Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.—Part II

The ambassadors of Julian had been instructed to execute, with
the utmost diligence, their important commission. But, in their
passage through Italy and Illyricum, they were detained by the
tedious and affected delays of the provincial governors; they
were conducted by slow journeys from Constantinople to Cæsarea in
Cappadocia; and when at length they were admitted to the presence
of Constantius, they found that he had already conceived, from
the despatches of his own officers, the most unfavorable opinion
of the conduct of Julian, and of the Gallic army. The letters
were heard with impatience; the trembling messengers were
dismissed with indignation and contempt; and the looks, gestures,
the furious language of the monarch, expressed 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 The empress
Eusebia had preserved, to the last moment of her life, the warm,
and even jealous, affection which she had conceived for Julian;
and her mild influence might have moderated the resentment of a
prince, who, since her death, was abandoned to his own passions,
and to the arts of his eunuchs. But the terror of a foreign
invasion obliged him to suspend the punishment of a private
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 presumptuous Cæsar
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 favorites of Constantius. Several months were ineffectually
consumed in a treaty which was negotiated at the distance of
three thousand miles between Paris and Antioch; and, as soon as
Julian perceived that his modest and respectful behavior 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 quæstor
Leonas: the haughty epistle of Constantius was read to the
attentive multitude; and Julian protested, with the most
flattering deference, 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 faint proposal
was impetuously silenced; and the acclamations of “Julian
Augustus, continue to reign, by the authority of the army, of the
people, of the republic which you have saved,” thundered 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 honors of the purple; whom he had educated
with so much care and tenderness; whom he had preserved in his
infancy, when he was left a helpless orphan.

“An orphan!” interrupted Julian, who justified his cause by
indulging his passions: “does the assassin 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 eloquence, the sentiments of contempt, of hatred, and of
resentment, which had been suppressed and imbittered by the
dissimulation of twenty years. After this message, which might be
considered as a signal of irreconcilable war, Julian, who, some
weeks before, had celebrated the Christian festival of the
Epiphany, 22 made a public declaration that he committed the care
of his safety to the Immortal Gods; and thus publicly renounced
the religion as well as the friendship of Constantius. 23

21 (return) [ Her remains were sent to Rome, and interred near
those of her sister Constantina, in the suburb of the _Via
Nomentana_. Ammian. 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 Prætorian præfect 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 Ammianus (xxi. 6.)]

22 (return) [ 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 Savior. The Romans, as ignorant
as their brethren of the real date of his birth, fixed the solemn
festival to the 25th of December, 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 Manicheismo tom. ii. p.
690-700.]

23 (return) [ The public and secret negotiations 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 materials.]

The situation of Julian required a vigorous and immediate
resolution. He had discovered, from intercepted letters, that his
adversary, sacrificing 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 indicate 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
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 Danube 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 expenses 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 exhorted 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
summoned 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 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 Prætorian præfect. That faithful 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 honorable, 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 præfect 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 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

24 (return) [ 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 (return) [ See his oration, and the behavior of the troops, in
Ammian. xxi. 5.]

26 (return) [ He sternly refused his hand to the suppliant
præfect, 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 (return) [ 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 præter merita
suffragante, ad potiorem veniat gradum. (Ammian. xx. 5.) Absence
did not weaken his regard for Sallust, with whose name (A. D.
363) he honored the consulship.]

The hopes of Julian depended much less on the number of his
troops, than on the celerity of his motions. In the execution of
a daring enterprise, 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 valor and to
fortune. In the neighborhood of Basil he assembled and divided
his army. 28 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 Rhætia 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 and, for many days, the fate of Julian was unknown to
the world. The secrecy of his march, his diligence, and vigor,
surmounted every obstacle; he forced his way over mountains and
morasses, occupied the bridges or swam the rivers, pursued his
direct course, 30 without reflecting whether he traversed the
territory of the Romans or of the Barbarians, and at length
emerged, between 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 as it lay
at anchor; secured a apply of coarse provisions sufficient to
satisfy the indelicate, and voracious, appetite of a Gallic army;
and boldly committed himself to the stream of the Danube. The
labors of the mariners, who plied their oars with incessant
diligence, and the steady continuance of a favorable wind,
carried his fleet above seven hundred miles in eleven days; 32
and he had already disembarked his troops at Bononia, 3211 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 deputations 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 a useless and ill-timed valor. 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 fame 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
presence of Julian; who kindly raised him from the ground, and
dispelled the terror and amazement which seemed to stupefy his
faculties. But Lucilian 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 remonstrances,” replied Julian,
with a smile of contempt: “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 acclamations 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 devoted 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 Hæmus; which,
almost in the midway between Sirmium and Constantinople,
separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia, by an abrupt descent
towards the former, and a gentle declivity on the side of the
latter. 33 The defence of this important post was intrusted 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

28 (return) [ Ammianus (xxi. 8) ascribes the same practice, and
the same motive, to Alexander the Great and other skilful
generals.]

29 (return) [ This wood was a part of the great Hercynian forest,
which, is the time of Cæsar, stretched away from the country of
the Rauraci (Basil) into the boundless regions of the north. See
Cluver, Germania Antiqua. l. iii. c. 47.]

30 (return) [ 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 (return) [ In that interval the _Notitia_ places two or three
fleets, the Lauriacensis, (at Lauriacum, or Lorch,) the
Arlapensis, the Maginensis; and mentions five legions, or
cohorts, of Libernarii, who should be a sort of marines. Sect.
lviii. edit. Labb.]

32 (return) [ 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 picturesque manner,
challenges Triptolemus and the Argonauts of Greece, &c.]

3211 (return) [ Banostar. _Mannert_.—M.]

33 (return) [ The description of Ammianus, which might be
supported by collateral evidence, ascertains the precise
situation of the _Angustiæ Succorum_, or passes of _Succi_. M.
d’Anville, from the trifling resemblance 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 (return) [ Whatever circumstances we may borrow elsewhere,
Ammianus (xx. 8, 9, 10) still supplies the series of the
narrative.]

The homage which Julian obtained, from the fears or the
inclination of the people, extended far beyond the immediate
effect of his arms. 35 The præfectures of Italy and Illyricum
were administered by Taurus and Florentius, who united that
important office with the vain honors 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 distributed to the
principal cities of the empire, a labored apology for his own
conduct; published the secret despatches of Constantius; and
solicited the judgment of mankind between two competitors, the
one of whom had expelled, and the other had invited, the
Barbarians. 36 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 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 pleading,
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, præfect 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 passionate invective against
the vices of Constantius, were heard with less satisfaction; and
the senate, as if Julian had been present, unanimously exclaimed,
“Respect, we beseech you, the author of your own fortune.” 38 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 Constantius.

35 (return) [ Ammian. xxi. 9, 10. Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 54,
p. 279, 280. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 156, 157.]

36 (return) [ Julian (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286) positively
asserts, that he intercepted the letters of Constantius to the
Barbarians; and Libanius 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 _famæ
solius_ admittenda est fides. He specifies, however, an
intercepted letter from Vadomair to Constantius, which supposes
an intimate correspondence between them. “disciplinam non
habet.”]

37 (return) [ Zosimus mentions his epistles to the Athenians, the
Corinthians, and the Lacedæmonians. 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. a l’Histoire de Jovien, p. 24, 25,) and is
one of the best manifestoes to be found in any language.]

38 (return) [ _Auctori tuo reverentiam rogamus_. Ammian. xxi. 10.
It is amusing enough to observe the secret conflicts of the
senate between flattery and fear. See Tacit. Hist. i. 85.]

The intelligence of the march and rapid progress of Julian was
speedily transmitted to his rival, who, by the retreat of Sapor,
had obtained 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
chase to Julian; for he never spoke of his military expedition in
any other light than that of a hunting party. 39 In the camp of
Hierapolis, in Syria, he communicated this design to his army;
slightly mentioned the guilt and rashness of the Cæsar; and
ventured to assure them, that if the mutineers 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, requested, with tears of adulation, that _his_ city
might be adorned with the head of the vanquished rebel. 40 A
chosen detachment was despatched away in post-wagons, 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 fidelity
of those troops which had been distinguished 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 advanced, 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 impregnable
city. The vigilance of Julian perceived 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 vigor. But the legionaries, who seemed to have rejected the
yoke of discipline, conducted the defence of the place with skill
and perseverance; vited the rest of Italy to imitate the example
of their courage 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

39 (return) [ Tanquam venaticiam prædam caperet: hoc enim ad
Jeniendum suorum metum subinde prædicabat. Ammian. xxii. 7.]

40 (return) [ 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 numbers of his
friends, (xxii. 14.)]

41 (return) [ Ammian. xxi. 7, 11, 12. He seems to describe, with
superfluous labor, the operations of the siege of Aquileia,
which, on this occasion, maintained its impregnable fame. Gregory
Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 68) ascribes this accidental revolt to
the wisdom of Constantius, whose assured victory he announces
with some appearance of truth. Constantio quem credebat procul
dubio fore victorem; nemo enim omnium tunc ab hac constanti
sententia discrepebat. Ammian. xxi. 7.]

But the humanity of Julian was preserved from the cruel
alternative which he pathetically laments, of destroying or of
being himself destroyed: 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 favorites durst not oppose his impatient desire of revenge. A
slight fever, which was perhaps occasioned by the agitation of
his spirits, was increased 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 His genuine character, which was
composed of pride and weakness, of superstition 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 contemporaries; 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. Before Constantius expired, he is said
to have named Julian for his successor; nor does it seem
improbable, 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 discord; and two
officers of rank were instantly despatched, 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 prevented by this
fortunate event. Without shedding 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 Hæmus, 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
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 A few days afterwards,
when the remains of the deceased emperor were landed in the
harbor, 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 Imperial 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 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,
obtained an easy pardon from the prudence or lenity of Julian;
who, in the thirty-second year of his age, acquired the
undisputed possession of the Roman empire. 45

42 (return) [ His death and character are faithfully delineated
by Ammianus, (xxi. 14, 15, 16;) and we are authorized 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 repentance 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. Note: Wagner thinks this sudden change
of sentiment altogether a fiction of the attendant courtiers and
chiefs of the army. who up to this time had been hostile to
Julian. Note in loco Ammian.—M.]

43 (return) [ In describing the triumph of Julian, Ammianus
(xxii. l, 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 (return) [ The funeral of Constantius is described by
Ammianus, (xxi. 16.) Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 119,)
Mamertinus, in (Panegyr. 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, beheld with very different eyes both
the dead and the living emperor.]

45 (return) [ The day and year of the birth of Julian are not
perfectly ascertained. 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
preferred the earlier date.]