, with serious concern, that, in
the repetition of doubtful combats, he had lost his most faithful
and intrepid nobles, his bravest troops, and the greatest part of
his train of elephants: and the experienced monarch feared to
provoke the resistance of despair, the vicissitudes of fortune,
and the unexhausted powers of the Roman empire; which might soon
advance to elieve, or to revenge, the successor of Julian. The
Surenas himself, accompanied by another satrap, appeared in the
camp of Jovian; 109 and declared, that the clemency of his
sovereign was not averse to signify the conditions on which he
would consent to spare and to dismiss the Cæsar with the relics
of his captive army. 10911 The hopes of safety subdued the
firmness of the Romans; the emperor was compelled, by the advice
of his council, and the cries of his soldiers, to embrace the
offer of peace; 10912 and the præfect Sallust was immediately
sent, with the general Arinthæus, to understand the pleasure of
the Great King. The crafty Persian delayed, under various
pretenses, the conclusion of the agreement; started difficulties,
required explanations, suggested expedients, receded from his
concessions, increased his demands, and wasted four days in the
arts of negotiation, till he had consumed the stock of provisions
which yet remained in the camp of the Romans. Had Jovian been
capable of executing a bold and prudent measure, he would have
continued his march, with unremitting diligence; the progress of
the treaty would have suspended the attacks of the Barbarians;
and, before the expiration of the fourth day, he might have
safely reached the fruitful province of Corduene, at the distance
only of one hundred miles. 110 The irresolute emperor, instead of
breaking through the toils of the enemy, expected his fate with
patient resignation; and accepted the humiliating conditions of
peace, which it was no longer in his power to refuse. The five
provinces beyond the Tigris, which had been ceded by the
grandfather of Sapor, were restored to the Persian monarchy. He
acquired, by a single article, the impregnable city of Nisibis;
which had sustained, in three successive sieges, the effort of
his arms. Singara, and the castle of the Moors, one of the
strongest places of Mesopotamia, were likewise dismembered from
the empire. It was considered as an indulgence, that the
inhabitants of those fortresses were permitted to retire with
their effects; but the conqueror rigorously insisted, that the
Romans should forever abandon the king and kingdom of Armenia.
11011 A peace, or rather a long truce, of thirty years, was
stipulated between the hostile nations; the faith of the treaty
was ratified by solemn oaths and religious ceremonies; and
hostages of distinguished rank were reciprocally delivered to
secure the performance of the conditions. 111

109 (return) [ Sextus Rufus (de Provinciis, c. 29) embraces a
poor subterfuge of national vanity. Tanta reverentia nominis
Romani fuit, ut a Persis _primus_ de pace sermo haberetur. ——He
is called Junius by John Malala; the same, M. St. Martin
conjectures, with a satrap of Gordyene named Jovianus, or
Jovinianus; mentioned in Ammianus Marcellinus, xviii. 6.—M.]

10911 (return) [ The Persian historians couch the message of
Shah-pour in these Oriental terms: “I have reassembled my
numerous army. I am resolved to revenge my subjects, who have
been plundered, made captives, and slain. It is for this that I
have bared my arm, and girded my loins. If you consent to pay the
price of the blood which has been shed, to deliver up the booty
which has been plundered, and to restore the city of Nisibis,
which is in Irak, and belongs to our empire, though now in your
possession, I will sheathe the sword of war; but should you
refuse these terms, the hoofs of my horse, which are hard as
steel, shall efface the name of the Romans from the earth; and my
glorious cimeter, that destroys like fire, shall exterminate the
people of your empire.” These authorities do not mention the
death of Julian. Malcolm’s Persia, i. 87.—M.]

10912 (return) [ The Paschal chronicle, not, as M. St. Martin
says, supported by John Malala, places the mission of this
ambassador before the death of Julian. The king of Persia was
then in Persarmenia, ignorant of the death of Julian; he only
arrived at the army subsequent to that event. St. Martin adopts
this view, and finds or extorts support for it, from Libanius and
Ammianus, iii. 158.—M.]

110 (return) [ It is presumptuous to controvert the opinion of
Ammianus, a soldier and a spectator. Yet it is difficult to
understand _how_ the mountains of Corduene could extend over the
plains of Assyria, as low as the conflux of the Tigris and the
great Zab; or _how_ an army of sixty thousand men could march one
hundred miles in four days. Note: * Yet this appears to be the
case (in modern maps: ) the march is the difficulty.—M.]

11011 (return) [ Sapor availed himself, a few years after, of the
dissolution of the alliance between the Romans and the Armenians.
See St. M. iii. 163.—M.]

111 (return) [ The treaty of Dura is recorded with grief or
indignation by Ammianus, (xxv. 7,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c.
142, p. 364,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 190, 191,) Gregory Nazianzen,
(Orat. iv. p. 117, 118, who imputes the distress to Julian, the
deliverance to Jovian,) and Eutropius, (x. 17.) The
last-mentioned writer, who was present in military station,
styles this peace necessarium quidem sed ignoblem.]

The sophist of Antioch, who saw with indignation the sceptre of
his hero in the feeble hand of a Christian successor, professes
to admire the moderation of Sapor, in contenting himself with so
small a portion of the Roman empire. If he had stretched as far
as the Euphrates the claims of his ambition, he might have been
secure, says Libanius, of not meeting with a refusal. If he had
fixed, as the boundary of Persia, the Orontes, the Cydnus, the
Sangarius, or even the Thracian Bosphorus, flatterers would not
have been wanting in the court of Jovian to convince the timid
monarch, that his remaining provinces would still afford the most
ample gratifications of power and luxury. 112 Without adopting in
its full force this malicious insinuation, we must acknowledge,
that the conclusion of so ignominious a treaty was facilitated by
the private ambition of Jovian. The obscure domestic, exalted to
the throne by fortune, rather than by merit, was impatient to
escape from the hands of the Persians, that he might prevent the
designs of Procopius, who commanded the army of Mesopotamia, and
establish his doubtful reign over the legions and provinces which
were still ignorant of the hasty and tumultuous choice of the
camp beyond the Tigris. 113 In the neighborhood of the same
river, at no very considerable distance from the fatal station of
Dura, 114 the ten thousand Greeks, without generals, or guides,
or provisions, were abandoned, above twelve hundred miles from
their native country, to the resentment of a victorious monarch.
The difference of _their_ conduct and success depended much more
on their character than on their situation. Instead of tamely
resigning themselves to the secret deliberations and private
views of a single person, the united councils of the Greeks were
inspired by the generous enthusiasm of a popular assembly; where
the mind of each citizen is filled with the love of glory, the
pride of freedom, and the contempt of death. Conscious of their
superiority over the Barbarians in arms and discipline, they
disdained to yield, they refused to capitulate: every obstacle
was surmounted by their patience, courage, and military skill;
and the memorable retreat of the ten thousand exposed and
insulted the weakness of the Persian monarchy. 115

112 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 143, p. 364, 365.]

113 (return) [ Conditionibus..... dispendiosis Romanæ reipublicæ
impositis.... quibus cupidior regni quam gloriæ Jovianus, imperio
rudis, adquievit. Sextus Rufus de Provinciis, c. 29. La Bleterie
has expressed, in a long, direct oration, these specious
considerations of public and private interest, (Hist. de Jovien,
tom. i. p. 39, &c.)]

114 (return) [ The generals were murdered on the bauks of the
Zabatus, (Ana basis, l. ii. p. 156, l. iii. p. 226,) or great
Zab, a river of Assyria, 400 feet broad, which falls into the
Tigris fourteen hours below Mosul. The error of the Greeks
bestowed on the greater and lesser Zab the names of the _Wolf_,
(Lycus,) and the _Goat_, (Capros.) They created these animals to
attend the _Tiger_ of the East.]

115 (return) [ The _Cyropædia_ is vague and languid; the
_Anabasis_ circumstance and animated. Such is the eternal
difference between fiction and truth.]

As the price of his disgraceful concessions, the emperor might
perhaps have stipulated, that the camp of the hungry Romans
should be plentifully supplied; 116 and that they should be
permitted to pass the Tigris on the bridge which was constructed
by the hands of the Persians. But, if Jovian presumed to solicit
those equitable terms, they were sternly refused by the haughty
tyrant of the East, whose clemency had pardoned the invaders of
his country. The Saracens sometimes intercepted the stragglers of
the march; but the generals and troops of Sapor respected the
cessation of arms; and Jovian was suffered to explore the most
convenient place for the passage of the river. The small vessels,
which had been saved from the conflagration of the fleet,
performed the most essential service. They first conveyed the
emperor and his favorites; and afterwards transported, in many
successive voyages, a great part of the army. But, as every man
was anxious for his personal safety, and apprehensive of being
left on the hostile shore, the soldiers, who were too impatient
to wait the slow returns of the boats, boldly ventured themselves
on light hurdles, or inflated skins; and, drawing after them
their horses, attempted, with various success, to swim across the
river. Many of these daring adventurers were swallowed by the
waves; many others, who were carried along by the violence of the
stream, fell an easy prey to the avarice or cruelty of the wild
Arabs: and the loss which the army sustained in the passage of
the Tigris, was not inferior to the carnage of a day of battle.
As soon as the Romans were landed on the western bank, they were
delivered from the hostile pursuit of the Barbarians; but, in a
laborious march of two hundred miles over the plains of
Mesopotamia, they endured the last extremities of thirst and
hunger. They were obliged to traverse the sandy desert, which, in
the extent of seventy miles, did not afford a single blade of
sweet grass, nor a single spring of fresh water; and the rest of
the inhospitable waste was untrod by the footsteps either of
friends or enemies. Whenever a small measure of flour could be
discovered in the camp, twenty pounds weight were greedily
purchased with ten pieces of gold: 117 the beasts of burden were
slaughtered and devoured; and the desert was strewed with the
arms and baggage of the Roman soldiers, whose tattered garments
and meagre countenances displayed their past sufferings and
actual misery. A small convoy of provisions advanced to meet the
army as far as the castle of Ur; and the supply was the more
grateful, since it declared the fidelity of Sebastian and
Procopius. At Thilsaphata, 118 the emperor most graciously
received the generals of Mesopotamia; and the remains of a once
flourishing army at length reposed themselves under the walls of
Nisibis. The messengers of Jovian had already proclaimed, in the
language of flattery, his election, his treaty, and his return;
and the new prince had taken the most effectual measures to
secure the allegiance of the armies and provinces of Europe, by
placing the military command in the hands of those officers, who,
from motives of interest, or inclination, would firmly support
the cause of their benefactor. 119

116 (return) [ According to Rufinus, an immediate supply of
provisions was stipulated by the treaty, and Theodoret affirms,
that the obligation was faithfully discharged by the Persians.
Such a fact is probable but undoubtedly false. See Tillemont,
Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 702.]

117 (return) [ We may recollect some lines of Lucan, (Pharsal.
iv. 95,) who describes a similar distress of Cæsar’s army in
Spain:— ——Sæva fames aderat—Miles eget: toto censu non prodigus
emit Exiguam Cererem. Proh lucri pallida tabes! Non deest prolato
jejunus venditor auro. See Guichardt (Nouveaux Mémoires
Militaires, tom. i. p. 370-382.) His analysis of the two
campaigns in Spain and Africa is the noblest monument that has
ever been raised to the fame of Cæsar.]

118 (return) [ M. d’Anville (see his Maps, and l’Euphrate et le
Tigre, p. 92, 93) traces their march, and assigns the true
position of Hatra, Ur, and Thilsaphata, which Ammianus has
mentioned. ——He does not complain of the Samiel, the deadly hot
wind, which Thevenot (Voyages, part ii. l. i. p. 192) so much
dreaded. ——Hatra, now Kadhr. Ur, Kasr or Skervidgi. Thilsaphata
is unknown—M.]

119 (return) [ The retreat of Jovian is described by Ammianus,
(xxv. 9,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 143, p. 365,) and Zosimus,
(l. iii. p. 194.)]

The friends of Julian had confidently announced the success of
his expedition. They entertained a fond persuasion that the
temples of the gods would be enriched with the spoils of the
East; that Persia would be reduced to the humble state of a
tributary province, governed by the laws and magistrates of Rome;
that the Barbarians would adopt the dress, and manners, and
language of their conquerors; and that the youth of Ecbatana and
Susa would study the art of rhetoric under Grecian masters. 120
The progress of the arms of Julian interrupted his communication
with the empire; and, from the moment that he passed the Tigris,
his affectionate subjects were ignorant of the fate and fortunes
of their prince. Their contemplation of fancied triumphs was
disturbed by the melancholy rumor of his death; and they
persisted to doubt, after they could no longer deny, the truth of
that fatal event. 121 The messengers of Jovian promulgated the
specious tale of a prudent and necessary peace; the voice of
fame, louder and more sincere, revealed the disgrace of the
emperor, and the conditions of the ignominious treaty. The minds
of the people were filled with astonishment and grief, with
indignation and terror, when they were informed, that the
unworthy successor of Julian relinquished the five provinces
which had been acquired by the victory of Galerius; and that he
shamefully surrendered to the Barbarians the important city of
Nisibis, the firmest bulwark of the provinces of the East. 122
The deep and dangerous question, how far the public faith should
be observed, when it becomes incompatible with the public safety,
was freely agitated in popular conversation; and some hopes were
entertained that the emperor would redeem his pusillanimous
behavior by a splendid act of patriotic perfidy. The inflexible
spirit of the Roman senate had always disclaimed the unequal
conditions which were extorted from the distress of their captive
armies; and, if it were necessary to satisfy the national honor,
by delivering the guilty general into the hands of the
Barbarians, the greatest part of the subjects of Jovian would
have cheerfully acquiesced in the precedent of ancient times. 123

120 (return) [ Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 145, p. 366.) Such
were the natural hopes and wishes of a rhetorician.]

121 (return) [ The people of Carrhæ, a city devoted to Paganism,
buried the inauspicious messenger under a pile of stones,
(Zosimus, l. iii. p. 196.) Libanius, when he received the fatal
intelligence, cast his eye on his sword; but he recollected that
Plato had condemned suicide, and that he must live to compose the
Panegyric of Julian, (Libanius de Vita sua, tom. ii. p. 45, 46.)]

122 (return) [ Ammianus and Eutropius may be admitted as fair and
credible witnesses of the public language and opinions. The
people of Antioch reviled an ignominious peace, which exposed
them to the Persians, on a naked and defenceless frontier,
(Excerpt. Valesiana, p. 845, ex Johanne Antiocheno.)]

123 (return) [ The Abbé de la Bleterie, (Hist. de Jovien, tom. i.
p. 212-227.) though a severe casuist, has pronounced that Jovian
was not bound to execute his promise; since he _could not_
dismember the empire, nor alienate, without their consent, the
allegiance of his people. I have never found much delight or
instruction in such political metaphysics.]

But the emperor, whatever might be the limits of his
constitutional authority, was the absolute master of the laws and
arms of the state; and the same motives which had forced him to
subscribe, now pressed him to execute, the treaty of peace. He
was impatient to secure an empire at the expense of a few
provinces; and the respectable names of religion and honor
concealed the personal fears and ambition of Jovian.
Notwithstanding the dutiful solicitations of the inhabitants,
decency, as well as prudence, forbade the emperor to lodge in the
palace of Nisibis; but the next morning after his arrival,
Bineses, the ambassador of Persia, entered the place, displayed
from the citadel the standard of the Great King, and proclaimed,
in his name, the cruel alternative of exile or servitude. The
principal citizens of Nisibis, who, till that fatal moment, had
confided in the protection of their sovereign, threw themselves
at his feet. They conjured him not to abandon, or, at least, not
to deliver, a faithful colony to the rage of a Barbarian tyrant,
exasperated by the three successive defeats which he had
experienced under the walls of Nisibis. They still possessed arms
and courage to repel the invaders of their country: they
requested only the permission of using them in their own defence;
and, as soon as they had asserted their independence, they should
implore the favor of being again admitted into the ranks of his
subjects. Their arguments, their eloquence, their tears, were
ineffectual. Jovian alleged, with some confusion, the sanctity of
oaths; and, as the reluctance with which he accepted the present
of a crown of gold, convinced the citizens of their hopeless
condition, the advocate Sylvanus was provoked to exclaim, “O
emperor! may you thus be crowned by all the cities of your
dominions!” Jovian, who in a few weeks had assumed the habits of
a prince, 124 was displeased with freedom, and offended with
truth: and as he reasonably supposed, that the discontent of the
people might incline them to submit to the Persian government, he
published an edict, under pain of death, that they should leave
the city within the term of three days. Ammianus has delineated
in lively colors the scene of universal despair, which he seems
to have viewed with an eye of compassion. 125 The martial youth
deserted, with indignant grief, the walls which they had so
gloriously defended: the disconsolate mourner dropped a last tear
over the tomb of a son or husband, which must soon be profaned by
the rude hand of a Barbarian master; and the aged citizen kissed
the threshold, and clung to the doors, of the house where he had
passed the cheerful and careless hours of infancy. The highways
were crowded with a trembling multitude: the distinctions of
rank, and sex, and age, were lost in the general calamity. Every
one strove to bear away some fragment from the wreck of his
fortunes; and as they could not command the immediate service of
an adequate number of horses or wagons, they were obliged to
leave behind them the greatest part of their valuable effects.
The savage insensibility of Jovian appears to have aggravated the
hardships of these unhappy fugitives. They were seated, however,
in a new-built quarter of Amida; and that rising city, with the
reenforcement of a very considerable colony, soon recovered its
former splendor, and became the capital of Mesopotamia. 126
Similar orders were despatched by the emperor for the evacuation
of Singara and the castle of the Moors; and for the restitution
of the five provinces beyond the Tigris. Sapor enjoyed the glory
and the fruits of his victory; and this ignominious peace has
justly been considered as a memorable æra in the decline and fall
of the Roman empire. The predecessors of Jovian had sometimes
relinquished the dominion of distant and unprofitable provinces;
but, since the foundation of the city, the genius of Rome, the
god Terminus, who guarded the boundaries of the republic, had
never retired before the sword of a victorious enemy. 127

124 (return) [ At Nisibis he performed a _royal_ act. A brave
officer, his namesake, who had been thought worthy of the purple,
was dragged from supper, thrown into a well, and stoned to death
without any form of trial or evidence of guilt. Anomian. xxv. 8.]

125 (return) [ See xxv. 9, and Zosimus, l. iii. p. 194, 195.]

126 (return) [ Chron. Paschal. p. 300. The ecclesiastical Notitiæ
may be consulted.]

127 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iii. p. 192, 193. Sextus Rufus de
Provinciis, c. 29. Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. iv. c. 29. This
general position must be applied and interpreted with some
caution.]

After Jovian had performed those engagements which the voice of
his people might have tempted him to violate, he hastened away
from the scene of his disgrace, and proceeded with his whole
court to enjoy the luxury of Antioch. 128 Without consulting the
dictates of religious zeal, he was prompted, by humanity and
gratitude, to bestow the last honors on the remains of his
deceased sovereign: 129 and Procopius, who sincerely bewailed the
loss of his kinsman, was removed from the command of the army,
under the decent pretence of conducting the funeral. The corpse
of Julian was transported from Nisibis to Tarsus, in a slow march
of fifteen days; and, as it passed through the cities of the
East, was saluted by the hostile factions, with mournful
lamentations and clamorous insults. The Pagans already placed
their beloved hero in the rank of those gods whose worship he had
restored; while the invectives of the Christians pursued the soul
of the Apostate to hell, and his body to the grave. 130 One party
lamented the approaching ruin of their altars; the other
celebrated the marvellous deliverance of their church. The
Christians applauded, in lofty and ambiguous strains, the stroke
of divine vengeance, which had been so long suspended over the
guilty head of Julian. They acknowledge, that the death of the
tyrant, at the instant he expired beyond the Tigris, was
_revealed_ to the saints of Egypt, Syria, and Cappadocia; 131 and
instead of suffering him to fall by the Persian darts, their
indiscretion ascribed the heroic deed to the obscure hand of some
mortal or immortal champion of the faith. 132 Such imprudent
declarations were eagerly adopted by the malice, or credulity, of
their adversaries; 133 who darkly insinuated, or confidently
asserted, that the governors of the church had instigated and
directed the fanaticism of a domestic assassin. 134 Above sixteen
years after the death of Julian, the charge was solemnly and
vehemently urged, in a public oration, addressed by Libanius to
the emperor Theodosius. His suspicions are unsupported by fact or
argument; and we can only esteem the generous zeal of the sophist
of Antioch for the cold and neglected ashes of his friend. 135

128 (return) [ Ammianus, xxv. 9. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 196. He
might be edax, vino Venerique indulgens. But I agree with La
Bleterie (tom. i. p. 148-154) in rejecting the foolish report of
a Bacchanalian riot (ap. Suidam) celebrated at Antioch, by the
emperor, his _wife_, and a troop of concubines.]

129 (return) [ The Abbé de la Bleterie (tom. i. p. 156-209)
handsomely exposes the brutal bigotry of Baronius, who would have
thrown Julian to the dogs, ne cespititia quidem sepultura
dignus.]

130 (return) [ Compare the sophist and the saint, (Libanius,
Monod. tom. ii. p. 251, and Orat. Parent. c. 145, p. 367, c. 156,
p. 377, with Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 125-132.) The
Christian orator faintly mutters some exhortations to modesty and
forgiveness; but he is well satisfied, that the real sufferings
of Julian will far exceed the fabulous torments of Ixion or
Tantalus.]

131 (return) [ Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 549)
has collected these visions. Some saint or angel was observed to
be absent in the night, on a secret expedition, &c.]

132 (return) [ Sozomen (l. vi. 2) applauds the Greek doctrine of
_tyrannicide;_ but the whole passage, which a Jesuit might have
translated, is prudently suppressed by the president Cousin.]

133 (return) [ Immediately after the death of Julian, an
uncertain rumor was scattered, telo cecidisse Romano. It was
carried, by some deserters to the Persian camp; and the Romans
were reproached as the assassins of the emperor by Sapor and his
subjects, (Ammian. xxv. 6. Libanius de ulciscenda Juliani nece,
c. xiii. p. 162, 163.) It was urged, as a decisive proof, that no
Persian had appeared to claim the promised reward, (Liban. Orat.
Parent. c. 141, p. 363.) But the flying horseman, who darted the
fatal javelin, might be ignorant of its effect; or he might be
slain in the same action. Ammianus neither feels nor inspires a
suspicion.]

134 (return) [ This dark and ambiguous expression may point to
Athanasius, the first, without a rival, of the Christian clergy,
(Libanius de ulcis. Jul. nece, c. 5, p. 149. La Bleterie, Hist.
de Jovien, tom. i. p. 179.)]

135 (return) [ The orator (Fabricius, Bibliot. Græc. tom. vii. p.
145-179) scatters suspicions, demands an inquiry, and insinuates,
that proofs might still be obtained. He ascribes the success of
the Huns to the criminal neglect of revenging Julian’s death.]

It was an ancient custom in the funerals, as well as in the
triumphs, of the Romans, that the voice of praise should be
corrected by that of satire and ridicule; and that, in the midst
of the splendid pageants, which displayed the glory of the living
or of the dead, their imperfections should not be concealed from
the eyes of the world. 136 This custom was practised in the
funeral of Julian. The comedians, who resented his contempt and
aversion for the theatre, exhibited, with the applause of a
Christian audience, the lively and exaggerated representation of
the faults and follies of the deceased emperor. His various
character and singular manners afforded an ample scope for
pleasantry and ridicule. 137 In the exercise of his uncommon
talents, he often descended below the majesty of his rank.
Alexander was transformed into Diogenes; the philosopher was
degraded into a priest. The purity of his virtue was sullied by
excessive vanity; his superstition disturbed the peace, and
endangered the safety, of a mighty empire; and his irregular
sallies were the less entitled to indulgence, as they appeared to
be the laborious efforts of art, or even of affectation. The
remains of Julian were interred at Tarsus in Cilicia; but his
stately tomb, which arose in that city, on the banks of the cold
and limpid Cydnus, 138 was displeasing to the faithful friends,
who loved and revered the memory of that extraordinary man. The
philosopher expressed a very reasonable wish, that the disciple
of Plato might have reposed amidst the groves of the academy; 139
while the soldier exclaimed, in bolder accents, that the ashes of
Julian should have been mingled with those of Cæsar, in the field
of Mars, and among the ancient monuments of Roman virtue. 140 The
history of princes does not very frequently renew the examples of
a similar competition.

136 (return) [ At the funeral of Vespasian, the comedian who
personated that frugal emperor, anxiously inquired how much it
cost. Fourscore thousand pounds, (centies.) Give me the tenth
part of the sum, and throw my body into the Tiber. Sueton, in
Vespasian, c. 19, with the notes of Casaubon and Gronovius.]

137 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iv. p. 119, 120) compares this
supposed ignominy and ridicule to the funeral honors of
Constantius, whose body was chanted over Mount Taurus by a choir
of angels.]

138 (return) [ Quintus Curtius, l. iii. c. 4. The luxuriancy of
his descriptions has been often censured. Yet it was almost the
duty of the historian to describe a river, whose waters had
nearly proved fatal to Alexander.]

139 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 156, p. 377. Yet he
acknowledges with gratitude the liberality of the two royal
brothers in decorating the tomb of Julian, (de ulcis. Jul. nece,
c. 7, p. 152.)]

140 (return) [ Cujus suprema et cineres, si qui tunc juste
consuleret, non Cydnus videre deberet, quamvis gratissimus amnis
et liquidus: sed ad perpetuandam gloriam recte factorum
præterlambere Tiberis, intersecans urbem æternam, divorumque
veterum monumenta præstringens Ammian. xxv. 10.]