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Iberoes of tbe Illations 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 FACTA DUCIS VIVENT, OPEROSAQUE 
 GLORIA RERUM. — OVID, IN LIVIAM, 165. 
 
 THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON 
 FAME SHALL LIVE. 
 
 JULIAN 
 
 Coin of Rhodes. Head of Helios; 
 
STATUE OF JULIAN. 
 
 FROM THE THERMES, PARIS. 
 
\ 
 
 JULIAN 
 
 PHILOSOPHER AND EMPEROR 
 
 AND THE 
 
 LAST STRUGGLE OF PAGANISM AGAINST CHRISTIANITY 
 
 7 
 
 ALICE GARDNER 
 
 H 
 
 LECTURER AND ASSOCIATE OF NEWNHAM 
 
 COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 
 
 AUTHOR OF " SYNESIUS OF CYRENE " 
 
 J-yifOl 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK LONDON 
 
 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 
 
 ^\t %xat\zxhat\zx ||r«ss 
 
 1895 
 
 / 
 
Copyright, 1895 
 
 By G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
 
 /*/^ c\/ 'Cbe Ifenfcfcerbocfter press, mew Jijorft 
 
TO THE 
 
 RIGHT REVEREND M. CREIGHTON 
 D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Etc. 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH 
 
 AND SOMETIME DIXIE PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 
 WITH MANY GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCES 
 
 BY 
 
 The Author 
 
^HE responsibility of including Julian 
 among the " Heroes of the Na- 
 tions " rests with the Editors of 
 this Series. For myself I would 
 only say that Julian has been a 
 most fascinating figure to me from 
 early youth, and that his character 
 has lost none of its attractiveness with the 
 more serious study of later years, while 
 his relations to his times have seemed 
 to me to grow more and more instructive in many 
 ways. Julian is not well known to the reading pub- 
 lic at the present day, though Mr. Rendall's able 
 little book, written from a point of view somewhat 
 different from mine, ought to have helped to set him 
 in a clearer light. 
 
 It is always a pleasant task to acknowledge one's 
 obligations to those who have helped one's work by 
 counsel, criticism, or direction. I must be allowed 
 in the first place to express my thanks to my brothers, 
 Professor Percy Gardner of Oxford, and Mr. Ernest 
 Gardner of the British Archaeological School at 
 Athens : the former for much general advice, and for 
 assistance in selecting the illustrations ; the latter for 
 very useful criticisms while the work was in manu- 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 script, and especially for help in rendering difficult 
 passages in the Greek text. Dr. J. S. Reid, tutor of 
 Gonville and Caius College, has directed my atten- 
 tion to many useful books, chiefly German, on por- 
 tions of the subject, and has taken trouble in helping 
 to elucidate some of Julian's laws preserved in the 
 Theodosian Code. On this subject I have also re- 
 ceived suggestions and information from Mr. Monro, 
 likewise of Caius College. Mrs. Archer-Hind, of 
 Cambridge, has kindly read my proofs and made 
 some very helpful criticisms. I have to thank the 
 Arundel Society for kind permission to obtain 
 photographs of the fictile ivories at South Kensing- 
 ton. Mr. Collinson, who has travelled much in Asia 
 Minor, has most kindly given me photographs taken 
 by himself in or near Tarsus, with interesting com- 
 ments. Messrs. Longmans have kindly allowed the 
 reproduction of some curious Persian figures in 
 The Seventh Monarchy of Canon Rawlinson. And 
 the gentlemen in the Medal Room of the British 
 Museum, especially Mr. George Hill, have been most 
 kind in helping me to select my coins, and in pro- 
 curing me casts of them. 
 
 I would here say a word as to my chief object in 
 selecting my illustrations. Holding that their chief 
 function was to illustrate the text rather than to 
 adorn the book, I endeavoured to choose such as 
 might make the story more vivid by enabling my 
 readers to construct in imagination as much as pos- 
 sible of the environment in which Julian and his 
 contemporaries lived, their personal appearance and 
 dress, the most striking places where they dwelt, the 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 scenes in which they habitually moved. I have not 
 confined myself to contemporary art, which was dur- 
 ing my period in a state of weakness and decline. 
 One art, however, seems to have suffered less, and 
 to have had a more continuous existence than the 
 rest — that of carving in ivory. The ivory diptychs 
 I have chosen, many of them from this period or a 
 little later, give a clear notion of the dress and ap 
 pearance of the men and women of the time. Some 
 mythological subjects seemed a suitable addition, 
 though belonging to an earlier period. Similarly, in 
 addition to portraits and other coins of the period, 
 I have selected some fine specimens of turreted and 
 chariot-driven goddesses and radiant gods, struck in 
 the great Asiatic cities, which help us in some meas- 
 ure to realise the Hellenic conceptions which Julian 
 endeavoured to revive. 
 
 I have given, in suitable places, references to the 
 chief authorities I have used. Of course the chief 
 authority for the student of Julian must always be 
 Julian himself. 
 
 Alice Gardner. 
 
 Newnham College, Cambridge, 
 5th February, 1895. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ROMAN WORLD UNDER CONSTANTINE . . I 
 
 Public recognition of three great facts, how far already made 
 — Its relation to the career of Julian, (i) That the Govern- 
 ment had become monarchic — System of Diocletian — Func- 
 tionaries and ranks — Administration in dioceses and provinces 
 — Separation of civil and military authority. (2) Rome no 
 longer the one capital — Extension of citizenship — Impor- 
 tance of other great cities — Founding of a new Rome by Con- 
 stantine — Failure of Diocletian's schemes of division — Con- 
 flicts which led to supremacy of Constantine. (3) Christianity 
 the religion of the Empire — Last persecution under Diocletian 
 — Religious policy of Constantius Chlorus and Constantine 
 — Edicts of Toleration — Other laws in favour of Christians 
 — Constantine's actions with regard to the Donatist and the 
 Arian controversies — Athanasius and the Council of Nicaea 
 — Arian reaction — Synod of Tyre — Athanasius demands 
 justice — His-changes of fortune — Effect of these controver- 
 sies on the education and later position of Julian — General 
 character of the period. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PARENTAGE OF JULIAN. HIS BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 CAREER AND END OF HIS BROTHER GALLUS . 24 
 
 Birth of Julian — His three names — His pedigree — Death of 
 his mother — Family massacre on death of Constantine — 
 
 ix 
 
x Contents, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Escape of Julian and Gallus — New division of empire — Civil 
 strife — Death of the younger Constantine — Conflicts with the 
 Sassanid kings — Sapor invades Mesopotamia — Battle of Sin- 
 gara — Revolts of Magnentius,Vetranio, and Nepotian — Death 
 of Constans — Success of Constantius — Battle of Mursa — Con- 
 stantius sole Emperor — His need of a colleague — Educa- 
 tion of Gallus and Julian in Constantinople, Marcellum, etc. 
 Julian instructed in Homer by Mardonius — Intercourse with 
 maternal relations — Lonely youth — Gallus made Caesar and 
 married to Constantina — Sent to Antioch — His failure — 
 Domitian sent to make inquiries — Tumult, alleged con- 
 spiracy, severe punishments — Mission of Ursicinus — Death 
 of Constantina — Reckless conduct of Gallus — He starts for 
 Italy — Is put to death in Istria — Relations of the two 
 brothers. 
 Notes on genealogical tree, etc. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 julian's academic education 48 
 
 Intellectual tastes and studious habits of Julian — Was he 
 ever a Christian ? — Intellectual life of the great Asiatic cities 
 — Of Athens — Character of a literary education at this time 
 — Subjects of study — Predominance of rhetoric — Influence of 
 Rhetoric on the study of literature, mathematics, medicine, 
 law, and philosophy — Representative leaders of thought — 
 Maximus and the theosophical circle at Pergamun — Libanius 
 of Antioch — His career and character — Themistius — His 
 works, his religious attitude — Christianity and Paganism in 
 education — Student life in Athens — Lack of discipline — Its 
 effects on Julian. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 julian's elevation to the c^esar-Ship . . .73 
 
 Effects of fall of Gallus — Character of Constantius and of 
 Eusebia — Influence of sycophants — Julian summoned to 
 Milan — Exile to Como — Retirement to Athens — His life 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 there — His personal appearance — Fresh troubles in the East 
 — Disturbances on Rhine frontier — Constantius in Gaul — 
 His campaign in Rhaetia — Revolt of Silvanus treacherously- 
 suppressed — Constantius feels the need of a colleague — 
 Julian summoned from Athens to Milan — Mental struggles — 
 He is made Caesar and marries Helen — Leaves for Gaul — 
 News of fall of Agrippina — Winter in France. 
 Notes, Helen and Eusebia, etc, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Julian's c^esarship in gaul . . . . . 94 
 
 Julian and his colleagues — Sphere of his authority and 
 character of his task — His barbarian foes — Campaign ofjj6 
 — March to Autun, Rheims, and the Rhine — Recovery of fort- 
 resses — -Of Cologne — Romans retire to Sens — Irruption of 
 barbarians — Misconduct and recall of Marcellus — Julian's 
 attention to judicial and financial affairs — His mode of life- 
 Rhetorical compositions — Campaign o/jjy — Julian thwarted 
 by Barbatio — The Laeti attack Lyons — Julian tries to inter- 
 cept their retreat — Restoration of Rhine fortresses — Great 
 invasion of Allemanni — They are beaten at the battle of 
 Strasburg — Advance into the enemy's country — Winter in 
 Paris — Financial reforms — Campaign 0/358 — March towards 
 the lower Rhine — Defeat of the Salian Franks and of the 
 Chamavi — Communication with Britain restored — Recall of 
 Sallust — Julian again crosses the Rhine — Successes — Cam- 
 paign of J59 — Fortress building and expedition into Ger- 
 many — Submission of chiefs — remarkable nature of Julian's 
 achievements. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN EAST AND WEST. JULIAN 
 
 BECOMES EMPEROR 117 
 
 Intimate connection between events in East and West — 
 Rival interpretations of breach between Constantius and 
 
xii Contents. 
 
 Julian — Constantius visits Rome — New regulations — Adorn- 
 ment of the city — Alarm from the Danubian provinces — Ex- 
 pedition (358) against Quadi and Sarmatians — Massacre of 
 Limigantes — Renewed conflict — Negotiations with Sapor — 
 Necessity of war — Revolt of Antoninus and expedition of 
 Ursicinus into Mesopotamia — Loss of Amida — Demand of 
 troops from Gaul — Difficult position of Julian — Objection 
 raised by the soldiers — Farewell dinner at Paris — Tumultuous 
 night — Julian saluted as Augustus — Alarm of the soldiers for 
 his safety — Attempts at compromise — Julian addresses the 
 soldiers and writes a letter of explanation to Constantius — 
 His second (doubtful) letter — Answer of Constantius — The 
 army rejects its terms — Further unsuccessful negotiations — 
 Various views of Julian's conduct. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WARS IN EAST AND WEST CONTINUED. DEATH OF 
 CONSTANTIUS, AND THE BEGINNING OF JULIAN'S 
 REIGN AS SOLE AUGUSTUS 145 
 
 Reasons for delay on both sides — Persian war — Fall of Sin- 
 gara and of Phoenice — Constantius advances against Persians 
 — His third marriage — Attempts to gain allies in the East 
 and to secure Africa against Julian — Sapor retreats — Con- 
 stantius turns westward — Campaign 0/360 in Gaul — Subju- 
 gation of Attuarian Franks — Julian again crosses the Rhine — 
 He assumes imperial insignia — Celebrates the Epiphany — 
 Death of Helen — Letters written to Athens and other cities 
 — Campaign of 361 — Expedition against Vadomar, a chief 
 of the Allemanni — Julian's fifth crossing of the Rhine — He 
 addresses the soldiers and marches eastward — Threefold 
 march — Sirmium taken — The pass of Succi seized — Dis- 
 affection in Rome — Meeting at Sirmium — Unexpected death 
 of Constantius — His melancholy career — The corpse brought 
 to Constantinople — Julian enters the city and assists at the 
 obsequies — End of mutiny — Julian's immediate objects — 
 commission to punish offenders — Cases of just and of unjust 
 
Contents. xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 punishment — Palace reforms — Favours to philosophers — Im- 
 provement of the city — Religious schemes. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 julian's religion and philosophy . . . 169 
 
 Difficulty of grasping Julian's religious position — Excuses 
 made for his so-called apostasy — Influence of Arianism — 
 Of defective religious education — Positive sides of his religion 
 more important than negative — His ardent Hellenism — At- 
 titude of early Christian teachers towards the pagan culture 
 — Oriental elements in Julian's religion — Mithraicism — Its 
 origin, development, and significance at this time — Cosmo- 
 politan character of religion in the Roman Empire — Reasons 
 for growth of Mithraicism — Julian's devotion to King Helios 
 — Its connection with the other elements of his theology — 
 With the theories of Neo-Platonism — Hierarchies and agen- 
 cies — Absence of morality — Julian's attempts to rationalise 
 and moralise the old mythology — Difficulty of the task. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JULIAN AS RELIGIOUS REFORMER AND CONTROVER- 
 SIALIST 193 
 
 Destruction and reconstruction — Attempt to graft humane 
 and moral ideas on pagan institutions — Four letters on re- 
 ligion to the priestess Callixena — Fragment to a priest, on 
 duties of his office — Julian's ideal of the priestly life — To 
 Arsacius, high-priest of Galatia — To a priest guilty of assault 
 — Judgment of Gregory Nazianzen on Julian's reforms — Con- 
 troversial writings against Christians — How far original ? — 
 Their present form — Different kinds of argument used by 
 Julian in dealing with what is capable or incapable of ex- 
 amination — Hellenic and Jewish theories of Creation — Points 
 in which Christians differed both from Jews and from Hel- 
 lenes — Strictures on Jewish and Christian morals — Jewish and 
 Christian worship — Julian's failure to understand the Chris- 
 tian stand-point. 
 Notes. 
 
xiv Contents, 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Julian's policy against the christians . .218 
 
 Religious toleration — Under what conditions possible — In- 
 difference or laissez-faire — Julian's idea of the supreme im- 
 portance of religious truth, and of his own responsibilities as 
 ruler — Means of ascertaining his policy — His determination 
 not to persecute — Limits to his toleration — Withdrawal of 
 privileges from clergy — Restoration of temple property — 
 Cases of iconoclasm — Equal indulgence to all sects — Effects 
 on religious parties — Return of exiles — Varied career of Ae- 
 tius of Antioch — Party conflict in Alexandria — Murder of 
 Bishop George — Return of Athanasius — He is again exiled 
 — Julian's letter to the Alexandrians — Julian's edict against 
 Christian schoolmasters — Its effect — Indirect influence 
 against Christianity. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LEGISLATIVE LABOURS AND ADMINISTRATIVE RE- 
 FORMS 245 
 
 Practical and theoretical elements in Julian's character and 
 work — Various sources of law in the Roman Empire — 
 Julian's efforts towards judicial and financial reforms — His 
 personal interest in administration and judicature — Laws 
 to regulate appeals and facilitate fair trials — Laws to moder- 
 ate public burdens — The public post — Attempts to check 
 abuses of the system — Concessions of immunity to impover- 
 ished districts — Special exemptions — Endeavours to improve 
 municipal organisations — Various laws — Policy towards the 
 Jews — Project to rebuild the temple — Its mysterious failure 
 — His probable design. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LITERARY RECREATIONS. CONTROVERSY WITH THE 
 
 CYNICS 268 
 
 Character of Julian's literary work — Chief remains — Verses 
 on Beer and on the Organ. " The Caesars" — Sketch of the 
 
Contents. xv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 composition — Procession of Emperors — Contest and award 
 — Oration "Against the Cynic Heraclius " — Objection to 
 Cynic treatment of mythology — Julian's model allegory — 
 Oration " To the Unmannerly Dogs" — Character and origin 
 of Cynicism — Its chief features in this period — Why Julian 
 disapproved it — Relations of Cynics and Christians. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 JULIAN AND THE ANTIOCHENES . . • . . 295 
 
 Preparation for Persian war — Julian crosses into Asia — He 
 visits Nicomedia and Pessinus — His letter to Aristoxenus — 
 Arrival at Antioch — Character of city and citizens — Inter- 
 course of Julian and Libanius — Judicial measures — Dispute 
 with Senators as to religious rites — Transference of bones of 
 St. Babylas — Burning of temple at Daphne — Attempt to regu- 
 late price of corn — The Senate ordered into custody — In- 
 effectual relief measures and grants — Julian writes the Mis- 
 opogon — Death of his uncle Julian — He leaves Antioch — 
 Bitter feeling. 
 Notes. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 julian's Persian campaign, his death . .314 
 
 Julian's objects and plans — The fugitive prince Hormisdas 
 — March to Bercea, Batnae, Hierapolis, Carrhse — Troops 
 detached for Armenia — Advance down the valley of the 
 Euphrates — Beginning of hostilities at Anatho — Difficulties 
 of march — Storming of Pirisabora — Capture of Maogamalcha 
 — The fleet brought from the Euphrates into the Tigris — 
 Troops cross the Tigris — Decision not to blockade Ctesiphon 
 — Julian strikes eastward — Great difficulties of march — 
 Julian burns his ships — Progress towards the north — The 
 Persian army appears — Harassing march — Indecisive battle 
 — Truce — Omens — The march resumed — Sudden attack of 
 Persians — Julian rushes against the enemy — His wound and 
 death — History and tradition. 
 Notes. 
 
XVI 
 
 Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 outcome of julian's enterprise, his position 
 in history 338 
 
 (i.) The East — State of the army — Election of Jovian, as Em- 
 peror — Disastrous march and ignominious peace — Evacu- 
 ation of Nisibis — Burial of Julian at Tarsus — Death of Jo- 
 vian — Succession of Valentinian and Valens — Subsequent 
 affairs in the East, (ii.) The West : unwise measures of Jovian 
 — Valentinian revives the policy of Julian in Gaul — Results 
 of Julian's work there, (iii.) Civil government : general wish 
 to continue a policy of economy — Suspicious character of 
 Valens — Rebellion of Procopius — Legislative policy of Julian 
 continued, (iv.) Religious affairs — Restoration of Christian 
 symbols and privileges, but not much persecution — Valen- 
 tinian in favour of non-intervention — Different policy of 
 Theodosius — Concluding survey of Julian's life and char- 
 acter. 
 Notes. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 HEAD OF HELIOS. (COIN OF RHODES) Page preceding frontispiece 
 STATUE OF JULIAN FROM THE THERMES, PARIS,* Frontispiece 
 
 constantinople personified and a galley. 1 pagh 
 
 (coin of the age of constantine) . . i 
 
 a warrior. (ivory diptych, 4th century) 2 . 8 
 
 map of the roman empire, when divided by con- 
 stantine among his sons . . . io * 
 
 a consul. (ivory diptych, 5th or 6th cen- 
 
 tury) 2 14 
 
 a consul, between two columns. (ivory dip- 
 TYCH.) 2 18 
 
 ROME PERSONIFIED WOLF AND TWINS. (COIN OF 
 
 THE AGE OF .CONSTANTINE) ' .... 22 
 
 GOLD MEDALLION OF THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE 1 . 24 
 
 GAMES IN CIRCUS. (iVORY DIPTYCH, 2D CENTURY) 2 26 
 
 BAS-RELIEF OF SAPOR II. AND SAPOR III. IN KER- 
 
 MANSHAH 3 30 
 
 COIN OF CONSTANTIUS GALLUS 1 . . . . 45 
 
 * I am bound to say that Bernouilli, in his Iconographie Romaine, 
 throws doubt on the ascription of this statue to Julian. But the 
 argument in favour of it seems pretty strong. 
 
 1 Reproduced from Cohen's Description historique des Monnaies 
 frappe'es sous V Empire Romain. 
 
 2 Reproduced by permission of the Arundel Society. 
 
 3 Reproduced, by permission, from Rawlinson's Seventh Monarchy. 
 
 xvii 
 
X v i i i List of Illustrations. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PEDIGREES OF JULIAN'S FATHER AND MOTHER . 46 
 
 COINS OF NICOMEDIA. (THREE TEMPLES — AGONISTIC 
 
 URNS WITH BRANCHES OF PALM) ... 48 
 
 COIN OF NIC^EA. (IMPERIAL TIMES) ... 48 
 
 A MUSE. (iVORY DIPTYCH, 4TH OR 5TH CENTURY) ? 54 
 A BUNDLE OF MANUSCRIPTS ROLLED UP. 2 A COIN OF 
 
 CONSTANTINE II. 8 ...... 70 
 
 COIN OF MAGNENTIUS 3 73 
 
 EMPRESS AND SON — PERHAPS PLACIDIA AND VALEN- 
 
 TINIAN. (iVORY DIPTYCH) * . . . 74 ' 
 
 RUINS OF IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, MILAN . .86 
 
 COIN OF CONSTANTINE II. (CONSTANTINE RECEIVING 
 
 A CROWN FROM HEAVEN | ONE OF HIS SONS, TO 
 
 THE RIGHT, RECEIVING A CROWN FROM VICTORY; 
 
 THE OTHER, TO THE LEFT, BEING CROWNED BY 
 
 A SOLDIER) 3 91 
 
 A FOUR-HORSE CHARIOT 2 94 / 
 
 MAP OF GAUL . . . . .... . 98' 
 
 THE THERMES, JULIAN'S PALACE AT PARIS . . IIO / 
 
 ROMAN ENSIGNS OF THE CELT^E AND OF THE PETU- 
 
 LANTES 2 .117 
 
 chariot race before a consul. (ivory diptych, j 
 
 3d or 4th century) ' . . . . . 120 
 
 coin of julian. (the bull apis ; above, stars) 3 143 
 
 coin of king sapor ii., a.d. 340-370 . . . 145 
 
 triumphal arch at rheims ..... 156 ' 
 
 consul with dignitaries. (ivory diptych, 5th 
 
 century) * ...... . 162 
 
 consul between two dignitaries. (ivory dip- 
 TYCH, 5TH CENTURY) 1 . . . . . l66 
 
 . 
 
 1 Reproduced by permission of the Arundel Society. 
 
 2 Reproduced from Boecking's A r oiiiia Dignitatum, 
 
 3 Reproduced from Cohen's Description historique des Monnaies 
 frapphs sous V Empire Romain. 
 
List of Illustrations.. xix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HEADS OF SARAPIS AND ISIS. REVERSE \ ISIS AND 
 
 NEPHTHYS FACE TO FACE. (COIN OF JULIAN) * 169 
 HEAD OF HELIOS. (COIN OF RHODES) . . 1 69 
 
 ASKLEPIOS. (iVORY DIPTYCH, 2D OR 3D CENTURY) 2 186 
 HYGIEIA. (iVORY DIPTYCH, 2D OR 3D CENTURY) 2 188 
 COIN OF SMYRNA. (HEAD OF CYBELE) . . . I90 
 
 HEADS OF SARAPIS AND ISIS. (COIN OF JULIAN AND 
 
 HELEN — SO-CALLED.) REVERSE : VOTA PUBLIC A, 
 
 ISIS WITH SISTRUM AND VASE * I93 
 
 HEAD OF ISIS PHARIA. REVERSE : ISIS PHARIA ON A 
 
 GALLEY. (COIN OF HELEN) a .... 216 
 CYBELE IN HER CHARIOT, DRAWN BY LIONS. (COIN 
 
 OF SMYRNA, IMPERIAL TIMES) . . . . 2l8 
 
 COIN OF JULIAN. REVERSE : ISIS SUCKLING HORUS J 242 
 COIN OF HELEN, MOTHER OF CONSTANTINE. REVERSE: 
 
 SECURITAS REIPUBLIC/E . . . . .245 
 
 TYCHE OF TARSUS IMPERIAL TIMES. (a COIn) . 245 
 
 COIN OF CONSTATS I., 1 AND COIN OF ANTIOCH. (viC- ' 
 
 TORY) . . . . . . . . 262 
 
 COIN OF SMYRNA (CYBELE ON HER THRONE), AND 
 
 COIN OF TARSUS (IMPERIAL TIMES) . . . 262 
 
 HEAD OF ISIS PHARIA, COIN OF NISIBIS (IMPERIAL 
 
 TIMES), AND COIN OF TARSUS .... 262 ' 
 MEDAL OF MAXIMIAN. HEAD WITH ATTRIBUTES OF 
 
 HERACLES. REVERSE : THREE FEMALE FIGURES 
 
 WITH CORNUCOPIA 268 
 
 3 
 
 PRIMITIVE ORGAN . . . . . . . 272 
 
 A POET OR PHILOSOPHER (POSSIBLY A CYNIC). (iVORY 
 
 DIPTYCH, 4TH OR 5TH CENTURY) 2 . . . 286 
 
 1 Reproduced from Cohen's Description hisiorique des Monnaies 
 frapp e'es sous V Empire Romain. 
 
 2 Reproduced by permission of the Arundel Society. 
 
 3 Reproduced from Hopkins's History of the Organ. Messrs. 
 Robert Cocks & Co. 
 
XX List of Illustrations. 
 
 medallion of constantine the great. re- 
 verse i seated figures receiving trophy 
 and gifts ...... . 292 
 
 coins of antioch, a goddess in her temple (im- 
 perial times), and tyche of the city . 295 
 statue of antioch and the orontes . . 296 
 
 the cilician gates* 298 
 
 coin of antioch, tyche of the city. reverse : 
 
 a spray (of laurel ?) 312 
 
 coin of sapor ii., of persia. reverse : fire- 
 altar with worshippers .... 314 
 
 map of mesopotamia ...... 3 
 
 persian battle-scene. (from a bas-relief) 1 . t> 22 
 
 coin of jovian 335 
 
 coin of valentinian the elder. reverse : em- 
 peror holding standard and victory 1 . 337 
 an ancient gateway of tarsus* . . . 342 
 the tomb of jovinus at rheims (from a photo- 
 GRAPH) 346 
 
 COIN OF VALENS AND VALENTINIAN 2 . . . 355 
 
 14 1 
 
 16' 
 
 / 
 
 * From a photograph by Mr. Collinson. 
 
 1 Reproduced, by permission, from Rawlinson's Seventh Monarchy. 
 
 2 Reproduced from Cohen's Description historique des Monnaies 
 f rappees sous V Empire Romain. 
 
Coin of Constantinople : age of Constantine. Reverse, victoria avc : 
 Victory on the prow of a galley. 
 
 JULIAN, 
 
 PHILOSOPHER AND EMPEROR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ROMAN WORLD UNDER CONSTANTINE. 
 305-337- 
 
 " The time is out of joint, O cursed spite 
 
 That ever I was born to set it right ! " — Hamlet, i., 5. 
 
 " oXiyov Ssiv aitavra ditErpditrj diet ds rtfv rwv 
 Qegdv svjueveiav 6GoC > 6fi£§<x itavTEi." — Julian, Ep. 7. 
 
 URING the early years of the fourth 
 
 century of our era, the fortunes of 
 Q iSHS Hf ^^ e Graeco-Roman world were con- 
 siderably modified by the frank and 
 official recognition of three facts, 
 gjgS^gafcjgjj which hitherto, though patent to 
 thoughtful observers, had been more 
 or less successfully hidden, under a mass of venerable 
 fictions, from the eyes of the people at large. 1 
 
1 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 The first of these three facts was that the govern- 
 ment of the Roman Empire had ceased to be a 
 republic. 
 
 The second was that the Eternal City of Rome 
 was no longer the one centre of the whole political 
 system. 
 
 The third was that the worship of the ancient 
 gods of Greece and Rome, neither in its earlier and 
 simpler forms, nor in its later combinations with 
 Oriental mythology and ritual and with theosophic 
 accretions from the schools, could any longer be 
 regarded as the religion of the people and their 
 rulers. 
 
 The recognition of these three momentous facts 
 was not simultaneous nor made by one person. It 
 may be regarded as representing the chief lines of 
 the policy followed by the Emperors Diocletian and 
 Constantine. Yet Diocletian was so far from recog- 
 nising the inevitable character of the religious revo- 
 lution going on in the Empire, that his reign marks 
 the last effort to check by stern persecution the ris- 
 ing tide of Christianity. In political and military 
 affairs, on the other hand, some of the changes 
 made by these great Emperors had been anticipated 
 by others of earlier date. Thus the great soldier- 
 Emperor, Aurelian, in his brief reign of less than five 
 years (a. D. 270-275), had inaugurated several of 
 the changes adopted during the succeeding period. 
 But the reforms of the years with which we are now 
 occupied are sufficiently homogeneous, and were 
 carried out within a short enough period of time to 
 enable us to draw here a line separating two his- 
 
3371 The Romdn World under Constantine. 3 
 
 torical epochs, which some German historians dis- 
 tinguish as that of the Princedom and that of the 
 Absolute Monarchy. 
 
 It is, of course, far beyond our present purpose to 
 examine and narrate, even in barest outline, the 
 external fortunes and the internal developments of 
 the Empire under the rule of Constantine and his 
 immediate predecessors. Such a task would require 
 powers equal to those of the great English historian 
 who has written of this time, and whose work, in 
 spite of its blemishes is not likely to be soon 
 superseded. For although in many of our modern 
 writers of history we may reasonably look for a more 
 judicial impartiality, for a more scrupulous accuracy 
 in detail, and for a greater breadth of sympathy, we 
 should hardly dare to expect from the pen of any 
 one of them as weighty, as impressive, and as inspir- 
 ing a work as that of Edward Gibbon. Of late 
 years, however, while some learned French and 
 German writers have endeavoured to follow in 
 Gibbon's footsteps, taking up his great subject as a 
 whole, useful work has also been done by more 
 special investigators of various nations who have 
 restricted their labours to one or other of the sec- 
 tions into which that vast field may be divided. 
 Those who would master the history of the Roman 
 Empire, if not endowed with colossal powers, must 
 adopt the maxim of the Romans themselves, and 
 divide that they may conquer. But here the 
 biographer finds his task simpler than that of 
 the historian ; for him the division is ready-made, 
 and his standpoint is definitely marked. He has to 
 
4 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. L305 
 
 regard all the historical events of his period solely as 
 constituting the environment in which his hero 
 lived and laboured. Thus for us, in our present 
 study, no more of the Roman world and of contem- 
 porary history has to be considered than is absolutely 
 essential for those who would understand the life 
 and character of Julian. 
 
 Julian's career was greatly influenced by the 
 recognition of the three great changes. It exhibits 
 in a striking manner the dominant tendencies of the 
 age, tendencies against which, for the most part, 
 Julian felt himself bound to maintain a vigorous 
 resistance. Not that he was unwilling to follow the 
 policy of his predecessors in so far as it was condu- 
 cive to the energetic defence and the efficient admin- 
 istration of the Empire. But in his quick sympathy 
 with the aspirations of past ages, and his entire devo- 
 tion to ideas which had ceased to sway the minds of 
 men, Julian felt himself out of harmony with the 
 world in which he lived, and thus he came to throw 
 all his powers and affections into the scale of 
 reaction. Perhaps some English and American 
 readers, to whom the cause of progress and the 
 cause of the right may seem to be identical, would 
 regard the phrase " a reactionary hero," as a contra- 
 diction in terms. Whether or no Julian deserves to 
 be called a hero, we may be better able to judge at 
 the close of our enquiry. Here we would only say 
 that the fact of his being a reactionary ought not 
 unduly to prejudice us against him at the outset. 
 For even if the upward progress of mankind were as 
 sure and as steady as some optimistic philosophers 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine. 5 
 
 would have us believe, yet such philosophers cannot 
 deny that in the course of the march some good 
 things are often dropped by the way, in order, per- 
 haps, that yet better things, incompatible with the 
 older, may be securely grasped. And if this is so, 
 the passing generation has no right to undervalue 
 the services of those who would call its attention, 
 sometimes, perhaps in overstrained and querulous 
 tones, to the glories of the treasures which are being 
 lost, but of which, perchance, some fragments may 
 yet be recovered. 
 
 Now each of the three changes, or acknowledgments 
 of change, which we have to consider, was abhorrent 
 to the mind and character of Julian. Hating pomp 
 and show, impatient of the petty, hampering rules of 
 Court etiquette, constantly dwelling in thought on 
 the ancient glories of democratic Athens and sena- 
 torial Rome, he could hardly view the orientalising 
 and inordinate exaltation of the Imperial dignity in 
 the light of a reform. Yet his almost single-handed 
 efforts to revive the great days of the Roman Senate 
 and of Greek municipal freedom were not productive 
 of very great results, either for good or for evil. Of 
 Rome herself, in spite of an antiquarian deference, 
 he was not as zealous a champion as he was of the 
 Graeco-Roman culture which seemed to be bound up 
 in its fortunes with those of the great Empire, 
 threatened as both were in his day by adversaries on 
 the border and by discontented classes and nations 
 within. A prince whose two chief victories were 
 gained one on the Rhine and the other on the Tigris, 
 who devoted equal care to the military maintenance 
 
6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 of Roman defences and to the verbal championship 
 of Greek letters and ideas, may certainly be regarded 
 as having done his part in keeping up the integrity ' 
 of the Empire. As to the change in spiritual condi- 
 tions, this was to him not merely an adverse element 
 of the environment in which he had to work ; it was 
 the destruction of all that he held dear and believed 
 to be most necessary for the common good. He 
 felt bound to prevent such a destruction at any cost, 
 or to perish in the attempt. 
 
 To avoid vagueness, let us now consider very 
 briefly, and in relation to the main subject of our 
 narrative, how these great changes, political and re- 
 ligious, were being brought about, and what was the 
 exact significance of each one of the three. 
 
 I. Gibbon has defined the government of Au- 
 gustus and his successors as " an absolute monarchy 
 disguised by the forms of a commonwealth." To 
 investigate the character of the monarchy and the 
 methods of its disguise does not belong to our pres- 
 ent task. All who have even a slight acquaintance 
 with the history of the Roman Empire have read how 
 after the comparatively prosperous days of the Anto- 
 nines, the real power came into the hands of a vio- 
 lent and rapacious soldiery, destitute of national feel- 
 ing, impatient of any attempts to enforce order and 
 discipline. Anarchy within and perpetual hostilities 
 on the frontier had brought the fortunes of the Em- 
 pire to a low ebb, when there arose a succession of 
 strong rulers, beginning with Claudius II., an ances- 
 tor of Julian (268-270, A. D.), who were capable of 
 restoring discipline, of beating back insolent invaders, 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine. 7 
 
 and of taking steps towards the consolidation of the 
 Empire. Still, the Imperial finances were on the 
 Verge of bankruptcy, and the Imperial defence in des- 
 perate need of a thorough reorganisation, when, in 
 285 A.D., Diocletian was called to the throne. This 
 great Emperor, whose deep and powerful nature 
 has been somewhat of an enigma to all historians, 
 was not a Roman nor even an Italian by birth, but a 
 Dalmatian of low descent, and was perhaps the bet- 
 ter able to effect the necessary reforms in that he was 
 but lightly bound by the traditions of the past. When 
 he had overcome the rebellions that disturbed the 
 earlier years of his reign, he devoted his energies to 
 a series of administrative arrangements that should 
 bring all parts of the Empire more directly under the 
 control of the autocratic ruler, should increase the 
 resources of the government, and diminish opportuni- 
 ties for usurpation and insurrection. He judged it 
 expedient to surround the Imperial person with all 
 the pomp and ceremony of Oriental monarchy, to in- 
 sist that subjects admitted to his presence should kneel 
 and kiss the border of his purple robe ; he assumed 
 the title of Dominus, and accepted even that of Deus. 
 The great functionaries of old time, the Consuls, had 
 long ceased^to have any but an ornamental existence. 
 The Senate had lost all legislative power, and all 
 freedom of speech. Imperial edicts and Imperial 
 rescripts were the only forms of legislative action. 
 The Emperor was supreme over the legislative, judi- 
 cial, and administrative systems. His Court officials, 
 especially the Master of the Offices, were among 
 the greatest functionaries. His private fortune was 
 
8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 hardly to be distinguished from the public treasure. 
 His Council of State was presided over by an officer of 
 his Court. The pompous and ceremonious etiquette 
 with which Diocletian and his successors surrounded 
 themselves was extended to all who took part in the 
 government. The ranks in which men of high 
 standing were placed — the Illustres, the Spectabiles, 
 the Clarissimi, etc. — were clearly defined and 
 minutely observed. The nobility was for the most 
 part of an official rather than of an hereditary 
 character. Even the title of Patrician became un- 
 der Constantine a merely personal distinction. In 
 the lower grades of society trade and industry were 
 fettered, and individual enterprise and liberty were re- 
 duced to a minimum by compulsory hereditary mem- 
 bership in the various corporations (of ship-owners 
 down to those of bakers and chalk-burners) which 
 enjoyed the privilege of carrying on their business 
 in return for heavy dues rendered to the state. 
 Under the all-powerful and ubiquitous authority of 
 the Emperor, the administration was bureaucratic, 
 and generally carried on by men who had begun 
 their career with the study and practice of the law. 
 The disorders of later times had often proceeded 
 from the inordinate power of successful generals. 
 A remedy to this danger was found in the diminu- 
 tion of the powers that could be held by any one 
 man. The Praetorian Prsefects who had at one time 
 been at the head of the army and also of the judica- 
 ture were, under Constantine, deprived of all mili- 
 tary command. As an able modern historian has 
 said, 2 " the separation of the civil from the military 
 
A WARRIOR (THEODOSIUS?). 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine. 9 
 
 power becomes the foundation and corner-stone of 
 the new administrative organisation." 
 
 This organisation was based on the division of the 
 Empire into fairly large administrative areas, called 
 Dioceses. Of these there were seven in the eastern 
 and five in the western portion of the Empire, each 
 under the rule of a Vicar, except such as came under 
 the direct authority of the Prcetorian Prcefects, of 
 whom we find two under Diocletian, four under 
 Constantine. The Provinces which went to make 
 up the Dioceses had their own governors, who gen- 
 erally bore the title of Prcesides, and it seems to 
 have been in the interest not only of the public 
 peace but also of the comfort of the provincials, 
 that a regulation was passed forbidding such office 
 to be held by a native of the province over which 
 the rule was to be exercised. The military govern- 
 ors who held command on the borders and else- 
 where, and who generally bore the names Duces and 
 Comites, had, as already stated, no connection with 
 the civil administration. The army was not in any 
 sense national in character. Some of the best regi- 
 ments of the Guards were of barbarian race, and the 
 defence of the borders was often entrusted to alien 
 settlers, who held their land on a kind of military 
 tenure. 
 
 II. The shifting, so to speak, of the centre of 
 gravity of the Empire was a result gradually neces- 
 sitated by a long course of events. The privileges 
 of Roman citizenship, so ardently coveted and jeal- 
 ously guarded during the later days of the Republic, 
 had been by degrees extended with ever increasing 
 
io Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 liberality, till by an edict passed some time in the 
 reign of Caracalla (211-217, A.D.) they were granted 
 to all free-born subjects of the Empire. Italy her- 
 self had been reluctantly subjected to the necessity 
 of paying the land-tax formerly required from 
 provincials only, and Rome, though retaining her 
 municipal officers, saw, with the decline of the power 
 of the Senate, the reduction of her prerogative to a 
 level little above that claimed by some other lead- 
 ing cities of the Empire. Thus for instance Diocle- 
 tian undertook measures for supplying to Alexan- 
 dria the corn and other necessaries which the 
 government had always secured to the capital. 
 Diocletian himself had no capital, in the sense of a 
 permanent royal residence, though Milan and Nico- 
 media were frequent resorts of himself and his col- 
 leagues, and as royal abodes enjoyed the munificence 
 he loved to display in public buildings and shows. 
 Even the founding of a new royal residence on the 
 Bosphorus, one of the most notable acts of Constan- 
 tine (about 330 A.D.), was probably not the result of 
 a direct design against the dignity of Old Rome. 
 The curious legend that Constantine abandoned the 
 ancient city to the government of its bishops, is, of 
 course, a fiction of much later times. Yet the facts 
 remain that Constantinople did become politically a 
 successful rival to Rome, and that the power of the 
 Roman bishop was greatly increased by the unique 
 position in which the act of Constantine had placed 
 him. 
 
 Again, though the tendency to separation be- 
 tween East and West was furthered by the found- 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 1 
 
 ing of a new residence in eastern lands and also by 
 local separation in administration, yet it would be 
 a mistake to suppose that any so-called division, 
 effected by Diocletian or by any of his successors, 
 was intended to create two or more states out of 
 one. When, in 286 A.D., Diocletian associated Max- 
 imian with him as Augustus ; when, soon afterwards, 
 he adopted as his son, and forced Maximian also to 
 adopt, a young Caesar who should be regarded as 
 the colleague and heir of each Augustus respectively, 
 there was still no notion that the Empire itself was 
 to be divided. Laws still ran in the names of both 
 Emperors, and titles of honour were borne by both 
 alike. Even in much later days, at the division 
 made on the death of Theodosius (in 395), there 
 was no project of establishing two entirely distinct 
 and separate governments, and one may almost say 
 that the final division into East and West became 
 permanent by accident. Nevertheless, in any state, 
 and especially in an absolute monarchy, two sover- 
 eigns imply two Courts and two administrative 
 centres, and if there be already any tendency to 
 political separation (due to differences in religion, 
 in language, or in national character), such tendency 
 must needs be strengthened and hastened in its 
 operation by the sharing of the supreme authority 
 among two or more colleagues. 
 
 But Diocletian's plans even for a personal division 
 of Imperial authority and functions were doomed to 
 failure. In 305 he and Maximian, his colleague 
 in the title of Augustus, abdicated, and their places 
 should, according to preconceived plans, have been 
 
1 2 "Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 filled by the two Caesars, who again should have 
 been assisted and afterwards succeeded by two more 
 regularly appointed Caesars. The practical result, 
 however, was a general scramble, a series of usurpa- 
 tions, and a destructive civil war. At one time six 
 persons simultaneously asserted, and to some extent 
 maintained, claims to the Imperial authority. But 
 in the course of a few years, most of the pretenders 
 had fallen in the field or otherwise disappeared from 
 the scene. In 324 Constantine was sole master 
 of the undivided Empire, and although he subse- 
 quently conferred the title of Ccesar, with some of 
 the administrative functions pertaining thereto, on 
 three of his sons and on some other relations, he 
 maintained a position of supreme authority until his 
 death in 337, when, as we shall see, a new division 
 of territorial powers was accomplished. At that 
 time Julian was about seven years old. 
 
 III. The relations of Diocletian and Constan- 
 tine to the Christian Church, the semi-Christian 
 sects, and the cults of Paganism, and the causes 
 which determined those relations, form a large and 
 attractive field of study. Here we can only notice 
 a few points of immediate interest and importance. 
 
 Diocletian, though certainly not cruel by nature, 
 nor unsusceptible to the softening and civilising in- 
 fluences of his time, was the last of the great per- 
 secutors of the Christians. The first objects of his 
 rigorous measures were the Manichees, whose doc- 
 trine seems to have been a strange medley of Chris- 
 tian teaching with the tenets of the old Persian 
 dualism as to the everlasting strife between the 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 3 
 
 powers of light and of darkness. It was not till 
 comparatively late in his reign that the Christians, 
 after a considerable time of security and of grow- 
 ing influence, felt his heavy hand. In 303 ap- 
 peared the great persecuting edict, which ordered 
 all churches and Christian books to be destroyed, 
 and all Christians holding office at Court to take 
 part in some heathen sacrifice, or else give up 
 their civil and political rights. A second edict was 
 specially directed against the Christian clergy. A 
 third, in 304 affected Christians generally ; all who 
 refused to do sacrifice were made liable to imprison- 
 ment and torture. 
 
 The motives of Diocletian are, of course, not easy 
 to discover. He may have thought that the celi- 
 bacy, asceticism, and indifference to public affairs 
 professed by some of the Christians were detrimental 
 to the material and military interests of the state. 
 This might at least easily account for his harshness 
 to the Manichees. Or he may have considered the 
 organisation of the Church, as it grew more power- 
 ful and spread more widely, likely to interfere with 
 his administrative reforms. Or he may have been 
 actuated, as was most probably his Caesar, Galerius, 
 by a genuine fear lest the decay of the old worships 
 should alienate the favour of the heavenly powers. 
 However this may have been, the persecution of 
 Diocletian was short and sharp. Even before his 
 abdication, in 305, it had considerably slackened, 
 and the rivalry of the contending claimants to 
 authority was favourable to Christian interests. Two 
 of these claimants, Constantius Chlorus and his 
 
14 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 son Constantine, have often been represented as 
 already attached to the Christian faith. With re- 
 gard to Constantius (who died in 306) this seems by 
 no means probable, though the Christianity of his 
 wife Helen, the mother of Constantine, is beyond 
 doubt. With Constantine himself the case is some- 
 what different, yet we should greatly err if we at- 
 tributed to him, now or at any time of his life, the 
 Christian zeal which was leading barbarian chiefs 
 to abandon and to cause their people to abandon 
 the superstition of their fathers. Constantius and 
 Constantine seem both to have been philosophical 
 monotheists, and their position in this respect was, 
 as we shall see later on, quite compatible with con- 
 formity, even with sincere and devout attention, to 
 ancient pagan rites and usages. The story of the vi- 
 sion of the Cross with the inscription, " By this sign 
 conquer," is not now generally accepted as historical, 
 and does not accord with what we know of the 
 character and position of Constantine. A few his- 
 torians have regarded as due to Christian influence 
 the greater severity shown in the laws which bear 
 his name against crimes of impurity ; but some legis- 
 lation on behalf of morality in this sense was begun 
 by Diocletian, and the dealings of Constantine, 
 especially with his ill-fated eldest son, are hardly 
 to be viewed as uniformly those of a strictly moral 
 and religious man. We may add that he postponed 
 his baptism till he was at the point of death. It is 
 also of great importance to observe that Christian 
 and pagan symbols occur together on his coins till 
 towards the close of his reign. 3 
 
A CONSUL, BETWEEN TWO COLUMNS. 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 5 
 
 But whether a Christian or not, Constantine was 
 a statesman, who hated all sources of division, and 
 wished to unite all factions in loyal obedience to the 
 Government. He was also by no means unsusceptible 
 to religious impressions, or unaware of the importance 
 of the spiritual factor in men's minds and lives. His 
 edicts generally show a tolerant and liberal spirit, 
 and his letters to contending ecclesiastics, if not 
 always wise, are refreshingly redolent of a lay 
 mind, — perhaps a rather blunt one. It seems most 
 probable that, if circumstances had permitted, Con- 
 stantine would have taken up and maintained an 
 attitude of entire neutrality in all religious questions. 
 The First Edict of Toleration, drawn up with the 
 consent of the two colleagues (311 A. D.), which 
 granted freedom of worship and commanded all 
 men to pray for the Emperor, seems to show a dread 
 lest pernicious results should follow the cessation of 
 all worship on the part of those who were forbidden 
 to exercise their proper cult. This view is yet more 
 prominent in the Second Edict of Toleration, issued 
 by Constantine and Licinius from Milan in 313, 
 which granted complete freedom to the Christians, 
 and promised the restoration of such churches as 
 had been seized. The Emperors regard the granting 
 of these privileges as a pious act, but they do not 
 seem, if we judge from the words of the statute, to 
 consider themselves as standing within the pale of 
 the Christian Church. 
 
 Other laws of Constantine in favour of the Chris- 
 tians may be interpreted in accordance with the view 
 that he desired to remain entirely neutral and 
 
1 6 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 tolerant. The grant made to the Christian clergy of 
 privileges similar to those enjoyed by the pagan 
 priests seems consistent with this policy, and even 
 the regulation for the observance of Sunday {Dies 
 Solis) may have a bearing on the worship of Mithras 
 as well as on the Christian holiday. The prohibition 
 of sacrifices, however, though probably not strictly 
 enforced, as well as the decided position assumed by 
 the Emperor in ecclesiastical disputes, and also the 
 Christian education which his children seem to have 
 received, point to the fact that strict neutrality had 
 proved impossible, and that the Empire must hence- 
 forth reckon with the Church either as a close ally 
 or as a powerful and dangerous foe. 
 
 In two great controversies, we see the Imperial 
 power invoked and applied. In 313, the secular 
 authority was appealed to by the faction of the 
 Donatists. The real grounds of dispute in this case 
 and the nature of the principles involved are not 
 perfectly clear. The immediate cause of disaffection 
 was a disputed election to the Bishopric of Carthage. 
 The question was complicated by a controversy as 
 to the rightful status in the Church of those who 
 had not held firm during the late persecutions. 
 Constantine evidently regarded the cause of Donatus 
 as that of insurrection and disorder, and therefore 
 gave all the weight of his personal and Imperial 
 authority to the suppression of the party that main- 
 tained it. It is a notable fact that he committed the 
 enquiry to the Bishop of Rome. The efforts made, 
 however, on behalf of peace and unity were not 
 effectual. The Donatist sect continued for some 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 7 
 
 time an existence of violent and disorderly opposi- 
 tion to ecclesiastical authority. 
 
 The next occasion of Imperial intervention is of 
 far greater interest, and had much more widely 
 reaching results. The controversy between Athan- 
 asius and Arius presents great difficulties to the 
 modern student ; partly from the subtle discrimina- 
 tion required in those who have to discover the facts 
 of the case from documents inspired by party hatred ; 
 partly from the extraordinary effort of historical im- 
 agination demanded of any person who would really 
 put himself in the position of the metaphysical Alex- 
 andrians of the fourth century. We may, however, 
 endeavour here to sketch in very brief outline the 
 chief external events of the conflict, especially with 
 reference to the indications they afford of the rela- 
 tions between the Church and the Empire. 4 
 
 At the time when the great controversy first arose, 
 the episcopal see of Alexandria was occupied by 
 Bishop Alexander, a man apparently of no very 
 extraordinary strength of character, but capable of 
 taking up a very decided position through the influ- 
 ence of his secretary, the deacon Athanasius. Now 
 Athanasius was a born ruler of men. He was also 
 an Alexandrian of the Alexandrians, and as we shall 
 see later on, the air of that city was, so to speak, 
 impregnated with theological ideas of a highly meta- 
 physical kind. .His own belief was early formed and 
 tenaciously held through life. His work on The 
 Incarnation of the Logos seems to date from a time 
 previous to the great dispute. Arius, an elder con- 
 temporary of Athanasius, was a presbyter in the 
 
1 8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 Alexandrian Church, but by birth a Libyan, and had 
 derived his education from Antioch, a city which 
 generally represents an essentially different school 
 of thought from that of Alexandria. The first con- 
 troversy in which Arius was concerned arose as to 
 the relative positions which should be held by 
 bishops and presbyters. But the great Christological 
 dispute soon made the other sink into insignifi- 
 cance. 
 
 The doctrine of Arius brought upon him and his 
 followers the denunciations of Bishop Alexander, 
 and a sentence of excommunication against them 
 and of condemnation against their teachers which 
 was passed by a synod of about a hundred bishops ; 
 yet it was not in form exactly like any modern 
 denial of the divinity of Christ. The distinctive 
 creed of Arianism may best be stated in the words : 
 " there was once a time when the Son of God was 
 not." After this doctrine and its upholders had 
 been condemned, Arius used such means to gain 
 partisans and to work towards his re-instatement as 
 brought down the wrath of his opponents. In par- 
 ticular he is said to have tried to gain over the 
 populace by embodying his doctrines in softly melo- 
 dious verse, and he seems to have used in the inter- 
 ests of his party the jealous rivalry felt by various 
 cities against Alexandria. The dissensions soon 
 assumed dangerous proportions. 
 
 Now the Emperor Constantine was neither a theo- 
 logian nor a metaphysician, but from the standpoint 
 of a statesman, and of one duly appreciative of the 
 connection between unity in the Church and quiet in 
 
A CONSUL, BETWEEN TWO COLUMNS. 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 9 
 
 the State, he was bound to hate and suppress, if pos- 
 sible, everything that tended in either sphere to fac- 
 tion and disorder. On hearing of the dissensions, 
 he first endeavoured to pour oil on the troubled 
 waters by exhorting both parties to come to an 
 agreement. When his letters and commissions had 
 proved ineffectual, he took a step of momentous 
 import in its consequences and summoned the 
 (Ecumenical Council which met at Nicaea in Bi- 
 thynia in June, 325. At this council he was present, 
 and in spite of his professions of humility, there can 
 be no doubt that his influence was strongly felt. If 
 at first, as seems probable, he intended to hold the 
 balance between the contending parties, he was soon 
 led, by motives into which we cannot now enquire, 
 to support the policy of those who were most anx- 
 ious to avoid all compromise and to find a symbol 
 the rejection of which might brand the holders of 
 the Arian doctrine as heretics. This symbol was the 
 term Homoousios (rendered in the English version : 
 " being of one substance with the Father,") and it 
 was accepted by all present except the African 
 bishops, though the Bishops of Nicomedia and Nicaea 
 refused to accept the accompanying anathema against 
 dissentients. 
 
 Athanasius and those who held with him seemed 
 to have triumphed ; Arius and his adherents were 
 banished. Yet soon afterwards a reaction set in, 
 mainly owing to the efforts of Eusebius, Bishop first 
 of Nicomedia and afterwards of Constantinople, the 
 ablest and most statesmanlike leader of the party. 
 The Emperor returned to his previous attitude of 
 
20 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 
 
 neutrality, and sent for Arius, who satisfied him by 
 presenting a confession of faith from which the 
 crucial word was omitted. Meanwhile, Athanasius 
 had succeeded to Alexander, as Bishop (or Patriarch) 
 of Alexandria, and he was now ordered by Con- 
 stantine to reinstate the banished Arians. This, 
 however, Athanasius persistently refused to do. 
 And however much the modern reader may re- 
 gret the want of forbearance and of kindliness 
 on both sides during this unhappy struggle, it 
 is refreshing to find that there lived at least one 
 man who dared in the name of law and order to 
 oppose the arbitrary command of the great autocrat. 
 The spirit of liberty and independence had not en- 
 tirely taken flight from among men. 
 
 We cannot enter into the charges brought against 
 Athanasius by his enemies. They appear gener- 
 ally to have been of a malicious or of a trivial nature. 
 Summoned to the Imperial Court, he maintained his 
 ground, and was sent back to his diocese without 
 dishonour. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the 
 Emperor changed once more, and Athanasius was 
 forced to attend the Synod of Tyre, where his oppo- 
 nents had the upper hand. Having no hope of obtain- 
 ing justice, he left the city, came to Constantinople, 
 and boldly confronting the Emperor in the street, 
 demanded an investigation of his cause. His re- 
 quest was partially granted, but the Emperor con- 
 sented still, perhaps cherishing a hope of restoring 
 peace and order, that Athanasius should be exiled to 
 Treves. Arius was invited to Constantinople, and 
 though he died suddenly just before the time ap- 
 
337] The Roman World under Constantine, 2 1 
 
 pointed for his restoration to the Church, his faction, 
 or rather a faction based chiefly on his teaching, 
 prevailed generally through the rest of the reign of 
 Constantine and during the period which followed. 
 Athanasius recovered his see for a time on the death 
 of Constantine, but had to go into exile once more 
 from 341 to 346, and yet again from 356 to 361. 
 
 Some biographers of Julian would attribute con- 
 siderable importance to the fact that during the 
 years of his education and at the dawn of his intelli- 
 gence, not the Catholic but theArian party and doc- 
 trine were in the ascendant. We shall perhaps see 
 cause to doubt this importance, but another fact 
 should certainly be noted in this connection ; that the 
 activity of the Imperial authority in settling religi- 
 ous disputes afforded a precedent for decided inter- 
 vention on the part of an Emperor of widely different 
 views and character from those of Constantine. The 
 earlier Emperors had exercised some sacerdotal func- 
 tions and had held the office of Pontifex Maximus. 
 In days when theological strife ran high, the relig- 
 ious professions of the monarch were by no means 
 unimportant. 
 
 This brief survey may leave on our minds the im- 
 pression that the age with which we have to deal is 
 not strikingly heroic in character. In the state we 
 have an absolute monarchy served by a sordid 
 bureaucracy ; in society, ranks and cliques, close cor- 
 porations, and a grinding, benumbing system of 
 supervision and taxation ; in art and letters, little 
 originality, a love of words, a paucity of ideas ; in the 
 Church, distractions and bitter divisions. Yet below 
 
2 2 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305-337 
 
 the surface, forces were at work which bore in them 
 the seed of better days. And those who could not 
 reach forward into the future might escape from the 
 ignoble present to rejoice in the greatness of the 
 past, for they had within their grasp all the treas- 
 ures of ancient civilisation, the literature and the 
 monuments of older and grander times. What 
 wonder if a sense of the worth of those treasures and 
 of the poverty of contemporary life should force into 
 the ranks of reaction one at least of the most eager 
 and aspiring minds of the age ? 
 
 Coin of Rome : age of Constantine. Reverse, Shepherd discovering Romulus, 
 Remus, and the she-wolf. 
 
Notes on Chapter I. 23 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER I. 
 
 1 It is, perhaps, unnecessary to specify, as it would be a lengthy 
 business to discuss, the different sources which might be referred to 
 as affording material for this sketch. The political and social state 
 of the Empire at this time is set forth very clearly and thoroughly by 
 Hermann Schiller in the third book of his Geschichte der Romischen 
 Kaiser zeit. For ecclesiastical affairs, the general reader may be re- 
 ferred to Professor Gwatkin's little book on The Arian Controversy 
 in the Epochs of Church History and to the translation of Gieseler's 
 Ecclesiastical History, or to Cheetham's Early Church History. 
 Also I would express my appreciation of Bohringer's Athanasius 
 and Arius. Tillemont is, of course, a mine of wealth to students 
 of this period. Gibbon is, or should be, the universal introducer 
 to the subject. 
 
 2 Schiller: Gesch. der Rom. Kaiser zeit, bk. iii., ch. I, section 5. 
 
 3 Schiller : Gesch. der Rom. Kaiserzeit, bk. iii., ch. 3. 
 
 4 Perhaps, for the sake of any readers unacquainted with Church 
 history, it maybe permitted here to make two remarks : (1) That 
 Arianism in its original form is as different as possible from modern 
 Unitarianism. Channing or Martineau could no more easily have 
 subscribed the creed which Arius professed than they could have 
 accepted the Nicene. (2) The Quicunque vult, commonly called 
 the " Creed of St. Athanasius," was not drawn up by him, but origi- 
 nated in the West, at a much later date. The real " Creed of St. 
 Athanasius " is the original Nicene, (not precisely the one so-called 
 by us), for which he contested manfully all his days. 
 
Gold Medallion of Constans I. Reverse, salus et spes reipublicae ; 
 Constantine, Constans, and Constantius standing. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PARENTAGE OF JULIAN. HIS BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 
 CAREER AND END OF HIS BROTHER GALLUS. 
 
 331-354. 
 
 " Fair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up 
 Fostered alike by beauty and by fear." 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 "'EvTeryKS juoi dsivoi ek 7taidoov tgov avycov rov Qeov 
 ['Hkiov] rtoQos." Julian, Or. iv., 130. 
 
 LAVIUS CLAUDIUS JULIANUS 
 was born, according to the generally 
 received account, in or near Constanti- 
 nople l in the year 331 A. D. a As the 
 changes which made this city in a sense 
 the capital of the East were completed 
 about 330, his birth and that of New 
 
 Rome may be regarded as almost exactly coincident 
 
 in time. 
 
 24 
 
331-354] Parentage of Julian. 25 
 
 The full name which Julian bore, but which is 
 rarely mentioned, is a combination of several family 
 names. The old Roman custom by which every 
 man bore three names, that of the individual, of the 
 gens, and of the family respectively, had long broken 
 down, at least in the case of Imperial families. The 
 prcenomen (such as Marcus, Gaius, and the like) had 
 dropped out of use, and though the nomen or name 
 of the gens was retained, it was eclipsed by the 
 names belonging to illustrious and distantly related 
 gentes or families with which it was desirable to as- 
 sert kinship. Thus, in Julian's case, the Flavius was 
 a gentile name inherited from Constantius Chlorus, 
 the Claudius was adopted by Constantine's family to 
 bring them into connection with the Thracian Em- 
 peror, Claudius Gothicus (see Genealogical Table), 
 and the Julianus was bestowed upon him by his 
 maternal grandfather, who bore the same name 
 himself. 
 
 A glance at the accompanying genealogical table 
 will make Julian's relations to the other members of 
 the Imperial family much clearer than a lengthy de- 
 scription could do. Of his father, Julius Constan- 
 tius, son of Constantius Chlorus and of Theodora, 
 step-daughter to the Emperor Maximian, we know 
 very little. Libanius remarks that though (in con- 
 sequence presumably of his legitimate birth and 
 royal descent) he had a better right to the Empire 
 than his brother who actually obtained it, he yet 
 preferred to remain loyal to Constantine and to live 
 on friendly terms with him. This observation shows 
 either a confusion of mind or an affectation of igno- 
 
26 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. \zz\- 
 
 rance on the part of the sophist of Antioch with re- 
 gard to the elective character of the Empire, and it 
 is not without interest as pointing to the growth of 
 a dynastic idea and policy in the Imperial family. 
 In a fragment of a letter 3 from Julian to the Co- 
 rinthians, we find it stated that his father found re- 
 pose in their city after a season of many wanderings. 
 Julius Constantius was married twice, at least, and 
 both his wives seem to have been ladies of good 
 family and of considerable fortune. Basilina, the 
 mother of Julian, was of the powerful and wealthy 
 family of the Anicii. Her father, Anicius Julianus, 
 was Praetorian Praefect at the time of the struggle 
 between Maxentius and Constantine, and though he 
 was on the losing side, he retained life and property 
 under the conqueror. 4 
 
 It seems probable that Julian owed more, both by 
 inheritance and by influence, to his relations on the 
 mother's side than to those on the father's. He 
 bore, as we have seen, his grandfather's name, and 
 this same grandfather provided for his early educa- 
 tion. We have more than one reference in his let- 
 ters to the property of his grandmother (almost 
 certainly his maternal grandmother), and especially 
 to a delightful little estate in Bithynia, in which he 
 took pleasure from the days of his early boyhood. 5 
 The one kinsman to whom he writes as if expecting 
 sympathy in his religious intentions (even before 
 they were publicly declared) is his uncle Julian, in 
 whom he also reposed political trust. 6 And beyond 
 all this, we know that Basilina herself was educated 
 in Greek literature, and thus it was probably to 
 
GAMES IN CIRCUS. 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
354] His Birth and Childhood. 27 
 
 her that Julian owed his strong literary aspirations. 
 Tastes like his are not prominent in his father's 
 family, and are conspicuously absent from the dis- 
 position of his half-brother Gallus. 
 
 In affording to women opportunities of acquiring 
 a good education, social influence, and scope for 
 various kinds of activity, the fourth and fifth cen- 
 turies of our era were more favourable than many 
 other periods more brilliant and in some respects 
 more morally sound. 
 
 Basilina's tutor was a certain eunuch, Mardonius, 
 with whom she used to read Homer and Hesiod. 
 Julian calls him a Scythian, but this title is used in 
 the vaguest way by all writers of our period. A 
 story is told of her, 7 that a little while before her 
 son was born, she dreamed that she had given birth 
 to Achilles. This is probably as mythical as most 
 legends which gather round the birth and early days 
 of great men, but if there is any truth in it, the 
 dream probably followed a reading in the Iliad with 
 Mardonius. But whatever Julian may have derived 
 from his mother must have been physically inher- 
 ited, not consciously imparted. Very soon after the 
 birth of her only child, she was, in his words, " with- 
 drawn in the bloom of youth from many sufferings 
 by the Motherless Maiden-goddess." 8 Such a loss 
 to a child of Julian's eager and susceptible tempera- 
 ment, and in his isolated position, was quite irre- 
 parable. 
 
 For while Julian was struggling through his 
 motherless infancy, being probably brought up in his 
 father's house in Constantinople, events were occur- 
 
28 ^Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 
 
 ring which gave a peculiar colour to his whole life. 
 In 337, Constantine the Great died at Nicomedia in 
 Bithynia, after vainly trying a water cure at the 
 neighbouring baths of Helenopolis. Now the policy 
 of Constantine's later years was distinctly dynastic 
 in character. Before his death, he arranged for a 
 partition of the Imperial dominions among his sur- 
 viving sons, and he included in this arrangement the 
 two sons of his half-brother Dalmatius, Dalmatius 
 the Younger and Annibalianus. Probably this par- 
 tition was on the lines marked out by Diocletian, 9 
 and would not have involved such a complete sepa- 
 ration of the different spheres of authority as a 
 territorial distribution seems to imply. The project, 
 however, was never carried out. Constantine had 
 been essentially a soldier-Emperor, rejoicing in the 
 good-will of the legions which he had often led to 
 victory. His brothers and their sons seem never to 
 have been conspicuous in military affairs. This con- 
 trast, being apprehended, was probably the chief 
 cause of a movement among the troops (which was 
 at least not checked by the sons of Constantine) 
 against the sons of Dalmatius and all the other mem- 
 bers of the Imperial family except the direct 
 descendants of the late Emperor. The result was 
 one of those horrible occurrences that so frequently 
 darken the history of Oriental dynasties : Constantius, 
 who seems to have been the favourite and the most 
 able son of Constantine, after celebrating his father's 
 obsequies, in very magnificent style, at Constantino- 
 ple, either instigated or sanctioned after the event a 
 general family massacre. In this way his two 
 
354] His Birth and Childhood, 29 
 
 cousins, who had received a. claim to part of the 
 Imperial authority, two uncles (including Julian's 
 father), and some other kinsmen (including Julian's 
 eldest brother) fell victims to the rage of the sol- 
 diery and to the jealousy of the eldest branch of the 
 family. Julian himself only escaped in consequence 
 of his extreme youth, his brother Gallus through a 
 fortunate sickness which seemed likely to secure 
 his removal without involving anyone in blood- 
 guiltiness. According to Julian's statement, made 
 long afterwards, Constantius subsequently re- 
 proached himself for these murders, and regarded his 
 own childlessness as a divine judgment on his crime. 
 But for the time, the absence of rivals made the three 
 brothers secure in their possession of authority, 
 while their cousins, Gallus and Julian, having lost 
 their nearest and most natural protectors, led from 
 the first a precarious life, at the mercy of those who 
 had deeply injured them, and against whom they 
 needed to be ever on their guard. 
 
 A new division of the Empire followed. The pre- 
 cise nature of this division, the mutual relations of 
 the joint rulers, and the frontier lines of their spheres 
 of government are not easy to determine, though it 
 is clear that the East remained under the second 
 brother, Constantius, the northern and western 
 regions under the eldest, Constantine, and the 
 youngest, Constans. But the arrangement was 
 hot lasting. Before very long, war broke out 
 between Constantine and Constans. Constantine 
 was entrapped into an ambush, near the city of 
 Aquileia, and put to death. Constans now added 
 
30 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 
 
 his brother's dominions to his own. Meantime, Con- 
 stantius was sufficiently occupied in distant parts. 
 We shall have occasion later on to examine the rela- 
 tions between the Roman Empire and the only other 
 far-reaching power of those days that had any claim 
 to an inherited ancient civilisation, — the revived 
 monarchy of Persia. This nation, or rather agglom- 
 eration of nations, which formed the last of the great 
 kingdoms of the East, is sometimes called by the 
 name of the Parthian, but those who ruled over it 
 claimed to be successors of Cyrus and of Darius, and 
 endeavoured to attach to their rule the prestige of 
 ancient glories. The dynasty of the Sassanids 
 (founded 219 A.D.) had frequently come into deadly 
 conflict with the Roman power, which could only 
 keep the enemy at bay by means of a chain of strong 
 frontier fortresses, on the Euphrates and the Tigris. 
 The Sassanid king contemporary with Constantius 
 and Julian was Sapor, who began to reign at his 
 birth (being a posthumous child) about the year 3 10. 
 Very soon after the death of Constantine, Sapor took 
 advantage of the change in government to invade 
 the Roman province of Mesopotamia, and to lay 
 siege to Nisibis and other important towns. Con- 
 stantius, however, seems to have shown some ability 
 in maintaining a vigorous resistance, and some of 
 the sieges, especially that of Nisibis, were raised after 
 an heroic opposition to all the resources which engi- 
 neering science could then command. Several battles 
 were fought, in one of which (that of Singara, in 
 Mesopotamia, 348) the Romans, though victori- 
 ous at first, suffered a severe defeat. The general 
 
o i 
 
 Q_ to 
 
 CO < 
 
 1—1 uj 
 
 O UJ 
 
 Q. <r 
 < 
 
 CO 
 
354] His Birth and Childhood. 3 1 
 
 results of the campaigns of Constantius in the East 
 were not very favourable to the Roman arms. 
 Meantime, events had occurred in the West which 
 imperatively demanded his presence, and (possibly 
 after signing a truce with Sapor) he returned to 
 Europe. 
 
 These events were two insurrections, in Gaul and 
 in Illyricum, and the tragic death of the Emperor 
 Constans. The youngest of Constantine's sons was 
 energetic in his habits of life and orderly in his 
 government. The chief grievance raised against 
 him was that he promoted barbarians in the army, 
 to the disparagement of the old legionaries. The 
 disaffected faction found a champion in a certain 
 Magnentius, (who was, strange to say, himself of 
 barbarian extraction), and a serious rebellion broke 
 out in the Imperial Court at Augustodunum (Autun). 
 Magnentius assumed the purple. Constans fled 
 southwards but was captured and murdered in the 
 town of Helena, at the foot of the Pyrenees. 
 Meanwhile, a general of respectable reputation, 
 Vetranio, raised the standard of revolt on the 
 Danube, and in Rome itself young Nepotian, first 
 cousin to the Emperor [see genealogical table, p. 
 25] assumed the Imperial title, and maintained an 
 ephemeral state by the help of a band of gladiators. 
 
 Constantius was more successful against his rivals 
 in the West than he had been against his foes in the 
 East. In fact, the only insurgent who proved a 
 capable or dangerous opponent was Magnentius. 
 The speed with which Vetranio was induced, at a 
 peaceful colloquy with the Emperor, to return with 
 
32 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 
 
 all his soldiers to his former loyalty, has led some 
 historians to think that in his case, at least, the 
 rebellion was not seriously meant. This view seems 
 to be borne out by his coinage. 10 Magnentius, how- 
 ever, had strengthened himself by assuming the 
 championship of various lost or distressed causes. 
 He posed as representing not only the cause of 
 Romans against barbarians in the army, but also 
 that of Bishop Athanasius and the Nicene Creed 
 against the Arians, who were generally favoured by 
 Constantius. At the same time, with a curious in- 
 consistency, he asserted some old claims of paganism 
 against Christianity. But the forces of Constantius 
 were superior, especially in cavalry. In a decisive 
 battle fought at Mursa on the Drav (September, 
 353) Magnentius was defeated with great loss, and 
 forced to fly. Two years afterwards the remnant 
 of his adherents were overpowered at Lyons, and 
 he fell on his own sword. Meantime the faction 
 of Nepotianus in Italy was speedily quelled. Con- 
 stantius stood alone at the head of the Roman 
 world. 
 
 But though no Augustus shared his honours, 
 necessity had already forced Constantius to appoint 
 a subordinate with the title of Ccesar. Even the 
 lordship of the world cannot confer the gift of 
 ubiquity, and recent events had proved that a vigor- 
 ous exercise of the sovereign power might be re- 
 quired in Gaul and in Mesopotomia at the same 
 time. Constantius was still childless. A tempera- 
 ment naturally jealous might, one would suppose, 
 have shrunk from reposing power in the hands of 
 
354] Career and End of His Brother Gallus. 33 
 
 almost the last scion of a deeply injured family. On 
 the other hand, a genuine repentance for the ills 
 inflicted might have suggested full and loyal com- 
 pensation to the surviving sufferers. But Constan- 
 tius seems to have been of that uncertain tempera- 
 ment which always prefers half measures. In want 
 of a colleague he thought of his cousin Gallus. But 
 subsequent events do not allow us to regard the 
 authority with which Gallus was invested as having 
 been bestowed in full and entire confidence. 
 
 Let us now go back to inquire how Gallus and 
 Julian had fared during these stormy years. Al- 
 though we have information from various sources, 
 including some of first-rate authority, as to the 
 character of Julian's education and the places where 
 it was begun and continued, it is impossible to map 
 out with chronological accuracy the vicissitudes of 
 his childhood and youth. It seems on the whole 
 most probable that his early boyhood was passed in 
 Constantinople, though it is not unlikely that he may 
 have resided for a time in the city in which he after- 
 wards prosecuted his studies, Nicomedia in Bithynia. 
 But however this may be, the chief part in his early 
 education was taken by the eunuch Mardonius, who, 
 as we have seen, had been tutor to his mother. 
 At the age of seven, Julian was placed under the 
 care of this man, who was to act as his pcedagogue. 
 This term indicates an office somewhat above that 
 of an upper servant and below that of a private tutor. 
 The pedagogue's duty was to escort his charges 
 to school, to the games, and to the other resorts 
 permitted to them, and perhaps also to see that they 
 
34 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor. \zz\- 
 
 prepared their lessons at home. The character of 
 Mardonius is one respecting which we have difficulty 
 in forming a judgment. Libanius speaks of him in 
 terms of high praise ; Julian himself, on the other 
 hand, has drawn a by no means pleasing picture 
 of him and of his dealings with his pupil ; but as this 
 picture occurs in a writing, the chief object of which 
 is to satirize Julian himself and to lay the blame 
 of his idiosyncrasies on his educators, it is hard to 
 see how much is meant to be taken in earnest. Two 
 facts, however, are quite clear : that Mardonius was 
 very strict in discipline, and that he both loved 
 letters himself and strove to instil, on every occa- 
 sion that arose, similar tastes and feelings into the 
 mind of his pupil. On the walk to the school in 
 which, without any special privileges or ceremonies, 
 Julian shared the tasks of the other boys, he was 
 always taken along the same streets. He was told 
 that it was bad manners to stare about him as he 
 walked along, and he was not allowed to go to the 
 theatre or the games except on rare occasions. It is 
 possible that Julian's grandfather was quite willing, 
 with a view to the boy's security, to agree to such a 
 mode of life for him as was prescribed by the suspi- 
 cious jealousy of the Emperor. On the child him- 
 self the effect of so much loneliness and repression 
 was to throw him upon his own resources, to stimu- 
 late an almost morbid delight in nature and in stories 
 of the past. The fact that his childhood was passed 
 under clear skies and by sunny seas was certainly of 
 importance in the formation of his mind and char- 
 acter. He took an intense delight in observing the 
 
354] Career and End of His Brother G alius, 35 
 
 path of the sun and in contemplating the stars at 
 night. 11 Meantime his imagination was being nour- 
 ished on the most wholesome food that it could 
 have found in that or in any other age — the poems of 
 Homer. 
 
 Homer was the standard text-book of Greek 
 education. The first subject taught to boys was 
 grammar, which included a good deal that we should 
 put under the head of literature. The lessons learned 
 at school were enforced by Mardonius at home, 
 and he used to tell the boy, if he felt his life monoto- 
 nous and wished for a change of scene, to take the 
 book and read about the games of the Phaeacians or 
 the flowery gardens of Calypso ; he would never 
 find anything more beautiful in real life. Perhaps 
 we might take a hint from Mardonius, and when we 
 regret our inability to discover the details of Julian's 
 early life, fall back upon the book on which he was 
 brought up, and endeavour to realise the impression 
 made on his susceptible mind by its pictures of 
 heroic life and enterprise. Julian's intimate knowl- 
 edge of Homer is shown by the frequent quotations 
 he makes, even when writing hastily and at a dis- 
 tance from his books. This knowledge was accom- 
 panied by an enthusiasm almost religious in character. 
 Homer has been called the Bible of the Greeks. 
 This does not of course imply that Greek moralists 
 never went beyond the primitive notions of the 
 Homeric age, or that'they did not freely interpret 
 Homeric myths so as to adapt them to more recent 
 modes of thought. Still Homer was always their 
 starting-point, and their indispensable treasury of 
 
36 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. \zz\- 
 
 illustrations and ideas. Dwelling comparatively near 
 to the very spot where the great deeds of Greeks and 
 Trojans were supposed to have been done, and 
 familiar with those deeds by daily readings, Julian 
 may well have seemed to himself at times to be 
 living rather in the world of Agamemnon and 
 Achilles than in that of Constantius and Athanasius. 
 It might have been supposed that the Christian 
 teachers and Christian influences by which Julian 
 was surrounded would exercise some force to coun- 
 teract his passionate love of epic poetry. But of 
 such teaching and influence, we can find hardly any 
 trace. Whether Mardonius was a pagan or a Chris- 
 tian we do not know. If he was brought up in the 
 family of the Anicii, and was allowed by Constantius 
 to be always about his young cousin, Mardonius can 
 hardly have been an active opponent of the new 
 faith. Yet from what both Libanius and Julian say 
 of him, we can feel sure that he was penetrated with 
 the spirit of Hellenic paganism. According to Am- 
 mianus, 12 Julian's education was also in part con- 
 ducted by Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia and 
 afterwards of Constantinople, the doughty champion 
 of the Arians, and distantly related (probably through 
 the Anicii) to Julian himself. Some historians have 
 found in the Arian belief of those who first under- 
 took to impart to Julian the elements of Christianity, 
 the cause of his strong and bitter antipathy to 
 the Christian religion. Some form of that religion 
 which left more scope for mysticism might,they think, 
 have been both attractive and satisfying to him. 
 But when we come to examine the grounds of Julian's 
 
354] Career and End of His Brother Galhis. 3 7 
 
 anti-Christian feeling, we shall not see much to sup- 
 port this opinion. We may, however, observe that 
 when party feeling runs high, the best of men are 
 often apt to insist more on party principles than on 
 deeper truths. Eusebius was a strong and skilful 
 party leader, a faithful friend, and probably a sin- 
 cerely convinced controversialist. If he did not make 
 Julian a good Christian, it may be alleged in his ex- 
 cuse that at the time of his death Julian was only 
 ten years old. In after days Julian looked back 
 upon this time as one of spiritual darkness. His 
 natural impulse would doubtless have been to yield 
 to the religious ideas which dominated the literature 
 in which he delighted. His teachers could to some 
 extent restrain such an inclination, but they could 
 not or certainly did not replace it by a counter- 
 enthusiasm in favour of Christianity. 
 
 Yet these dark days were not without brighter 
 moments. From Constantinople or from Nicomedia 
 it would be but a short journey to the little Bithynian 
 estate already mentioned, probably still in the hands 
 of Julian's maternal relatives. Here he seems to 
 have spent some pleasant visits. The letter in which 
 he describes the place is interesting, as showing what 
 we might consider a modern and refined taste for 
 natural scenery, though of course in any man of the 
 ancient world we must expect to find a preference 
 for Nature in her tamer moods: " It is situated not 
 more than twenty stadia (about two and a half miles) 
 from the sea, so that no talkative merchant or quar- 
 relsome sailor comes there to vex you, yet the gifts 
 of Nereus are not wanting. There are fresh-caught 
 
38 yultan, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 
 
 fish to be had, and from a height near the house you 
 can see the Propontid Sea, the islands, and the city 
 which bears the name of the great Emperor [Con- 
 stantinople.] And you can look out on all this, not 
 standing on slimy sea-weed, offended by the sight 
 and smell of the refuse thrown out on the sandy 
 beach, but will find sand and thyme and sweet-smel- 
 ling meadow grass beneath your feet. It is very 
 restful to recline with a book, and to refresh the eyes 
 from time to time with the pleasant view of the sea 
 and the ships. When quite a young boy I delighted 
 in the place, with its good springs, and pleasant hath, 
 orchard, and shrubbery, and after I had become a 
 man, I still felt drawn to the old way of life there, 
 and I often visited the place again." 
 
 For a season, however, intercourse with school- 
 fellows and relatives, and free rovings in favourite 
 spots, were to be forbidden to Julian and his brother. 
 Whether any fresh suspicion actuated the mind of 
 Constantius we do not know, nor is the exact time 
 of the change certain. But we learn from Julian's 
 testimony, as well as from that of others, that he 
 and Gallus were taken away from their studies and 
 condemned to a lonely sojourn of six years, without 
 friends, companions, or exercises suitable to their 
 age or station, in the remote castle of Macellum in 
 Cappadocia. Where Gallus had passed his early 
 youth is not quite certain. He is said to have 
 studied for a time at Ephesus, and his sojourn there 
 may have coincided with Julian's schooldays in Con- 
 stantinople and Nicomedia. But wherever he may 
 have been sent to school, he does not seem to 
 
354] Career and End of His Brother G alius. 39 
 
 have been carefully trained, and he certainly never 
 acquired much intellectual culture. 
 
 The site of Macellum has been identified as that 
 of a spot at the foot of the magnificent Arghi Dagh, 
 in a wild and romantic region. But romantic 
 scenery had little charms even to those among the 
 ancients who felt most keenly the beauty of the 
 sea, the heavens, and the exuberant life of nature. 
 Had it been otherwise, the absence of teachers 
 and friends would still have been an occasion of 
 painful longing to Julian. His only companions 
 were his brother Gallus and the attendant slaves. 
 The way in which he mentions Gallus shows 
 that he felt for him a strong brotherly affection, but 
 he was fully aware of his glaring faults of character, 
 and attributed them to his bad education. It must 
 be borne in mind that the slaves with whom, in the 
 want of other society and of congenial pursuits, 
 Gallus was compelled to associate, would probably 
 be people of low character and demoralising ante- 
 cedents. Between the two brothers, whose dissimi- 
 larity reminded Ammianus (who knew them both) 
 of Titus and Domitian, there cannot have been 
 much real companionship. For himself, Julian says 
 that the Gods preserved him from being corrupted 
 by leading him to the study of philosophy. If, as 
 seems probable, Mardonius accompanied him in his 
 exile, the continuity of his studies was not entirely 
 broken. Mardonius was not a mere grammarian, 
 but an enthusiastic admirer of the works of Plato, 
 Aristotle, and Theophrastus. Perhaps the depriva- 
 tion of the best attainable teaching was not alto- 
 
40 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 
 
 gether an evil for Julian at that time, if he was 
 already storing his mind with the works on which 
 he should afterwards hear comments, and preparing 
 himself, by solitary reading and thinking, to profit 
 all the more hereafter by the academic training that 
 was to fall to his share. 
 
 It seems probable that the retirement of the two 
 youths at Macellum lasted till the year 350, when 
 Gallus, then twenty-five years old, was summoned, 
 as his brother says, from the field to the palace, to 
 receive the dignity of Ccesar, and the hand of the 
 Emperor's sister, Constantina, in marriage. Mean- 
 time, Julian was allowed to prosecute at Nicomedia 
 those academic studies which we shall consider more 
 fully hereafter. 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that Constantius in- 
 tended from the first to place Gallus in such a posi- 
 tion that his rude, untamable nature must needs 
 bring him into difficulties and lead ultimately to his 
 disastrous fall. A course of that kind would have 
 been at least as dangerous to the interests of Con- 
 stantius himself as to those of his cousin. Yet, if he 
 had been acting with the most malicious designs, 
 he could hardly have used more effectual means. 
 In the first place, Constantina, was a woman of the 
 kind certain to acquire a pernicious influence over 
 a weak and passionate nature like that of Gallus. 
 She must have been considerably older than he was, 
 as she had previously been married to her cousin 
 Annibalianus, who perished in the massacre of 337. 
 The experiences of that time had not tended to 
 sweeten her temper. According to one account, 
 
354] Career and End of His Brother G alius. 4 1 
 
 she had a large share in the insurrection of Vetranio. 13 
 Ammianus calls her a monster in human form, a living 
 rnegcera, and the stories which that usually calm and 
 impartial witness tells of her violence, cruelty, and 
 avarice, go far to justify the comparison. Nor was 
 Gallus much happier in the place of residence, than 
 in the wife appointed to him. 
 
 Antioc.h, the seat of his rule, was a gay, pleasure- 
 loving city, where he could indulge all the worst 
 proclivities of his nature, while the irascible, tu- 
 multuous character of the inhabitants afforded facili- 
 ties both for the perpetration and for the punishment 
 of violent deeds. And even had his immediate sur- 
 roundings been less unfavourable, the task entrusted 
 to Gallus — the pacification and government of the 
 East — was one hardly suited to an ill-trained young 
 man, unused to the ways either of the camp or of 
 the council-chamber. The Persians were again in- 
 vading Mesopotamia. The predatory inhabitants of 
 the Isaurian mountains were plundering and killing 
 their neighbours. The town of Antioch itself was 
 suffering from a famine, the blame of which was, 
 as usual, laid by the poor to the charge of the 
 wealthy. 
 
 Gallus can hardly be said to have made a vigor- 
 ous effort to resist these calamities. He did not 
 take the field, though he despatched an expedition 
 against the Isaurians, which seems to have had some 
 success. His efforts against the famine consisted in 
 an arbitrary edict to fix the price of provisions, vio- 
 lent threats against all who remonstrated, and the 
 sacrifice to the rage of the people of certain officials 
 
42 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [331- 
 
 whom he chose to regard as responsible for the 
 deficient food supplies. Meantime he amused him- 
 self by holding boxing matches of the most violent 
 and brutal kind, deprived the law courts of all 
 respect by acquitting the guilty and condemning 
 the innocent for bribes, and encouraged espionage 
 of all kinds, even going about the streets incognito, 
 to listen for disaffected speeches against the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Constantius, now residing chiefly at Arelatum 
 (Aries), in Gaul, was informed of the turn things 
 were taking by the Praetorian Praefect Thalassius, 
 who seems to have been left as a spy upon Gallus. 
 Beginning as usual with tentative measures, Constan- 
 tius sought a remedy by gradually diminishing the 
 number of troops under Gallus's command. A little 
 later, he sent a high official, Domitian, who had been 
 treasurer and was now praefect, to bring about the 
 Caesar's recall and retreat from Antioch. Domitian 
 acted bluntly and without tact. Gallus, indignant 
 at his rudeness, seized his person, and when one of 
 the quaestors attempted to mediate between them, 
 Gallus appealed to the soldiery, and a disgraceful 
 tumult ensued, in which both Domitian and the 
 quaestor lost their lives. Gallus now declared that 
 a conspiracy had been set on foot against him, and 
 torture was employed to make suspected persons 
 reveal the names of accomplices. By such means, 
 many innocent persons were arrested, and several 
 were executed without any but a mock trial. 
 Among these were two who had been seized in mis- 
 take for others who happened to bear similar names. 
 
354] Career and End of His Brother Gallus. 43 
 
 A new person now appears upon the scenes, Ursi- 
 cinus, Governor of Nisibis, whom the Emperor had 
 ordered to go and investigate matters on the spot. 
 He was accompanied by the historian Ammianus, 
 from whom we have a graphic account of all the 
 transactions at Antioch. Ursicinus was shocked at 
 the violence and levity with which the trials for 
 treason were being conducted, and wrote to inform 
 Constantius of the state of affairs. But the suspi- 
 cious ear of the Emperor had been gained by the 
 rivals of Ursicinus at court, and the upright soldier 
 was withdrawn from Antioch, on an artificial pre- 
 text, before Gallus was formally summoned thence. 
 Meantime, Constantina was persuaded to leave her 
 husband and pay a visit to her brother, probably in 
 the hope of bringing about an understanding be- 
 tween them. But before she could cross from Asia 
 into Europe, she fell ill of a fever and died. Per- 
 haps the only good thing to be said of her is that 
 her husband acted more foolishly (though certainly 
 not more wickedly) after he had lost her. He seems 
 now to have entertained designs of seizing the Im- 
 perial power. Nevertheless, he was persuaded by 
 treacherous counsellors to leave Syria and come to 
 the Emperor in Italy. He stayed in Constantinople 
 on the way, behaved with foolish self-confidence, 
 and held a chariot race, to the great indignation of 
 Constantius. But so headstrong a man was sure to 
 fall a prey to subtle courtiers covetous of his prop- 
 erty rather than of his office, for Gallus, like Julian, 
 had inherited considerable estates in Asia Minor. 
 He proceeded on his journey, and only found that 
 
44 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 
 
 he had fallen into a trap when it was too late to 
 retreat. When he had reached Petavio in Noricum, 
 he was met by an officer who had formerly served 
 under him, and who now came with a band of sol- 
 diers to arrest him. He was taken to the tower of 
 Pola, in Istria, the scene, many years before, of the 
 murder of Constantine's eldest son, Crispus. There 
 he was subjected to an enquiry as to his violations 
 of justice, and laid the blame of them on his wife. 
 But his cowardice could not delay his punishment, 
 and he was beheaded forthwith. 
 
 Gallus was at the time of his death twenty-nine 
 years old, and had held the Caesarship for four years. 
 In external appearance he was handsome, tall, with 
 well-proportioned limbs, soft yellow hair, and short 
 beard. His vices seem to have been rather those of 
 a weak and uncontrolled than of an actively evil 
 character. Unlike his brother, he never rejected 
 the religion in which he had been brought up, not, 
 assuredly, that his moral proclivities were more nat- 
 urally Christian than Julian's, but rather because he 
 was totally without those intellectual aspirations 
 which made Julian a votary of Hellenism. 
 
 It seemed desirable to narrate the history of Gal- 
 lus in this place, partly because it illustrates the 
 character of some of the persons and the complica- 
 tions of circumstances with which Julian himself had 
 to deal, and partly because the wretched career and 
 sudden fall of the elder brother made a deep and 
 melancholy impression on the mind of the younger, 
 whom it seemed likely to involve in a common ruin. 
 But the Caesarship of Gallus had not, while it lasted, 
 
354] Career and End of His Brother G alius. 45 
 
 much immediate effect on Julian's life. The broth- 
 ers corresponded occasionally and probably met 
 once. During those four years, however, Julian was 
 but little concerned with matters of court and of 
 state, being absorbed in those studies which seemed 
 to him of infinitely greater importance, living in an 
 intellectual world which he regarded as far more 
 real than any material environment. 
 
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Notes on Chapter II 47 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 The best authorities for the childhood of Julian are his Letter to 
 the Athenians and the funeral oration of Libanius, with which may- 
 be compared Misopogon, and the Hist. Eccles. of Socrates, Bk. 
 iii., c. 1. The history of Gallus is recorded at length in Bk. xiv. of 
 Ammianus, who was eye-witness of some of the scenes which he 
 describes, and in the concluding chapters of Zosimus, Bk. ii. Among 
 modern authorities, see, besides those already mentioned, Mucke's 
 Julianus. 
 
 1 See especially Ep., 58. 
 
 2 Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, would place his birth two 
 years earlier. This would make it possible for his exile to have fol- 
 lowed speedily on the general massacre of 337 (as he seems to imply 
 in his Letter to the Athenians), and yet for him to have passed part 
 of his school time at Constantinople, as Libanius {Epitaph :) and 
 others relate. (Though Libanius says that at the time of the mas- 
 sacres, Julian was only just weaned.) 
 
 3 Fragment 5 in Hertlein. 
 
 4 See Libanius, Epit., and Reiske's note thereon. The Anicii 
 were Christians, and Count Julian is said to have changed his religion 
 in order to please his nephew. I do not think this probable, as such 
 change .must have occurred before Julian became Emperor. 
 
 5 Ep., 46. Compare Fragment of Letter to a Priest, in which 
 Julian mentions that he recovered his grandmother's estate after 
 doing a kind turn to somebody. 
 
 6 Ep., 13. Also one of the lately discovered letters of Julian 
 published in the Maurogordateion Bibliotheke. Cf. Ammianus, 
 Bk. xxiii., c. I. 
 
 7 By Zoraras. 
 
 8 Misopogon, 352. 
 
 9 The dominion of Annibalianus over Pontus and the neighbouring 
 countries would seem to have been more independent, as he bore the 
 title and insignia of King. 
 
 10 On the coinage of Vetranio and Magnentius, and especially on 
 the adoption by Magnentius of the symbolic letters A and £1, see H. 
 Schiller, /. c. iii., 3, sec. 21. 
 
 11 See beginning of Oration in Praise of King Helios. 
 
 12 Book xxii., c. 9. 
 
 13 Philostorgius, iii., 22. See also Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs^ 
 Constance, Art. 18, 
 
Coin of Nicomedia. 
 Imperial Times. 
 
 Coin of Nicomedia. 
 Imperial Times. 
 
 Coin of Nicsea. 
 A walled city. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 JULIAN'S ACADEMIC EDUCATION. 
 
 350-354 
 
 11 Ei nS vjuaS 7tETt8iH8v on tov q>iko6q)BiY hiti 6xoX.rji 
 art pay juov go's idriv rjftiov ij XvdirsA.sdrepov roK drBpcortoiS, 
 7]itarr}jxevoi i^artara." 
 
 Julian, Ep. 55. 
 
 " What do you read, my lord ? 
 " Words, words, words ! " 
 
 Hamlet, i., 2. 
 
 HE years during which Gallus held the 
 dignity of Caesar, with the months that 
 immediately followed his fall, consti- 
 tute a very important period in the 
 life of his brother. Julian henceforth 
 found himself partly, at least, liber- 
 ated from the restraints under which 
 he had passed the preceding six years of his life, 
 and able to follow more freely his own intellect- 
 
 48 
 
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 jjjmjnsjmjuujHJ 
 
 
 
 c 
 n 
 
 E 
 
 e 
 e 
 
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 yuuuuuui 
 
 
350-354] Julian s Academic Education. 49 
 
 ual bent. Not that he was even now entirely his 
 own master. We hear 1 of allegations made against 
 him, that he quitted Macellum for purposes of study 
 in the Asiatic towns, and that he had held inter- 
 course with his disloyal brother. There can be little 
 doubt, however, that Constantius, whether influenced 
 by friendly feeling or by self-interest, was not sorry 
 to see his young cousin's eager longing after a learned 
 and intellectual life. The pursuits on which his 
 heart was set would be less likely than any others to 
 bring him into opposition and rivalry to the ruling 
 powers. There was indeed the chance that he might 
 fall in with some theosophic oracle-monger, who by 
 playing upon his youthful enthusiasm might instil 
 into his mind the belief that he had a special voca- 
 tion to constitute himself the champion of the an- 
 cient gods and their votaries. The fear of such 
 influences may have crossed the mind of the suspi- 
 cious Emperor, but, if so, the result was to make 
 him insist that Julian should openly profess adhesion 
 to the Christian faith and should avoid teachers 
 known to be zealous in the cause of reaction. It 
 certainly did not prompt him to endeavour by en- 
 ticements or threats to draw away his cousin from 
 his academic studies. 
 
 Accordingly Julian, who seems, at least before his 
 rise to power and supremacy, never to have been 
 deficient in worldly prudence, early perceived the 
 need of caution and dissimulation, if he were not to 
 be debarred from following his ruling passion. As 
 Libanius says (in one of the few bright remarks that 
 occasionally enliven his wearisome and bombastic 
 
50 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 pages), Julian reversed yEsop's fable, and became a 
 lion in an ass's hide. His mental disguise was so 
 successful that not only was Constantius disarmed, 
 but serious doubts have been caused among eminent 
 writers, down to our own days, as' to what the 
 earliest religious beliefs of Julian really were, and 
 whether they were changed at the time when he 
 decidedly embraced Hellenism. Though the matter 
 cannot be regarded as settled beyond dispute, I think 
 that most students of Julian's life and works will see 
 little ground for the opinion 2 . that his zeal in after 
 days was that of a pervert who had once been a 
 warm adherent of the opposite cause. The" state- 
 ment he makes in a letter to the Alexandrians 3 that 
 he " followed the way " of the Christians till he was 
 twenty years old does not imply any very sincere 
 adhesion to Christian beliefs and practices, nor do 
 we find traces of such early attachment in any of his 
 later works. He shows, it is true, considerable ac- 
 quaintance with several books of the New Testa- 
 ment. This lends probability to the statement, 
 made by some Christian writers, that Julian at one 
 time held the ecclesiastical office of Reader. He 
 may also 4 have contributed, with his brother, to the 
 construction of the shrine of St. Mammas in Cappa- 
 docia. A silly story is told of supernatural forces 
 which caused the part undertaken by Julian to crum- 
 ble away and the part built by Gallus to stand 
 secure, a proceeding which showed little discernment 
 of character on the part of the saint, so far at least 
 as Gallus is concerned. All that Julian himself tells 
 us of his early habits and thoughts shows him to us 
 
354] Julians Academic Education. 5 1 
 
 as a dreamy boy, devotedly fond of Greek poetry, 
 and soon aspiring to the study of philosophy. His 
 enthusiasm for Greek letters may naturally have de- 
 veloped into a zeal for Greek religion, or rather, may 
 have itself become a religion to him, without any 
 critical revulsion of feeling. 
 
 Still we have to face the knotty question, whether 
 he had ever been baptised, since if it were so, it is 
 the less easy to clear him in the eyes of the world 
 from the opprobrious epithet that has clung to his 
 name through all the ages. The statements of his 
 fellow-student Gregory Nazianzen and those of Sozo- 
 men and the other ecclesiastical historians cannot 
 count for much where their knowledge was imper- 
 fect and their hatred intense. Against their asser- 
 tions, we may set the example of Constantine him- 
 self and of the members of his family, especially of 
 Constantius, who only received baptism when at the 
 point of death. The hard penances imposed for 
 sins committed after baptism had led to this habit 
 of delay, which we find very prevalent, especially 
 in high quarters. But on the other hand we have it 
 recorded of Julian, as already stated, that he was 
 admitted to the ranks of those who received com- 
 mission to read the Scriptures in church to the peo- 
 ple. It was not customary to bestow this office on 
 those who were as yet only in the grade of catechu- 
 mens, though we are told that in at least one church 5 
 such cases were not unknown. Still, if Julian was 
 formally admitted as a Reader, it seems probable 
 that he had been baptised, even without the pressure 
 of a dangerous illness ; and once at least in his 
 
5 2 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 childhood he must have been in peril of death. Of 
 course the matter would not afterwards appear to 
 him as of great moment, though the story of his 
 using occult means for counteracting the efficacy of 
 the baptismal water is not at all inconsistent with 
 his habit of mind and character. 
 
 The years of Julian's academic training (or, as we 
 might say, of his university life) cannot be assigned 
 with chronological precision to the various places at 
 which we know him to have studied. He probably 
 spent a considerable part of the time at Nicomedia, 
 and also stayed in Constantinople. Towards the 
 end of the period, he was a student at Athens, and 
 he had probably made another sojourn there earlier. 
 He also visited Ephesus, Pergamum, and other cities 
 in Asia Minor, and it was the teaching acquired in 
 these regions that seems to have influenced him the 
 most profoundly. Some of the great Asiatic cities 
 maintained at this time learned and eloquent men, 
 who trained their youth at the public expense. Nor 
 were endowments such as we know them entirely 
 wanting. Marcus Aurelius had established four pro- 
 fessional chairs of philosophy at Athens, to be held 
 by the Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, and Epicureans 
 respectively, and also chairs in politics and rhetoric. 
 Athens retained her prestige for many generations, 
 but the existence of the separate chairs for the four 
 sects cannot be traced in the time of Julian. Mean- 
 time other endowments were founded in other cities, 
 and students eager to sit at the feet of a noted pro- 
 fessor would migrate from city to city like the wan- 
 
A MUSE. 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 

354] Julian s Academic Education. 53 
 
 dering members of the mediaeval universities, and 
 many German students of our own day. 
 
 Our want of precise chronological data as to 
 Julian's early days is partially compensated by the 
 abundant information we can procure as to the man- 
 ner of men by whom he was taught and the kind of 
 life which he and his fellow-students had to live. 
 Without attempting, then, a complete narrative of 
 this period of his life, we may endeavour to picture 
 to ourselves some of its episodes and to judge of its 
 general results. We will therefore consider here 
 very briefly the nature of the academic studies of 
 the time, the character of some of Julian's principal 
 teachers, and the habits of his friends and fellow- 
 students. 6 
 
 The system of education in vogue during the fourth 
 century was, on its intellectual side, entirely based 
 on literature. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric consti- 
 tuted both then and later on well into the Middle 
 Ages, the basis of a liberal education. In grammar 
 was included the elementary study of literature. 
 Logic had already been developed into a very elab- 
 orate art, with its three branches of apodeictic, bias- 
 tic, and paralogistic. Rhetoric had expanded in such 
 fashion as to make all other arts and sciences subsi- 
 diary to herself. The physical and mathematical 
 sciences were not a very important branch of ordi- 
 nary education. Medicine was considered a necessary 
 study for those whose health was not very robust. 
 Arithmetic was in great part occupied with the mys- 
 tical properties of numbers. History and politics, and 
 
54 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 even the lofty regions of metaphysics and theology 
 were now dominated by the science and art of elo- 
 quence. The charge often brought against a purely 
 literary education at the present day, that it tends to 
 make men overvalue the power of expression, and 
 undervalue the pursuit of hidden' truths and lofty 
 ideals, applies with ten-fold force to the system 
 which prevailed before literary studies had been 
 leavened with scientific method, while philology and 
 historical criticism were yet unknown. To Greek 
 school-boys it must have seemed as if the Athe- 
 nians had conquered at Marathon, the properties 
 of numbers had been investigated by the found- 
 ers of mathematics, the immortality of the soul 
 and its high destinies had been propounded by 
 Plato, chiefly in order to furnish material for ele- 
 gant and highly applauded themes. In the rhetori- 
 cal exercises of which, we may well be thankful, not 
 many have come down to our days, the youth- 
 ful " heirs of all the ages," and the trainers of 
 their minds eagerly sought to eulogise the great 
 deeds of the past, or to show how those deeds might 
 have been done better, to trace rambling analogies 
 along conventional lines, and to prove the most vital. 
 of truths by the weakest of logical arguments. Illus- 
 trations of this perverse method of treatment are to 
 be found in the works (still extant) of the Sophist 
 Himerius, under whom Julian may possibly have 
 studied at Athens. Among his elaborate discourses 
 are some of a quasi-historical character which suffi- 
 ciently display the tendency (ineradicable, perhaps, 
 in the human mind) to regard all history not as a 
 
354] Julian s Academic Education. 55 
 
 field for patient labour and research, but rather as a 
 happy hunting ground full of moral illustrations and 
 fanciful analogies. Among them are orations sup- 
 posed to have been delivered respectively by Hype- 
 rides for Demosthenes and by Demosthenes for 
 yEschines, under circumstances that never arose nor 
 were likely to arise, and one in the name of Themis- 
 tocies, advising the Athenian people to reject cer- 
 tain Persian propositions of peace, of a kind that 
 Xerxes most assuredly never could nor would have 
 offered. 
 
 The more exact sciences suffered no less than the 
 historical from the ubiquitous tyranny of rhetoric. 
 Arithmetic furnished scope for fine-drawn disquisi- 
 tions of fancied properties of numbers. We have an 
 instance of this in a paper which appears among 
 Julian's letters 8 and which may, perhaps, be a school- 
 boy exercise. It was to accompany a present of a 
 hundred figs, and is devoted to a eulogy of the number 
 ten, and of the figs of Damascus. Even medicine 
 could not entirely hold her own. Considerations of 
 practical expediency induced men of delicate health 
 to make themselves acquainted with the ordinary 
 methods of bodily regimen, as did Basil, the future 
 Bishop of Caesarea, while a student at Athens. But 
 for such purposes a merely empirical knowledge suf- 
 ficed, while among the masters of the art, some, at 
 least, were enthralled by the all-powerful spirit of ora- 
 tory. Thus we are told of a certain physician, Magnus 
 of Antioch, that he excelled in rhetoric as well as in 
 medicine, and rendered applicable to himself a story 
 previously current concerning Pericles. As the rival 
 
56 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 of Pericles complained that if he had thrown the 
 great orator, Pericles could persuade the people that 
 he had never been carried off his feet, so Magnus 
 could maintain an argument that those cured by 
 other physicians than himself were still sick. 9 The 
 reporter of the saying does not go on to infer that 
 Magnus, by his powers of persuasion, could argue 
 his patients into the belief that they had recovered. 
 Still more curious and more dangerous was the 
 supreme influence of rhetoric in the law-courts. Two 
 anecdotes of Athenian university life in Julian's day 
 illustrate this fact. There had been in Athens one 
 of those not uncommon frays, of which we shall say 
 more presently, between the bands of pupils attached 
 to two rival professors. When the matter was 
 brought before a magistrate, both professors ap- 
 peared to defend their quarrelsome disciples. They 
 were both armed with long speeches and with all the 
 paraphernalia for creating a sensation. The pro- 
 consul, however, cut short the scene by insisting that 
 the student who appeared as prosecutor should speak 
 for himself, and that the defence should be made by 
 a student from the opposite gang. The prosecutor, 
 being a youth readier with his fists than with his 
 tongue, failed miserably, and so brought down jeers 
 on the head of his professor, who, it was sarcastically 
 said, taught the Pythagorean virtue of silence. Then 
 came the turn of the defendant, Proaeresius, after- 
 wards an illustrious professor in the same university. 
 He rose to the occasion, implored the compassion of 
 the audience, praised the glories of his master, ad- 
 dressed a personal appeal to the proconsul, made a 
 
354] ^Julians Academic Education. 57 
 
 telling allusion to the name of the prosecutor, (which 
 happened to be Themistocles), and threw all his 
 remaining energy into an eloquent peroration. This 
 brought the proconsul bounding from his judgment 
 seat, shaking his purple robe in wild excitement. 
 Then, amid the applause of the audience and the 
 happy tears of the gratified professor, the accused 
 were honourably acquitted, and the accusers were 
 sentenced to the lashes which, in this case, they 
 probably deserved. 
 
 In later days, this same Proaeresius, by an eloquent 
 speech in honour of the Emperor, obtained the 
 restoration of the tribute formerly due from certain 
 islands to the city of Athens. But his oratorical 
 powers were put to a severer test on another occa- 
 sion. The machinations of a rival faction had caused 
 him to be sent into exile. On a change of proconsuls, 
 he was recalled, and the newly arrived magistrate 
 bade him display his oratory in rivalry with all his 
 foes. Secure in his ability to defeat them, he asked 
 his enemies to choose themselves a subject for his 
 discourse. When they had done so, he not only 
 spoke with most entrancing eloquence both for and 
 against the motion proposed, but on coming to an end, 
 repeated entirely both his speeches, so that the short- 
 hand reporters could not detect one verbal change. 
 The result was that he received almost divine hon- 
 ours, and was conducted home with military pomp. 10 
 
 Furthermore, in the very highest regions of human 
 thought, the excessive power of words was largely, 
 though not universally, prevalent. A few deeper 
 thinkers there were who realised that questions of 
 
58 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 life, morals, and religion are not to be settled by 
 verbal jugglery or by pompously sounding phrases. 
 But among the sophists, especially at Athens, and 
 also to a great extent in Asia Minor, a discourse in 
 elegant form was regarded as sufficient refutation of 
 a whole reasoned system. Nothing, for example, 
 can conceivably be weaker than the arguments 
 directed by Himerius against the doctrines of Epi- 
 curus. Into the subject of the schools of philosophy 
 then prevalent we cannot now enter. We must 
 return to consider it in relation to the philosophic 
 views of Julian himself. Here, however, we may 
 mention two prominent characteristics of fourth- 
 century philosophy : its eclecticism, and its close 
 connection with religious belief and occult practice. 
 We look in vain for representatives of the great 
 philosophic sects. Everybody seems to hold more 
 or less the views of them all, except those of the 
 Epicureans, who never receive fair treatment at this 
 time, nor yet in some subsequent periods. The 
 sinking of formerly prominent distinctions may be 
 diversely explained. We may attribute it to a lofty 
 cosmopolitanism which recognises the unity of truth 
 under a multitude of interpretations. Or it may 
 seem more probable that a cloud of words has 
 enveloped and obscured distinctions that are never- 
 theless radical. As to the second characteristic 
 mentioned : the craving after some manifestation 
 of the supernatural is everywhere apparent, and may 
 be largely traced to that Oriental influence which, 
 ever since the conquests of Alexander, had been 
 continually streaming into western lands. 
 
354] Julians Academic Education. 59 
 
 But Julian himself was, during his academic life, 
 preserved by his earnestness of character from the 
 worst tendencies to logomachy and sophistry preva- 
 lent all around him. This is shown in a very pleas- 
 ing letter subsequently addressed (probably from 
 Gaul) to two former fellow-students. 11 After some 
 playful expressions of envy at their delightful occu- 
 pation, and regret at his own danger of falling into 
 utter barbarism, he gives them some sound advice as 
 to their studies : " Do not despise light literature, 
 nor neglect rhetoric and poetry. But pay more 
 attention to mathematics, and give all diligence to 
 learning the doctrine of Plato and Aristotle. Let 
 this be your main work, your edifice from founda- 
 tion to roof. Additional subjects may come in by 
 the way, and should be prosecuted by you with more 
 diligence than others show in the pursuit of what is 
 really important." 
 
 Let us now briefly glance at the character and 
 career of some of the men to whom at this time 
 Julian seems to have owed most. We may thus 
 perhaps grasp more vividly the characteristics w r hich 
 we have noticed in the general academic teaching of 
 the time, as well as the particular influences that were 
 most potent in the formation of Julian's mind and 
 character. We will take representatives of three 
 distinct and prominent classes : Maxim us, the occult 
 philosopher and pagan martyr ; Libanius, the pro- 
 lific orator and renowned trainer of youth ; and 
 Themistius, the sober-minded — perhaps rather cold- 
 hearted — upholder of eclecticism. 
 
 Maximus, 12 at the time when Julian first made his 
 
60 Julian, Philosopher and Empe r /or. [350- 
 
 acquaintance, belonged to the band of eager pupils 
 that clustered round the famous sophist ^Edesius at 
 Pergamum. This city seems, from the days of the 
 Attalids downwards, to have been a lively centre of 
 Greek thought, art, and society, and it probably still 
 contained a remnant of its once famous library. At 
 this time, the tendency in Pergamene society seems 
 to have been towards theosophy and occult mysti- 
 cism. This disposition is especially manifest in some 
 eminent ladies, a fact not surprising when we con- 
 sider the liberty and consideration enjoyed by Ionian 
 ladies in very early times, and also the freer life 
 which Greek women generally began to enjoy under 
 the successors of Alexander. The wife of Maximus 
 seems to have been an ornament of this intellectual 
 and spiritualist circle, but a yet more distinguished 
 leader in it was a widowed lady, Sosipatra, of whose 
 childhood strange tales were told. She had been 
 given up, it was said, for five years to the charge of 
 two ancient men who afterwards proved to be gods 
 in human form. By them she was trained in the art 
 of discerning things at a distance and of foretelling 
 the future. Her receptions, or, as we might almost 
 call them, stances, were as popular as the lectures of 
 ^Edesius himself, who lived on friendly terms with 
 her, and educated her sons. 
 
 It was the fame of ^Edesius that first attracted 
 Julian to Pergamum, and this visit is regarded by 
 some as marking the period in his life when he 
 decisively made up his mind to renounce Christianity. 
 It seems to coincide with the time when, as Julian 
 declares, he " ceased to follow the former ways." 
 
354] yulians Academic Education, 61 
 
 But if the story as told by Eunapius is in the main 
 correct, Julian must have come with a clear notion 
 of what he wanted, and quite emancipated from any 
 shackles that his early education might have cast 
 about his mind. ^Edesius was at this time well 
 stricken in years, and Maximus was at Ephesus, 
 which seems to have been his native place. 13 Julian 
 therefore consorted chiefly with two pupils of JEde- 
 sius, the genial high-flown Chrysanthius and the more 
 rationalistic Eusebius. These told him tales of the 
 wonderful doings of Maximus, especially how on one 
 occasion he had caused a statue of Hecate to break 
 into laughter, and the torches in her hands to kindle 
 spontaneously. On hearing of these marvels, Julian 
 cried, " He is the man for me," and started off to 
 meet him. From that day to the hour when Maxi- 
 mus stood by Julian's death-bed, the relation between 
 them was one of close and (on Julian's side, at least) 
 of respectful friendship. It was to Maximus that 
 Julian showed his works when he wanted a judgment 
 on their merits, just as, he said, Celtic women tested 
 their new-born babes in the waters of the Rhine. 
 He slept with the letters of Maximus under his 
 pillow, and found time, even when very busily occu- 
 pied, to write to the philosopher a full account of all 
 his doings. 14 One of the first results of his inter- 
 course with Maximus seems to have been a desire 
 for initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries, and this 
 he was able to gratify. The solemn ceremonies, the 
 mystic words, meaningless enough to the outsider, 
 but fraught with power to the believer, the encour- 
 agement given (during this period, certainly, if not 
 
62 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 in the prosperous days of Greece) to the religious 
 aspiration after purity and immortality, must have 
 deeply impressed the mind of the young votary- 
 He now felt that though he might still have to dis- 
 simulate for a time, yet for him the die was cast. 
 
 It is a curious fact that Maximus, with all his 
 reverence for oracular and theurgic rites, when he 
 sought responses from the Gods had no scruple in 
 repeating his inquiries till the answer came in ap- 
 proximately the form he desired. We may also feel 
 a little startled to learn that his chief literary work 
 was a commentary on Aristotle's Logic. 15 The 
 sanest and the insanest philosophic methods seem to 
 have been blended in the mental operations of these 
 eclectics of the fourth century. Maximus was a 
 man of remarkable voice and appearance, with very 
 piercing eyes and (in his old age, when Eunapius 
 knew him) a venerable white beard. The favours 
 which Julian subsequently conferred upon him will 
 be recorded in a later chapter. His end was tragic. 
 He continued the practice of occult arts after they 
 had been authoritatively prohibited, and thereby 
 brought down on his head the wrath of the Emperor 
 Valens, and prepared for himself a martyr's death. 
 
 Libanius, the sophist of Antioch, was also a friend 
 and correspondent of Julian in later days, though 
 probably they did not meet often during this earlier 
 period. Libanius expressly says that Julian had 
 been forbidden by the Emperor to attend his lec- 
 tures at Nicomedia. 16 He characteristically adds 
 that Julian surreptitiously obtained copies of his 
 works, and modelled his own style on them. To 
 
3541 yuliaris Academic Education. 63 
 
 this statement we may demur, yet the regard in 
 which Julian held the great sophist is amply attested 
 by the correspondence between them and also by 
 their public relations. 
 
 The voluminous works of Libanius which 17 are 
 still extant, including a minute autobiography, might 
 be expected to afford us a clear view of his life 
 and character, such as we cannot hope to obtain in 
 the case of Maximus. 17 Unfortunately, however, 
 Libanius was not distinguished, even among his con- 
 temporaries, by an unbiassed pursuit of truth and 
 accuracy, and the chief impression we derive from 
 his works is of the profound respect he entertains for 
 rhetoric or "words," and of his yet deeper respect 
 for his own genius. Left fatherless in his boyhood, 
 Libanius ran wild and unfettered by teachers till, in 
 his fifteenth year, his master-passion took possession 
 of him, and all things seemed worthless in compari- 
 son with the study of eloquence, and of literature as 
 an auxiliary branch of that study. To the object of 
 this passion he remained faithful throughout his long 
 life ; during his unhappy student days, at Athens 
 (where, by force of sheer bullying, he was obliged to 
 attach himself to another professor than the one he 
 had come to hear) ; during the four years in which 
 he held a subordinate position among the teachers 
 of the Athenian University ; during a short period 
 of professional life at Constantinople, five happier 
 years at Nicomedia, and the forty years throughout 
 which he ruled supreme, as king of eloquence, in his 
 native city of Antioch. He had many difficulties to 
 contend against : delicate health, the insubordination 
 
64 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 of pupils, the treacherous machinations of rival 
 teachers, the factions of a tumultuous populace. Yet 
 he weathered all storms, and maintained his reputa- 
 tion and his own pleasure in it to the end of his 
 prolonged career. 
 
 In religion, Libanius was an adherent of the old 
 Gods, more perhaps from taste and temperament 
 than from conviction. There was no trace in him of 
 fanaticism, and the letters he wrote on behalf of op- 
 pressed Christians reflect great honour on his name. 
 Human kindliness, and a certain degree of sound 
 sense in matters where he was not personally con- 
 cerned, redeem his character from the charge of 
 triviality. One letter which he wrote on behalf of a 
 poor man oppressed by a cruel governor is truly ad- 
 mirable. We must also respect his championship of 
 the bakers of Antioch during a time of famine, when 
 people were about to avenge the general sufferings 
 on their powerless heads. His view as to the rela- 
 tive importance of religion and oratory is strangely 
 shewn in a letter which he wrote to congratulate a 
 friend on being made bishop, an office which afforded 
 fine opportunities for applying the art of rhetoric. 
 The blindness of such men as Libanius to the real 
 import of the religious changes going on around 
 them is curious and somewhat suggestive. 
 
 In estimating the deserts of Libanius and his 
 school, we must not overlook their services to litera- 
 ture. It may be that ancient books appeared to 
 them rather as a quarry furnishing raw material for 
 manufacturers of discourses than as a mine contain- 
 ing treasures of the highest intrinsic value. But 
 
354] yuliaris Academic Education. 65 
 
 whatever their opinions and feelings might be, they 
 helped to keep those treasures in existence for the 
 men that were to come after them, and we are even 
 now enjoying the fruits of their labours. 
 
 Themistius, 18 a Paphlagonian by descent, who lived 
 and taught in Constantinople, Nicomedia, and else- 
 where, differs from Maximus in being free from 
 fanaticism, and, from Libanius in having a more just 
 appreciation of the subordination in which words 
 should stand to thoughts. The little treatise which 
 Julian addressed to him, in answer to one which he 
 had sent to Julian, on the Duties of Monarchy, would 
 by itself suggest that Themistius was no common- 
 place man. Although in those days of oration-mak- 
 ing he could hardly avoid being frequently called on 
 for speeches, such as those which, revised by him, 
 have come down to us, he set philosophy high above 
 rhetoric. The work to which, by preference, he de- 
 voted himself, was the elucidation of Aristotle, 
 though he did not neglect the study of Plato. The 
 appointments which he received and retained under 
 a variety of emperors, orthodox, heretical, and pagan, 
 might suggest that he was of the fellowship of the 
 Vicar of Bray. Such a judgment, however, would 
 be very unfair, since Themistius probably never pro- 
 fessed a religion that he did not hold, though his 
 opinions were such as to make it difficult for some of 
 his contemporaries to bring them within the range of 
 any party or creed. 19 While believing in the truth 
 and necessity of the fundamental principles under- 
 lying all religions, he held that different local and 
 national rights ought to be maintained, as bearing 
 
66 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 witness before the multitude to deep-seated verities. 
 In subsequent days, when the Emperor Valens was 
 persecuting those Christians that held to the Nicene 
 symbol, Themistius opposed his attempts on philo- 
 sophic grounds. " The Emperor," he said, " ought 
 not to be surprised at the difference of judgment on 
 religious questions existing among Christians, inas- 
 much as that discrepancy was trifling compared with 
 the multitude of conflicting opinions among the 
 heathen, which amounted to above three hundred. 
 Dissension, indeed, might be an inevitable conse- 
 quence of this disagreement ; but God would be the 
 more glorified by the diversity of sentiment, and the 
 greatness of His majesty would be the more vener- 
 ated from its being thus made manifest how difficult 
 it is to know Him." 20 Themistius was on friendly 
 terms with Gregory Nazianzen, and seems to have 
 been tolerant in deed and not only in word. 
 
 We may thus note the fact which we shall have to 
 consider more fully later on, that the relations be- 
 tween the professors of the old philosophies and the 
 adherents of the new religion were not always or 
 necessarily hostile. One, at least, of the philoso- 
 phers at Athens in Julian's time was a professed 
 Christian, though apparently not very ardent for the 
 faith. Gregory Nazianzen and his friend Basil were 
 both fellow-students of Julian in Greece. Christian 
 and Pagan teachers had at least one large field to 
 cultivate in common, the art of rhetoric, which de- 
 manded the labours alike of the candidate for the 
 sophist's chair and of the aspirant to the bishop's 
 throne. Whether the churchman desired to attain 
 
354] yulians Academic Education. 67 
 
 ecclesiastical preferment, or aimed primarily at the 
 salvation of souls and the edification of the faithful, 
 the rhetorical training of the Athenian school was for 
 him equally necessary. Whether he could, with 
 whole-hearted simplicity, receive at the same time 
 all the best that the ancient culture had to offer him, 
 is another question, the answer to which was made 
 in the days that came after. 
 
 If we turn now from the teachers of the middle 
 part of the fourth century to consider the life of the 
 students, we may form a vivid picture of it, espe- 
 cially of life in the University of Athens, from the 
 writings of Gregory Nazianzen 21 and of Eunapius. 
 The chief feature which strikes us is the extraordi- 
 nary want of discipline, which is all the more re- 
 markable when we see the careful regulations to 
 which the Attic Ephebi were subject in earlier 
 times. 22 The professors were more like condottieri 
 leaders than like the ruling authorities of a consti- 
 tuted educational body. Their pupils attached 
 themselves to the person of their master rather 
 than to the course of study he recommended, and 
 were always ready to wage war on his behal-f and to 
 add to his band of scholars, by fair means or by 
 foul. It has been supposed that non-paying pupils 
 were turned to account by the professors (who were 
 not always entirely dependent on their endowments) 
 by being made recruiting sergeants to bring others. 
 At Athens, as in the mediaeval universities, the usual 
 division was into nations, men from each particular 
 province or region seeking out some eminent fellow- 
 countryman under whom to study. But this rule 
 
68 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 
 
 was not universal. We have seen that Libanius was, 
 on his arrival, forced by a tumultuous band to at- 
 tach himself to a master of whom he had no desire 
 to learn. The experiences of a " freshman " at our 
 universities are mild indeed compared with those of 
 the luckless, often sea-sick youth, on his arrival at 
 the goal of his innocent hopes. His first journey to 
 the baths seems to have been made the occasion of 
 a rude initiation, trying to nerves and temper and 
 probably sometimes dangerous to the bones. Two 
 men are, by different authorities, recorded as having 
 been exempted from this ordeal by special request. 
 Basil, whose constitution was delicate, escaped by 
 the influence of his friend Gregory. Eunapius, who 
 was suffering from a dangerous illness, at the time 
 of his arrival, was the object of a special appeal on 
 the part of the gentle Proseresius to the good feeling 
 of the ringleaders among the students. 
 
 Sometimes, as we have seen, free fights between 
 bands of students furnished cases for the law-courts. 
 Possibly better discipline might have been enforced 
 if the professors had cared to use all their powers. 
 Some, like Libanius, believed in the use of the rod. 
 But such use, on the backs of young men at a dis- 
 tance from any parental control, would soon have 
 led to empty lecture-rooms. What should we say 
 to the appeal made by Himerius to the lazy stu- 
 dents who failed to return on the right day after the 
 vacations ? 23 
 
 " Presumptuous and overweening, heedless of my 
 affection. Gladly would I have asked them : What 
 for them is a sweeter hearing than my voice ? What 
 
354] Julians Academic Education. 69 
 
 sight more cheering than my radiant aspect ? What 
 tuneful birds of spring utter such sweet and pleas- 
 ant strains ? What melodious, rhythmical chorus, 
 tuned to the flute or pipe, can touch their hearts as 
 the sound from this pulpit of mine? For indeed I 
 blame those shepherds who neglect to lead their 
 flocks with music and the pipe, but threaten with 
 chastisement and scourging. For my own flock 
 and my own nurslings — never may I see them with 
 sullen brows ! — reason shall conduct them to the 
 meadows and groves of the Muses. Songs are for 
 them, not blows. Thus may our mutual love grow 
 and flourish, and my rule be ever guided by music 
 and by harmony." 
 
 A striking instance, surely, of faith in the supreme 
 power of persuasive words ! Unfortunately we see 
 that in practice such power did not suffice to main- 
 tain order among a community of youths brought 
 together from all quarters and emancipated from 
 parental control. 
 
 Yet with all its drawbacks, university life had in 
 the fourth century both the present charm and the 
 germs of future profit which such a life must always 
 have while youth is youth and while the roads of 
 knowledge lie open. Those who had studied at 
 Athens felt for their Alma Mater in their after life 
 that loyal affection which we associate with the 
 widely different universities of modern times. The 
 excitement of a new and independent life, the first 
 realisation of the glorious inheritance bequeathed 
 by the past to the present age, the warm and stimu- 
 lating influence of teacher on pupil, the influence 
 
yo yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350-354 
 
 yet more rousing, to body and mind alike, of con- 
 genial fellow-students, the lively play of mind on 
 mind in places hallowed by centuries of noble 
 associations ; such was the joy of university life at 
 Athens in those days as among us now. And if in 
 any way Julian had reason to complain that the 
 jealousy of his cousin excluded him from some 
 spheres of life suitable to his rank and station, he 
 might well thank the Gods that it was not in the 
 forced atmosphere of a court, but in the intellectual 
 freedom of great centres of culture, that he first 
 learned to test and use his mental powers, and 
 formed the most lasting friendships of his life. 
 
 Bundle of Manuscripts. Rolled up. 
 
 Coin of Constantine II. 
 
 Plan of a camp on which stands 
 
 the Sun-god. 
 
Notes on Chapter III. Ji 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER III. 
 
 ! Ammianus, xv., 2. 
 
 2 Cf. Mr. C. W. King and others. 
 
 3 Ep. 51. 
 
 4 According to Greg. Nazianzen, and Sozomen, v. , 2. 
 
 5 That of Alexandria, Socrates, His. Eccles., v., 22. 
 
 6 For much interesting information about the contemporaries and 
 teachers of Julian at Athens, as well as about the whole system of 
 University education at that time, I am indebted to M. Petit de 
 Juleville, L' Ecole d y A thenes pendant le ^m siecle. 
 
 7 See Greg. Naz., Oration in Praise of Basil. 
 
 8 Ep. 24. This letter is however, regarded by Cumont as the 
 work of the same author who wrote those to Jamblichus. (Sur 
 V Authenticity de Quelques Lettres, etc. See infra). But in any case 
 it may serve as a specimen of the models set before Julian for imita- 
 tion. 
 
 9 Eunapius, Vita Sophistarum, 180. The saying against Pericles 
 is here given to Archidamus, not, as by Plutarch, to Thucydides son 
 of Melesias in answer to a question of Archidamus. 
 
 10 These stories are told by Eunapius (Vit. soph. : Julianus and 
 Proceresius), and are also given in Petit de Juleville. 
 
 11 Ep. 55- 
 
 12 In his life by Eunapius. Cf. Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen^ 
 2, 661. 
 
 13 So says Ammianus. Eunapius does not mention his birthplace, 
 but says that he was of good family. 
 
 14 Epp. 15, 16, 37. The first two of these are disputed by Cumont. 
 
 15 See Zeller, loc. cit. Also newly discovered series of letters by 
 Julian {Mavrogordateion, etc.), No. 4. 
 
 16 This statement might throw some doubt on the possibility of 
 Julian's intercourse with Maximus. But we have already seen 
 {supra, note 1), that one of his student journeys in Asia-Minor did 
 bring Julian into trouble. 
 
 17 Ed. Reiske. The autobiography is translated at the end of 
 Petit de Juleville's charming essay, Sur la Vie at la Correspondance 
 de Libanius. 
 
 18 See Zeller, Phil, der Griechen, vol. iv., p. 739, and Brucker, 
 Hist. Phil., ii., p. 434, et sea. 
 
 19 Thus he has been claimed as a Christian, and confused with the 
 
72 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 leader of sect called Agnoeti, who professed ignorance as to whether 
 Jesus Christ were or were not the Logos. The identification is 
 tempting but will not stand. (See Brucker). 
 
 20 Socrates, Hist. Eccles., English translation, iv., 32. 
 
 21 See especially his Eulogy of Basil. Petit de Juleville is excel- 
 lent here, and he is followed by Mr. W. W. Capes in his bright little 
 book on University Life in Ancient Athens. 
 
 22 See Dumont, L Ephebie Attique. 
 
 23 Oration , xv., 1, 2. 
 
Coin of Magnentius. 
 Reverse, Salus DD NN Ave Et Caes. The Christian Monogram, between 
 
 A and W. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JULIAN'S ELEVATION TO THE C^ESARSHIP. 
 
 355- 
 
 <c e6ti 8e . . . to K8(pa\aiov, on jurfrs rov itovov (psvyaav 
 firjVE T?}v r}8ovrjv Br/ps-LGDv, jutjte dupayjuodvvjji uai padraorr/i 
 spoor, ror sr rrj koXiteioc 8v6x^pocir 00 (5ior dXX . . . OWE 
 xaidsiav sjuavroo 6vrsi8oo$ rodavrrjr ovrs (pvdsooS vrtspoxr/r, 
 nccl Ttpodsri 8e8ioo$, /ii} cpiXo6oq)iar, rji spoor ovk e^iko^v, 
 eS rovi rvr drOpoortovS ovSs dXXooS EvSoxijuovdar SiafiaXXoo." 
 
 Julian, Ep. to Themistius, 266, C. 
 
 " The forward youth that would appear 
 Must now forsake his Muses dear . . . 
 'T is time to leave the books in dust, 
 And oil the unused armour's rust." — A. Marvell. 
 
 |F his first intercourse with Maximus 
 and his initiation into the Eleusinian 
 Mysteries marked a mental crisis in 
 Julian's life, a similar crisis was 
 soon to follow in his outward cir- 
 cumstances. The one may be re- 
 garded as preparatory to the other, 
 since it is evident from Julian's writings, as well as 
 
 73 
 
74 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 
 
 from the testimony of his friends, that his firm be- 
 lief in his vocation to a divinely appointed task sup- 
 ported him as nothing else could have done in the 
 difficulties and trials that he had to undergo. 
 
 The death of Gallus and the painful circumstances 
 which attended it furnished a golden opportunity to 
 the contemptible sycophants who abounded at the 
 Imperial Court. Of the harassing persecutions and 
 the judicial murders that disgrace this period, the 
 chief responsibility must, of course, rest with the 
 Emperor Constantius. Yet we should be wrong if 
 we regarded Constantius as an exceptionally wicked 
 man. Neither is he, in some ways, to be regarded 
 as utterly weak. He had so far resisted the enervat- 
 ing influences of an Oriental court as to maintain an 
 unblemished reputation for chastity and temperance. 
 His habitual self-control was reflected in an imper- 
 turbable manner of look and behaviour which con- 
 trasted with the eager restlessness of his young 
 cousin. He seems to have been guided by consci- 
 entious motives in the affairs of government, civil, 
 military, and even ecclesiastical. But where his 
 suspicions had once been aroused, he was as inac- 
 cessible to the dictates of pity as he habitually was 
 to the sounds and sights around him. One per- 
 son, indeed, could withstand the influences of the 
 courtiers, not so much, apparently, by appealing to 
 his better feelings as by cleverly flattering his self- 
 interest. This was the brilliant and beautiful Em- 
 press Eusebia, Julian's good genius at the Court. 
 Constantius having lost his first wife, Galla, had 
 married Eusebia probably not long after the defeat 
 
AN EMPRESS (PLACIDIA?) AND HER SON. 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
355] Julians Elevation to the Cczsarship. 75 
 
 of Magnentius. 1 She was a Macedonian by birth, of 
 a consular family, had been educated in Greek litera- 
 ture, and was singularly discreet in her behaviour. 
 She used her influence over her husband, an in- 
 fluence which she probably owed more to her men- 
 tal than to her physical attractions, in favour of her 
 family, several members of which received promo- 
 tion. This seems to have moved no great animad- 
 version against her, probably because in other ways 
 she advocated moderate courses, and was always in 
 favour of clemency and opposed to the corrupt in- 
 fluences of the eunuchs. If serious charges have 
 been brought against her by some historians, they 
 may be shown to rest on no very solid ground. 2 
 Her habitual attitude in Court factions, as well as 
 her natural sympathy with a young Greek scholar, 
 constituted her the champion of Julian at Court, 
 and to her he owed his escape from peril, and his 
 rise to a position of power and importance. 
 
 Meantime, many suspected persons fell victims 
 to the vengeance which overtook the partisans of 
 Gallus. Ursicinus, the honourable soldier whose 
 mission in Syria has been already mentioned, and to 
 whose person the historian Ammianus was specially 
 attached, had a narrow escape from execution on a 
 charge which amounted to little more than a recog- 
 nition of his capacity and popularity. The most 
 dangerous foe to all men of standing and ability was 
 Arbetio, consul in the year 355, whose serpent-like 
 wiles devised against his rivals were too often suc- 
 cessful. Among the lesser functionaries who de- 
 voted themselves to the congenial task of tracking 
 
76 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 
 
 out real or imaginary conspiracies, the most noto- 
 rious were a Persian of the name of Paul and a 
 Dacian called Mercurius. The former acquired the 
 nickname of "The Chain," because of his skill in 
 linking together every circumstance that could tell 
 against his victims. The latter was known as the 
 " Count of Dreams," owing to his habit of extract- 
 ing treasonable intentions from reports of nightly 
 fancies. At the same time Rufinus, who held the 
 office of Chief Apparitor of the Praetorian Prefec- 
 ture, 3 was eager to welcome any secret or treach- 
 erous information. One catastrophe caused by these 
 sycophants seemed likely to implicate Julian in its 
 issue. A dinner had been given at Sirmium, on the 
 Save, by the governor of one of the districts of 
 Pannonia. Talking freely over their wine, some of 
 the guests complained of the violent measures of 
 the Government, others spoke of a coming revolu- 
 tion, other lighter heads told stories of family fore- 
 casts which seemed applicable. But a Government 
 official was sitting among them. The hasty words 
 were speedily reported to Rufinus. The spy was 
 rewarded, the indiscreet talkers seized and brought 
 in chains to Milan, with the exception of one, who 
 contrived to commit suicide on the way. On this 
 occasion, however, they were so fortunate as to suf- 
 fer only imprisonment and threats. 4 
 
 Julian had meantime been summoned to Milan. 
 The weapons that his enemies sought to turn against 
 him were his alleged intercourse with his brother and 
 his journey in Asia of which we have already spoken. 
 
355] Julian s Elevation to the Ccesarship. 77 
 
 Julian said afterwards that he had not seen Gallus at 
 all during the time in question, though he had occa- 
 sionally corresponded with him. Ammianus says 
 that he was in Constantinople when Gallus passed 
 through the city. The statements are not contra- 
 dictory, and in any case Julian seems to have been 
 successful in clearing himself when he had an oppor- 
 tunity of so doing. But it was long before such an 
 opportunity was granted. For seven months he felt 
 himself a prisoner. Six months he spent in Milan, 
 without being once admitted to an interview with 
 his cousin, whom he had only once seen before, 
 namely, during his stay in Cappadocia. The Sirmium 
 troubles prolonged, most probably, his time of 
 duress. Libanius says that he behaved with much 
 discretion, not demeaning himself by denouncing 
 his dead brother, yet not bidding defiance to the 
 powerful Emperor. At length he was sent for a 
 time to Como, but he did not remain there long. 
 He soon found an opportunity of requesting the 
 Empress to use her influence so that he might be 
 permitted to return to his maternal estate in Asia 
 Minor, which he seems to have regarded as his home. 
 The permission was almost granted when events 
 occurred which made the Emperor anxious to loosen 
 the ties which bound his cousin to Asia Minor, and 
 perhaps also to keep him nearer to himself. Conse- 
 quently, Julian was sent to study in Athens. The 
 months of seclusion and anxiety had occupied the 
 autumn and winter of 354 and the spring of 355. 
 They were probably of service to him in the oppor- 
 
j& Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 
 
 tunities they afforded of acquiring practical acquaint- 
 ance with the Latin language, such as Libanius tells 
 us he afterwards possessed. 
 
 If in after days 5 Julian declared that he desired 
 nothing more than to live and die in the glorious 
 city of Pallas Athene, he need not be suspected of 
 affectation. Apart from the pleasantness of univer- 
 sity life in the great centre of Hellenism to a young 
 man of studious habits, genial temperament, and 
 almost morbid sensitiveness to historical associa- 
 tions, the glimpses Julian had had of court life had 
 not been such as to make the other seem less desira- 
 ble in comparison. 
 
 Constantius was the one successful man of his 
 family, yet his lot cannot have seemed a particularly 
 happy one, while he lived surrounded by rapacious 
 courtiers and hampered by perpetual cares. Of the 
 numerous male posterity of Constantius Chlorus, he 
 and Julian alone survived, the others having perished 
 by violent deaths. Meanwhile, sophists like Proae- 
 resius and Himerius lived to a green old age, and 
 the troubles which factious jealousy might arouse 
 against them were easily quelled. There was an 
 atmosphere of freedom in action and speculation 
 among the student bands of various nations and 
 creeds, which must have been most welcome to 
 Julian after his forced dissimulation and caution. 
 Nor were the leadings of ambition altogether in 
 favour of a more active life. We have seen the 
 extraordinarily high esteem in which the leading 
 sophists of the age were held, and Julian, himself, in 
 spite of his youth, was beginning to enjoy a high 
 
355] ^Julians Elevation to the Cczsarship. 79 
 
 degree of consideration and popularity among the 
 students. Even if we discount the extravagant 
 remarks of Libanius on the great sensation which 
 his brilliant abilities and wide range of knowledge 
 caused among his peers, we can easily believe that 
 he had soon gathered around him a devoted circle 
 of friends and admirers. 
 
 We cannot with certainty date any of Julian's 
 writings as belonging to this period of his life, yet it 
 was undoubtedly for him a time of great mental 
 activity. The malicious pen of Gregory Nazianzen 
 has drawn a portrait of Julian as he appeared at this 
 time. It is a coarse caricature, yet if we compare it 
 with the description given by Ammianus Marcellinus, 
 and with what we might otherwise suppose, we may 
 discern in it some foundation of fact. It was the 
 eager, nervous restlessness of his gait, his unme- 
 thodical outpourings of excited speech, his sudden 
 bursts of laughter, that seemed to the future bishop 
 unworthy of a sober and dignified person. Ammi- 
 anus, 6 who must have been very familiar with his 
 appearance, describes it thus : " He was of middle 
 height, with soft, fine hair, a bushy, pointed beard, 
 beautifully bright and flashing eyes which bespoke 
 the subtlety 7 of his mind ; fine eyebrows, a very 
 straight nose, a rather large mouth with full lower 
 lip, a thick arched neck, large broad shoulders, a 
 frame compact from head to finger tips, whence his 
 great physical strength and agility." To his physical 
 culture, however, he would probably not have devoted 
 much attention but for the sudden change in his pros- 
 pects, the causes of which we have now to trace. 
 
So Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 
 
 We have already seen that the eastern provinces 
 of the Empire were by no means pacified, nor a 
 permanent barrier set up against Persian encroach- 
 ments at the time when Constantius had to turn and 
 face his foes in the West. Musonianus, an Antio- 
 chene of eloquence and culture, had been appointed 
 Praefect of the East. He had secured the favour of 
 Constantius by the clearness with which he had ex- 
 plained to him the distinctive dogmas of the Mani- 
 chees and of other sects. 8 In some respects he was 
 worthy of his high post, but his besetting sin of 
 avarice led him into courses detrimental to the 
 eastern provinces and to the whole Empire. Mean- 
 time though the Persian king was, happily for the 
 Romans, occupied in the far East, his lieutenants 
 were making incursions into Armenia and Mes- 
 opotamia. It seemed probable that before long the 
 presence of the Emperor would be required at the 
 head of an army in Asia. Meantime, yet more 
 pressing dangers threatened from the West. 
 
 The troubles from the German nations where per- 
 haps in part an after-wave of the rebellion of 
 Magnentius. Constantius has been accused 9 of 
 cowardice and treachery in trying to stir up some 
 barbarian tribes to invade the provinces at the crisis. 
 If he did so, the act was not alien to Roman policy 
 in dealing with barbarians and insurgents, and he 
 did his best to repair the folly of it by taking the 
 field in the spring of the year 354. The object of 
 his attack was the tribe, or congeries of tribes, called 
 the Allemanni, from whose ravages the Empire had 
 suffered on many occasions since the reign of Cara- 
 
355] ^Julians Elevation to the Cczsarship. 8 1 
 
 calla, or possibly from an earlier period. The Em- 
 peror Aurelian, and in more recent times Constantius 
 Chlorus, had dealt them severe blows, and they had 
 been more or less held in check by the lines of for- 
 tresses along the Rhine frontier which had been 
 raised and maintained by Diocletian and his col- 
 leagues. Now, however, they had broken through 
 the barrier, and established themselves in the regions 
 known in modern times as Alsace and Lorraine. 
 
 Constantius set out from Arelate (Aries) near the 
 mouth of the Rhone, and marched north to Val- 
 entia at the junction of the Rhone and the Isere, 
 expecting reinforcements from Aquitaine, the arri- 
 val of which was delayed by excessive rains. The 
 troops which had been mustered about Cabillona 
 (Chalons-sur-Saone) became impatient and even mu- 
 tinous. The arrival at last of money and pro- 
 visions was more effectual than the persuasions of 
 the Praetorian Prefect, Rufinus, in inducing them to 
 continue the march, and after many difficulties, ow- 
 ing to the early time of the year, they reached the 
 Rhine not far from the site of Basel. An attempt 
 to make a bridge of boats was frustrated by the 
 enemy, who had been warned by some fellow-tribes- 
 men holding office in the Imperial army. Owing 
 however to reasons which cannot be with certainty 
 assigned, the Allemanni were not eager to avail 
 themselves of their own advantageous position or 
 of the distance of the Romans, and envoys arrived 
 in the Imperial camp from the brother-kings Gundo- 
 badus and Vadomarius desiring conditions of peace. 
 Constantius set forth, in an address to the army, the 
 
82 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 
 
 grounds for deciding to accede to this request. A 
 treaty was concluded with solemn rites, and Con- 
 stantius returned to Milan, where, as we have seen, 
 Julian also spent the following winter. 
 
 Next year, another tribe of the nation of the 
 Allemanni made an incursion into Roman territory 
 in the neighbourhood of Lake Constance (then called 
 Brigantia), and Constantius again took the field. He 
 did not, however, advance in person against the foe, 
 but stayed in Raetia, while Arbetio, holding the title 
 of Magister Equitum, penetrated with a large force 
 into the mountain home of the barbarians. Here, in 
 ignorance of the difficulties of the country, he was 
 taken at unawares, and suffered a severe defeat. 
 The credit, however, of the army was retrieved and 
 the safety of the remnant secured by the gallant en- 
 deavours of three tribunes on the Roman side, who 
 turned the fortune of the campaign. The uncouth 
 barbaric names of these rescuers of Roman honour 
 remind us how, for better or for worse, the mistress 
 of the world had come to depend upon those she 
 might affect to despise but could not afford to ignore. 
 Such as this victory was, Constantius regarded it as 
 entitling him to the honour of a triumph. 
 
 Arbetio seems thus to have been no general him- 
 self, and he pursued with revengeful envy those 
 whose talents were conspicuous above his own. His 
 machinations against the Frankish general Silvanus 
 brought the western provinces into serious peril. 
 This brave soldier, whose desertion of Magnentius 
 at a critical moment had helped to secure the victory 
 of Constantius at Mursa, had been sent in the capa- 
 
355] Juliaris Elevation to the Cczsarship. 83 
 
 city of Magister Peditum 10 to make head against the 
 invaders. An underling of his named Dynamius 
 entered into a conspiracy with Arbetio to compass 
 his destruction. Letters of recommendation were 
 obtained from him on plausible pretexts. The con- 
 tents of them were then erased and treasonable 
 matter substituted, and the transmuted epistles with 
 the signature of Silvanus, were brought before the 
 Emperor as evidence of his guilt. He was, however, 
 not without friends at Court, and it was decided to 
 send a commissioner who should induce him to return 
 to Milan, that he might, if possible, clear himself. 
 Unfortunately the mission was entrusted to a courtier 
 of the lowest type, who assumed the guilt of Silvanus 
 as certain, and made matters in Gaul much worse. 
 Silvanus regarded himself as a lost man. He would 
 have fled to his own people, the Franks, but feared 
 lest their desire to stand well with the Emperor 
 might lead to his betrayal. In desperation he threw 
 himself on the personal loyalty of his soldiers, and 
 in the city of Agrippina (Cologne), he assumed the 
 Imperial purple. 
 
 Meantime the astonishing trickery that had been 
 practised against him was brought to light. It is a 
 curious instance of the manner in which such affairs 
 were regarded at the court of Constantius, that one 
 of the prime intriguers shortly afterwards received 
 promotion. The practical problem now was to 
 secure the person of Silvanus. The mission was 
 entrusted to Ursicinus, whose ability and fidelity 
 made him so necessary at such a crisis as to silence 
 the tongues of the envious. With him were asso- 
 
84 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 
 
 dated ten tribunes, one of whom was the historian 
 Ammianus. They were to assure Silvanus as to the 
 security of his person and the continuance of his 
 dignities, provided that he returned to Court at once, 
 leaving Ursicinus to carry on his duties in Gaul. It 
 is with regret that we see honourable men like 
 Ursicinus and Ammianus condescending to the mean 
 deception of a culprit whom they regarded with pity 
 rather than with aversion. They were hospitably 
 received by the usurper, whose authority they judged 
 it prudent to acknowledge. Silvanus, with the levity 
 of a barbarian soldier, vented, in conversation with 
 Ursicinus, his indignation against the manner in 
 which both he and his principal guest had been 
 habitually treated by the Court. Ursicinus now felt 
 justified in meeting treachery with treachery. Some 
 of the soldiers of Silvanus were bribed to turn against 
 him. A tumult ensued, the usurper's guards were 
 put to the sword, and he was himself slain after he 
 had been dragged from a church into which he now 
 fled for refuge. 
 
 Proceedings such as these, though they might 
 temporarily avert an impending danger, did not tend 
 permanently to check the inroads of the Germans or 
 to encourage any generals who might be sent against 
 them. And while the horizon to East and West 
 was heavy with clouds, the sky was by no means 
 clear in the immediate neighbourhood of the Imperial 
 presence. In Rome, the Praefect Leontius, a man of 
 stern character, had with difficulty quelled a popular 
 commotion due to scarcity of wine. At the same 
 time, the Bishop Liberius had fallen into disgrace 
 
355] Julians Elevation to the Ccesarship. 85 
 
 through his championship of the Nicene party. 
 Hampered by difficulties on all sides, Constantius, 
 still childless, saw the need of taking a step that 
 might secure the dynasty, and render the Imperial 
 house more popular with the army and with the 
 people. 
 
 This step was the elevation of Julian to a position 
 similar in honour and title to that formerly held by 
 Gallus, in order that his military abilities might be 
 tested, and if found considerable, might be turned 
 to the use of the Empire in its time of need. Darker 
 motives have been attributed to Constantius in this 
 course of action. He may have reflected that if 
 Julian were not successful, many opportunities would 
 arise for his convenient removal from the scenes. 
 The conduct of Constantius on other occasions does 
 not militate against such suspicions, and it must 
 have seemed a most unlikely chance that a youth 
 bred without any military training or acquaintance 
 with the ways of the world, should prove capable of 
 holding his own in a position which required a rare 
 combination of practical talents. It is quite possible, 
 however, to give Constantius the benefit of the doubt, 
 especially since the course was urged by Julian's 
 steady friend, Eusebia, and since the promotion was 
 not intended in the first instance to carry with it 
 very grave responsibilities. 
 
 When Julian was summoned from Greece to Milan 
 he obeyed with great reluctance and gloomy fore- 
 bodings. Not only was he obliged to leave, perhaps 
 for ever, his favourite pursuits, his most esteemed 
 friends, and all but a traveller's quantum of books; 
 
86 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [355 
 
 the future was as dark to him as the immediate past 
 had been bright. He felt, he afterwards said, 11 as 
 if he were called to drive four spirited horses with- 
 out having learned the art of the charioteer. He 
 held up his hands towards the Acropolis, and be- 
 sought Athena not to desert her votary. Then he 
 travelled to Milan, and took up his abode in one of 
 the suburbs. Julian afterwards described, with some 
 humour, the process which he had to undergo in the 
 transmutation from student to soldier and prince. 
 Not only must his beard be shorn 12 and his sophist's 
 gown exchanged for a soldier's cloak ; he must also 
 unlearn his student's irregular gait and affect the 
 strut of the courtiers around him, on whom, all the 
 while, he looked as the executioners of his family 
 and as his own personal foes. The practice of mili- 
 tary exercises, however necessary, was at first very 
 irksome to him, and he was heard to mutter, " O 
 Plato ! " as he tried to catch the step of an elaborate 
 military movement. Perseverance, however, made 
 up for long neglect. A characteristic story was told 
 of him afterwards, how, when he was engaged in a 
 military exercise, his shield broke away in his hand. 
 Without being disconcerted, he held up the handle 
 before the by-standers, exclaiming: " I keep what I 
 had hold of." 
 
 Meanwhile Eusebia reassured him both by mes- 
 sages and by kindly words spoken in a personal 
 interview : " You have received somewhat from us 
 already," she said, "you shall have more by-and-bye, 
 with God's help, if only you are loyal and fair in your 
 dealings with us." Her good-will was shown yet 
 
355] Julian's Elevation to the Ccesarship. 87 
 
 further in the highly-appreciated gift of a good 
 library, to supplement the meagre stock of books 
 that he had brought from Athens. 
 
 It was naturally to Eusebia that Julian felt dis- 
 posed to apply in seeking some way of escape from 
 the responsibilities and perils that awaited him in his 
 new career. His actions, as well as the workings of his 
 mind at this crisis, were afterwards described by him 
 in his Letter to the Athenians. The passage may be 
 quoted at length, as illustrating alike the painfulness 
 of his position at the time, the means to which he 
 commonly resorted in search of supernatural direc- 
 tion, and the Stoic sense of duty imbibed from the 
 teachings of Socrates and of Julian's hero-model — 
 Marcus Aurelius. 
 
 " Eusebia sent me friendly messages on several oc- 
 casions and bade me write freely to her concerning 
 my desires. Accordingly I wrote her a letter, or 
 rather a petition, containing such vows as these ; 
 ' May you have children to succeed you, may you 
 receive all good gifts from God, if only you will send 
 me to my home as quickly as possible.' But I 
 doubted whether it were safe to send to the palace 
 a letter addressed to the Emperor's wife. I prayed, 
 therefore, that the Gods would declare to me at 
 night whether or no I should send my letter to the 
 Empress. But they warned me that if I should send 
 it, the most disgraceful of all deaths awaited me. I 
 write the truth, and call the Gods to witness. Ac- 
 cordingly I refrained from sending the letter. And 
 from that night a thought possessed me which is 
 worth imparting to you. ' I have in my mind ven- 
 
88 Julian> Philosopher and Emperor. [355 
 
 tured/ I said to myself, ' to resist the Gods, and have 
 thought to devise better schemes for my welfare than 
 those of the All-Knowing Powers. Yet human 
 reason, its eyes fixed on the immediate present, can 
 but attain passable fortune and avoid errors for a 
 short space. Wherefore no man takes thought for 
 the things which are to come thirty years hence, nor 
 yet for those which are already past. As to the fu- 
 ture, deliberation is superfluous, for the past it is un- 
 availing. Man can only take counsel for what lies 
 near at hand, or on that which he can already see in 
 potentiality and in germ. But the Divine Reason 
 stretches far, nay, it comprehends all things, so as to 
 indicate rightly, and to accomplish what tendstogood. 
 For the Gods, as they are the cause of all that is, are 
 likewise the origin of all that shall be. Thus must 
 they needs have understanding as to the things of the 
 present.' And as I thought thus, it seemed to me that 
 my second determination was better than my first. 
 And considering the justice of the matter, I reflected : 
 1 Would you not be angry if one of your beasts were 
 to deprive you of its services, say a horse or a sheep or 
 a calf, and were to run away when you called it ? And 
 seeing that you wish to think yourself no beast but 
 a man, and not even a man of the common herd, but 
 one belonging to a superior and reasonable class, 
 would you deprive the Gods of their use of you, and 
 not be ready to accomplish whatever their will might 
 demand of you ? Beware lest you not only fall into 
 this great folly, but also neglect your rightful duties 
 towards the Gods. Where is your courage? A 
 sorry thing it seems to be ; you are ready to cringe 
 
355] yulians Elevation to the Ccesarship. 89 
 
 and flatter from fear of death, when it is possible for 
 you to cast all anxiety aside, and to leave the Gods 
 to work their will, dividing with them the care of 
 yourself, as Socrates did ; thus in all things concern- 
 ing yourself doing what you find possible ; leaving 
 the whole in their hands ; seeking not your own gain ; 
 seizing nothing for your own use, you might receive 
 in all security the gifts they bestow upon you. 
 This course seemed to me not only safe, but suitable, 
 to a man of reasonable mind, especially as it had 
 been pointed out by the Gods. For to rush head- 
 long into an unseemly course of present peril in 
 order to escape from dangers in the future seemed 
 to me unwise in the extreme. I yielded and obeyed. 
 Soon after, the title and the garb of Ccesar were 
 conferred upon me." 
 
 The ceremony of investing the new Caesar with 
 the purple robe was performed in a great military 
 assembly at Milan, on the 6th of November, 355. 
 The soldiers applauded the Emperor's speech, and 
 were pleased at the modest bearing and animated 
 countenance of the young Caesar. But while they 
 clashed their shields against their knees, he thought 
 less hopefully of the issue of the proceedings, and 
 repeated to himself a line of Homer : 
 
 " Him purple death obtained, remorseless fate." 14 
 
 A few days afterwards, Julian married Helen, the 
 sister of Constantius. Of this lady we know almost 
 nothing, either for good or for evil. She was prob- 
 ably no longer very young, but if she was the child 
 of her father's old age, she may have been no older 
 
90 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 
 
 than Julian himself, who is said to have attained his 
 twenty-fifth year on the day of his elevation to the 
 Csesarship. 15 We have occasional mention of her in 
 some of Julian's letters, but not any that can enable 
 us to judge whether or no the marriage was a happy 
 one. Her influence over him was probably nil. In 
 any case, her death at the most critical period of his 
 life prevented her from acting much on his conduct, 
 either as a stimulus or as a restraint. They had one 
 child, who died at birth. 16 
 
 On the 1st of December, Julian left Milan for 
 Gaul. The Emperor accompanied him as far as 
 Pavia, whence Julian struck west for Turin. He 
 had been obliged to remodel his household, and 
 only retained four of his former personal attendants, 
 of whom two were mere boys. Of the other two, 
 one, the only member of the party who shared 
 Julian's feelings as to religion, had charge of his 
 books. The other was the physician Oribazius, 17 a 
 pupil of the rhetorician-doctor Magnus, whom we 
 have already mentioned. How far the changes were 
 necessary, it is not easy for us to judge. The other 
 grievances which Julian felt, the restrictions placed 
 upon his own authority, are fully justified by the 
 total inexperience and the untried ability of the new 
 Caesar. 
 
 At Turin bad news awaited the party. The great 
 colony of Agrippina (Cologne), in which Silvanus 
 had previously assumed the purple, had fallen into 
 the hands of the barbarians. No decisive action 
 could be taken before the beginning of spring, and 
 meantime Julian went into winter quarters at 
 
355] Julians Elevation to the Cczsarship. 91 
 
 Vienne. He received a warm welcome from the in- 
 habitants of that city, and one blind old woman 
 declared that he was destined to restore the temples 
 of the Gods. It is not impossible that in some 
 minds the late misfortunes were associated with the 
 non-observance of the national cults. 
 
 Ammianus, in sketching the character of Julian 
 at this time, compares him to the Emperor Marcus, 
 whom he followed in his whole-hearted devotion to 
 the cause of duty and of right reason. Julian, 
 eagerly continuing his studies while preparing to 
 attack the Franks and Allemanni, may remind us 
 of his philosophic predecessor, noting down, in his 
 camp among the Quadi, his reflections on the gov- 
 ernment of the universe and on the laws of moral 
 life. If in some respects Julian may fall short of his 
 ideal, he was probably more successful than was 
 Marcus in arousing his energies from a life of con- 
 templation to one of action. As a philosophic 
 idealist who was also a great military leader, there is 
 hardly a name, except perhaps that of Epaminondas, 
 that we can place beside his. His military achieve- 
 ments will occupy us in the following chapter. 
 
 Coin of Constantius II. 
 
 Obverse, Gaudium Romanorum. 
 a crown from heaven. 
 
 Constantine receiving 
 
92 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1 For the probable date of the marriage of Constantius and Eusebia, 
 see Tillemont, note xxi., on Constantius. Cf. also Art. xxvi. See 
 Zosimus, bk. iii., ch. i., Julian's Oration in Honour of Eusebia, 
 his references to her in his Letter to the Athenians, and several 
 passages in Ammianus. 
 
 2 See infra, note 16. 
 
 3 Adparitionis prafecturce pr<ztorian<z principem, Am.,xv., 3. He 
 is elsewhere called Praetorian Prsefect (or is it a different person ?). 
 
 4 Am. Marc, loc cit., cf Julian's Letter to the Athenians 273, 
 CD. I cannot see that Miicke Cjuliari 's Leben und Schriften p. 
 29) is to be followed when he infers that Julian was himself present 
 at the Sirmium dinner. 
 
 5 Libanius, Epitaph. Cf. Letter to the Athenians. 
 
 6 Am. Marc, xxv., 4. 
 
 7 (Or a look of perpetual inquiry.) Venustate oculorum micantium 
 flagrans, qui mentis ejus argutias indicabant (some MSS., angustias). 
 
 8 Am. Marc, xv., 13. He was also called Strategius. 
 
 9 By Libanius and Zosimus. 
 
 10 Or, perhaps, Magisier equitum et peditum, Schiller, iii., 3, sec. 
 25. For the rebellion of Silvanus, see chiefly Am., xv., 5. Cf. 
 Julian, Or. ii. 
 
 11 Or. iii., 122. 
 
 12 It must have grown again pretty rapidly, as it appears on his 
 coins and medals. 
 
 13 Letter to the Athenians. This would seem to show that 
 Julian regarded the massacre of his relations as originating in the 
 Court rather than in the Army. Letter to the Athenians, 275-7. 
 
 14 ' EXXafjE rtopcpvpsoS Qocvaroi xal fiolpa Kparai?]. See ac- 
 count of the proceedings in Am., xv. , 8. 
 
 15 This has been conjectured, perhaps on insufficient grounds ; see 
 Tillemont, note i. 
 
 16 We may here dispose of the unpleasant story, related by Ammi- 
 anus, that Eusebia, by the use of pernicious drugs, caused the un- 
 timely death of Helen's children, and afterwards of Helen herself. 
 The statement is entirely at variance with what we know, not only of 
 the character, but of the lines of policy attributed to Eusebia. Of 
 course, jealousy may incite to dark deeds women who are otherwise 
 estimable. Yet in this case, we may be permitted to doubt the state- 
 
Notes on Chapter IV. 93 
 
 ment of Ammianus. It is quite impossible that Julian should have 
 written as he did concerning Eusebia, after both she and Helen were 
 beyond reach of flattery or of vituperation, had he known of any such 
 hateful machinations on her part. Nor could her practices have re- 
 mained permanently unknown to him. At the same time, we are 
 told that Eusebia suffered greatly, and shortened her own life, 
 through the use of drugs taken to produce fecundity, a gift, as Chrys- 
 ostom says, which she should have expected only from Heaven. 
 What more probable than that being in the habit of using quack 
 medicines herself, she should have recommended them to her sister- 
 in-law, and that malicious tongues should have twisted an act of 
 kindly-meant imprudence so as to give it a terribly criminal character ? 
 17 Cf. with Letter to the Athenians, Eunap., Oribazius. 
 
A Four-horse Chariot. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 JULIAN'S OESARSHIP IN GAUL. 1 
 
 356-359- 
 
 'AjiKporepor, fiadiA.sv$ r dyaQoS nparEpoi r atxwrrjS. 
 (II., III. , 179. Chosen for inscription on Julian s Tomb. Zosimus, 
 
 »i.> 34-) 
 
 " Thine, Roman, is the pilum ; 
 Roman, the sword is thine, 
 The even trench, the bristling mound, 
 
 The legion's ordered line ; 
 And thine the wheels of triumph, 
 Which with their laurelled train 
 Move slowly up the shouting streets, 
 To Jove's eternal fane." 
 
 Lays of Ancient Rome. 
 
 Of 
 
 HE new and arduous duties which be- 
 gan for Julian in the early months of 
 356 were not facilitated by any very 
 clear and intelligible arrangements de- 
 fining the character and extent of his 
 authority. The system by which 
 Diocletian had marked out the sphere 
 activity belonging to the Augusti, the Caesars, 
 
 94 
 
356-59] Julians Ccesarship in Gaul. 95 
 
 and the civil and military authorities that acted 
 under them, had, as we have already seen, scarcely 
 survived his abdication. The partial division of Im- 
 perial authority among the sons of Constantine, and 
 the delegation made in the more recent and equally 
 unlucky case of Constantius and Gallus, can hardly 
 have been looked on as furnishing convenient or 
 safe precedents. The authority of the Caesar was 
 not regarded as entirely superseding either the civil 
 powers of the Praetorian Praefect, or the military 
 command of the Magister Equitum et Peditum. The 
 Praetorian Praefect of the Gauls was the same Rufinus 
 who has been already mentioned. 2 He was brother 
 to the first wife of Julian's father, and therefore 
 uncle to his brother Gallus, and probably well in- 
 clined to the new-made Caesar. But we shall see that 
 Julian had serious difficulties to encounter from the 
 Praefect appointed in 357. In military matters he 
 was supposed to act conjointly with the Magister 
 Equitum Marcellus, and with Sallust, the holder of 
 some military office which is not specified. 3 Of these 
 Sallust was an able and loyal man, Marcellus was 
 either incapable or perfidious — probably both. No 
 reasonable person can blame Constantius for not at 
 once entrusting full powers to an entirely untrained 
 and untested man. But he seems, in accordance 
 with his character, to have subjected Julian to a 
 system of espionage irksome to his feelings and 
 detrimental to his efficiency. As Julian afterwards 
 said, Constantius sent him not to rule, but to bear 
 about the image of the Imperial ruler — to represent, 
 we may say, in his person the majesty of the Em- 
 
g6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 
 
 pire. Yet, if the speech before the soldiers, which 
 Ammianus, in Thucydidean fashion, puts into the 
 mouth of Constantius, may be taken as indicating 
 the nature of the charge given, Julian was not to 
 serve as a mere figure-head : " Come and share my 
 labours and my perils, and take upon yourself the 
 care of the Gauls, that you may by beneficent action 
 alleviate the pains with which they are stricken. If 
 you are called to go against the enemy, your place 
 is close to the standard-bearers. Be wise in inciting 
 to opportune action, lead with caution while you 
 arouse the courage of the soldiers, be at hand to sup- 
 port the wavering, moderate in reprimand, a faithful 
 witness alike of good deeds and of short-comings." 
 " The Gauls," of which the charge was thus en- 
 trusted to Julian, did not constitute one very definite 
 territorial area. The Praefecture of the Gauls, which 
 coincided almost, if not entirely, with the regions 
 over which Constantius Chlorus, Julian's grand- 
 father, had ruled as Caesar, comprised not only 
 modern France and Belgium, but the British Isles, 
 Spain, 4 and parts of Germany and Holland. On the 
 other hand, the Diocese of the Gauls did not include 
 Aquitaine nor yet the old province of Narbonne. 
 Julian's power was certainly exercised in these latter 
 parts, but he seems to have had no concern with 
 Spain, nor yet with Britain, except in so far as 
 Britain constituted the granary of Gaul in the nar- 
 rower sense. The Gauls, in ordinary speech, com- 
 prised all the country between the Pyrenees, the 
 Alps, the Rhine, and the Ocean, and included many 
 provinces in very various stages of civilisation. 
 
359] Julian's Ccesarship in Gaul. 97 
 
 In the south-east was the earliest Roman province 
 in Gaul — Gallia Narbonensis, sometimes called 
 Viennensis. These regions were as thoroughly 
 Romanised as was any part of Italy, and contained 
 the flourishing cities of Arelate (Aries), Valentia 
 (Valence), and Vienna (Vienne). Aquitania was, 
 roughly speaking, in the form of a square, of which 
 the sides were respectively formed by the Pyrenees, 
 the Ocean, the Loire, and the Rhone. To the north 
 was Lugdunensis, an irregular triangle, having its 
 apex near the great city of Lugdunum (Lyons), and 
 its base in a line running from the mouth of the 
 Seine to that of the Loire. Further north was Bel- 
 gica, and still further north the two Germanise, the 
 home of independent warriors who still, especially in 
 the further parts, disdained any kind of subjection to 
 Rome, though they often served for Roman gold in 
 the Imperial armies, and held lands on the border 
 on condition of military service. 
 
 At this moment, however, the system of border 
 defence had utterly broken down. Devastating hosts 
 of free Germans had destroyed the fortifications on 
 the frontier from Cologne to Strasburg, overthrown 
 forty-five walled cities, and established themselves 
 considerably to the south of their former boun- 
 daries. The losses and the misery caused to the 
 peaceable provincials were very great. Men of gen- 
 tle birth and official rank, with their wives and chil- 
 dren, were often led away in captive trains. Perhaps 
 the most hopeful feature of the situation lay in the 
 hatred felt by the Germanic tribes for life in walled 
 towns, which prevented them from repairing and oc- 
 
98 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 
 
 cupying the fortifications they were able to seize, and 
 so rendered the recovery of the strong positions a 
 less desperate task. 
 
 The three provincial tribes, or unions of tribes, 
 whose ravages had worked the greatest confusion in 
 Gaul, bore names which in the course of history 
 have been at times associated with the three great 
 nations of modern Europe : the Allemanni, the 
 Franks, and the Saxons. Of the Allemanni and 
 their encroachments from their early abodes on the 
 Upper Rhine and the Danube we have already 
 spoken. The Franks, who were likewise a nation, 
 or incipient nationality, had in early times inhab- 
 ited the country to the north of the Allemanni, on 
 the right bank of the Rhine, from the Maine almost 
 to the vicinity of the North Sea. The expeditions 
 they sent out, however, traversed very great extents 
 of territory. In the middle of the third century, we 
 find that a band of them have passed through Gaul, 
 seized Tarragona in Spain, and even sailed across to 
 Carthage. The victories obtained over them by 
 energetic Emperors, such as Claudius, Aurelian, Pro- 
 bus, and Constantius Chlorus, might for a time check 
 their advance or compel them to retreat, but did not 
 avail to break their power. Meantime their valour 
 was used and their fidelity tested in the Roman 
 armies. The case of Silvanus, which we have just 
 considered, is an instance of this policy and of its 
 consequences. 
 
 With the third great Teutonic foe of Rome, the 
 Saxons, Julian was not much concerned, except in 
 so far as their invasions had caused other tribes to 
 
3591 yulians Ccesarship in Gaul, 99 
 
 adopt a migratory life. They dwelt between the 
 mouths of the Rhine and the Elbe, and were the 
 terror of the opposite coast of Britain, where a 
 special officer (the Count of the Saxon Shore) had 
 been appointed to withstand their ravages, which 
 often rendered it difficult for the Gallic provinces to 
 obtain the supplies of British corn and other pro- 
 duce on which they depended. 
 
 Julian arrived at Vienne, as we have seen, about 
 midwinter, 355-6. Next spring, while he was en- 
 grossed with harassing business and distracted with 
 conflicting rumours, tidings came that the city of 
 Augustodunum (Autun) had been attacked by a 
 host of barbarians, probably Allemanni, and had 
 only been saved from capture by the prompt aid of 
 a band of Roman veterans. This news determined 
 Julian to take active measures as soon as possible, 
 and having made the necessary arrangements for 
 the campaign, he set out from Vienne, and arrived 
 at Autun (for familiarity's sake we will give the 
 modern names), on the 24th of June. He had de- 
 cided to carry the war into the enemy's country, 
 and a rendezvous had been arranged for his forces 
 and those of Marcellus at Reims. At Autun he held 
 a council of war, in order to select the safest route. 
 On hearing that the road leading through Auxerre 
 and Troyes was the shortest, he resolved to follow 
 it, and though much harassed by flying bands of the 
 enemy, against which he had to be continually on 
 his guard, he reached Reims in safety, and was met 
 there by Marcellus and also by Ursicinus, who was 
 to remain with him for that one expedition. After 
 
ioo yulian. Philosopher and Emperor, [356- 
 
 a good deal of deliberation, the army pursued its 
 way to the Rhine. While on the march, it encoun- 
 tered imminent danger from an attack of the Alle- 
 manni on its rear. From this time forward, Am- 
 mianus tells us that Julian became more cautious, a 
 statement which, with the record of previous dan- 
 gers and escapes, has led later historians to read 
 between his lines the story of sundry small disasters, 
 at the cost of which the general's experience was 
 purchased. 
 
 Now began the main work of the campaign, the 
 recovery of the towns and fortunes on the Rhine 
 recently lost, or, where that was impossible, at least 
 of their sites. Brumath (Brucomagus) was the first to 
 come into Julian's power, after a conflict with the 
 Allemanni, in which he obtained the advantage by 
 arranging his forces in crescent form and enclosing 
 the enemy between the two horns. But his greatest 
 success was the recovery of Cologne from the 
 Frankish kings or chiefs, who were forced to sign a 
 treaty favourable to Rome. This town seems to 
 have suffered less than others from the barbarian 
 conquest and occupation, probably on account of 
 the superior strength of its fortifications. No other 
 of the Rhine fortresses was left standing, except 
 Remagen, and perhaps a part of Coblentz. 5 
 
 The Roman army now retired through the terri- 
 tory of Treves to take up its winter quarters at Sens 
 ("apud Senonas "). It soon became evident how 
 slight and superficial any conquest or recovery must 
 be unless confirmed by the settling of garrisons in 
 strong posts. The need was also seen of a large 
 
359] yulians Cczsarship in Gaul. 101 
 
 army that should not be materially weakened by 
 the loss pf such forces as Julian was obliged to leave 
 in places like Cologne, Brumath, and Remagen, or 
 in the more flourishing towns in which, for econ- 
 omy's sake, they were quartered. A host of bar- 
 barians speedily overran the country that Julian had 
 just traversed, and even ventured to besiege him in 
 Sens. They retreated after thirty days, but Julian's 
 deliverance was due rather to the unskilfulness of 
 the Germans in siege warfare than to any measures 
 which, in his newly-acquired virtue of military pru- 
 dence, he was able to take, or to any succour from 
 outside. Marcellus, who was quartered in the neigh- 
 bourhood, never attempted a diversion. He seems 
 to have let Julian have his way in the summer cam- 
 paign, but to have been by no means eager in saving 
 him from personal inconvenience and danger. In 
 fairness to Constantius it must be said that as soon 
 as he heard of the misconduct of Marcellus, he re- 
 called him, and sent out in his place one Severus, a 
 man of capacity and merit. It was probably at the 
 same time that Julian received, through the inter- 
 cession of Eusebia, a considerable extension of his 
 powers, and was permitted to summon volunteers to 
 his standard. His guard of three hundred and sixty 
 he regarded, according to Zosimus, as good for little 
 else but praying ; a strange criticism, if it is really 
 Julian's own, seeing that he more often reproaches 
 the Christians with lack than with excess of devo- 
 tion. On the departure of Marcellus for the Impe- 
 rial Court, Julian sent thither a faithful eunuch, 
 named Eutherius, an Armenian by birth, and singu- 
 
102 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 
 
 larly free from the faults supposed to be generally 
 engrained in men of his class. Eutherius was suc- 
 cessful in averting any blame that might have been 
 thrown on his master, and Marcellus was ordered 
 not to remove from his native town of Sardica. 
 
 Between the campaigns, in the winter months, 
 Julian had sufficient occupation in making prepara- 
 tions for the next expedition, and in examining into 
 the affairs of the provinces, while he strengthened 
 body and mind with military exercises and literary 
 studies. He earned the affection of the soldiers by 
 his thoughtfulness in providing for their welfare. 
 Giving a military turn to his Stoic principles, after 
 the example of his hero-model, Marcus Aurelius, he 
 reduced the list of luxurious dishes to be provided 
 for his table by striking out pheasants and other 
 delicacies, and himself partook of the fare of the 
 common soldiers. It may be mentioned that strict 
 temperance, or rather ascetic abstinence, marked his 
 behaviour now and throughout his life. 6 Although, 
 as we have seen, his authority did not supersede that 
 of the ordinary civil governors, he was often besieged 
 by petitioners for redress of private grievances. In 
 judicial matters he seems to have erred rather on 
 the side of clemency than on that of sternness, but 
 before taking action in answer to petitions, he 
 ordered full inquiry to be made by the provincial 
 governors. He devoted considerable attention to 
 financial affairs, and determined to effect an allevia- 
 tion of the heavy taxes, by steadily declining to 
 grant such exemptions as might benefit the rich at 
 the expense of the poor. 
 
359] Julians Ccesarship tit Gaul. 103 
 
 For his studies he had little time except what he 
 stole from the night by his habit of rising before the 
 dawn. He generally slept on a kind of rug, and 
 after a very brief time of rest, arose and invoked the 
 aid of Hermes before he passed to his tasks of busi- 
 ness or of literature. It is at about this time that 
 we must date three long orations of his that have 
 come down to us, written in honour of Constantius 
 and of Eusebia. 7 We have already had occasion to 
 refer to these, especially to the panegyric of Euse- 
 bia, as furnishing material for the personal history 
 of Julian and for that of his family. In his lauda- 
 tions of the Empress there is nothing that clashes 
 with the views expressed in those letters of his which 
 seem to convey his undisguised feelings. With re- 
 gard to the two orations in honour of Constantius, 
 the case is otherwise, and those who feel respect for 
 the high moral qualities of Julian's character must 
 regret that he was capable of writing them. At the 
 same time, we must remember that complimentary 
 orations were at that time so much in vogue, and 
 the composition of them was regarded as so essen- 
 tial a part of the work expected from a young 
 rhetorician, that no one would be likely to take the 
 adulatory expressions as seriously meant, or to inter- 
 pret the high-sounding comparisons as representing 
 the genuine feelings and sober thoughts of the 
 orator. Still, there is a demoralising tendency in 
 the art by which a rhetorician describes as superior 
 to all the Homeric heroes, and as uniting in his own 
 person all virtues and all talents, a character which, 
 when writing freely, the same orator reproaches as 
 
104 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 
 
 arrogant, cruel, and unjust. The orations are, of 
 course, overloaded with literary and historical illus- 
 trations. They are, however, marked by considerable 
 vigour of style, and they afford scope for bringing in 
 a good many of the author's own sentiments. Thus 
 he sketches the character of an ideal monarch, to 
 which sketch the features of Constantius have to be 
 accommodated. We observe the importance Julian 
 attaches both to the dignity and to the responsi- 
 bilities of the Imperial position, and the stress he 
 lays on the gentler and more private virtues, such 
 as clemency and chastity. In the oration in praise 
 of Eusebia, the permission he had obtained by her 
 means to study at Athens affords an excellent oppor- 
 tunity for eulogising the city which stores up and 
 distributes fertilising knowledge for all the world, 
 as the Nile fructifies the thirsty land of Egypt. Her 
 gift of books suggests a similar digression on the 
 value of literature generally. More interesting how- 
 ever, in this oration, is the evidence it affords of the 
 high esteem in which Julian held the character and 
 dignity of women, and his especial admiration for 
 the more domestic types of female virtue. This 
 respect for women also appears in those letters of 
 his still extant which were written to various ladies. 
 We may add that since all rhetorical compositions 
 of this kind were cast in old Hellenic forms, Julian 
 was free to express his own views as to the duty of 
 piety towards the Gods, and as to the relations of 
 man to Gods and daemons, without borrowing at all 
 from Christian phraseology or conceptions. Thus 
 if perhaps an excessive dissimulation is to be found 
 
359] yulians Ccesarship in Gaul. 105 
 
 in these orations, they are at least free from any 
 taint of religious hypocrisy. 
 
 Although Julian was a great gainer by the sub- 
 stitution of Severus for Marcellus, a new difficulty 
 presented itself in the campaign of 357. He had to 
 co-operate with another colleague whose sphere of 
 authority lay to the east of his, and who was there- 
 fore independent of his command and unwilling to 
 contribute to his success. According to some his- 
 torians, Constantius himself took the field against 
 the Allemanni in 356, starting from Rhaetia and 
 advancing along the Upper Rhine. 8 If so, he did 
 not accomplish much, but soon returned to Milan, 
 and thence to Rome, where he and the Empress 
 were received in great splendour. Alarming move- 
 ments of the Quadi and other tribes in the Danubian 
 countries required his presence in Illyria. Mean- 
 time he despatched Barbatio, the Magister Pedittim, 
 from Italy to Basel, with an army of 25,000 men. 
 Barbatio was a much older man than Julian, he had 
 contributed as much as anyone to the fall of Gallus, 
 and being in direct communication with the Em- 
 peror, he had no intention of taking commands, or 
 even advice, from the young Caesar. The design 
 was to restrict the field in which the Allemanni 
 roved and devastated at will, by means of a precon- 
 certed march of two Roman armies from opposite 
 sides. However, the tribe of the Laeti were too 
 swift to be taken in this way. They advanced be- 
 tween the armies and came as far as the neighbour- 
 hood of Lyons, which town, however, was able to 
 make a defence. Julian at once took steps to secure 
 
106 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 
 
 the three passes by which the barbarians could effect 
 a retreat. This plan was on the whole successful. 
 In one pass the Laeti suffered a defeat, and had to 
 relinquish some of the booty. But the pass nearest 
 to the army of Barbatio was purposely left unde- 
 fended, and two military tribunes, Valentinian (after- 
 wards Emperor) and Bainobaudes, whom Julian had 
 sent to secure its occupation, were falsely accused 
 to the Emperor, and removed from their posts. 
 
 In other ways Barbatio continued to thwart 
 Julian's plans. Rather than let the Caesar have 
 certain boats required for a bridge over the Rhine, 
 he preferred to set them on fire. When a convoy 
 was on its way to Julian, he intercepted it, and 
 burned all that he could not use. Julian made 
 up for the want of boats by ordering an attack on 
 one of the islands in the Rhine, where the stream 
 was fordable. Rafts and booty were obtained, and 
 a terrible slaughter followed, which caused the Ger- 
 mans to decamp with their families and property 
 from the neighbouring islands. The missing convoy 
 had to be supplied by the gathering in, on the part 
 of Julian's soldiers, of the corn which the Germans 
 had sown for themselves. Meanwhile the restora- 
 tion of the fortifications on or near the Rhine, 
 especially those of Zabern, was actively carried for- 
 ward. But the Allemanni had taken alarm and 
 determined on an invasion en masse. Barbatio was 
 severely defeated and forced to fall back on Basel, 
 with the loss of great part of his supplies. Unable 
 to attempt anything in reparation or in revenge, 
 the inefficient general sent his men into winter 
 
359] Julians Ccesarship in Gaul. 107 
 
 quarters, and himself repaired to the Imperial 
 Court. 9 
 
 The barbarian host which was advancing towards 
 Julian's position consisted of thirty-five thousand 
 men under the command of King Chnodomar and 
 his nephew Agenaric or Serapio, who had received 
 the latter, rather incongruous name in token that 
 his father had been initiated into certain Greek mys- 
 teries. Five lesser kings followed with their contin- 
 gents, and there were other tribal leaders of high rank. 
 Before attacking the Romans, Chnodomar, who had 
 been informed by a deserter of their comparatively 
 small number, sent an offensive message to Julian, 
 bidding him restore to the Germans the territory that 
 properly belonged to them. 10 Julian kept the envoys 
 by him until he had finished the fortifications of 
 Zabern, then marched in careful order, the infantry 
 protected by the cavalry and light-armed troops, in 
 the direction of Strasburg (Argentoratum). They 
 arrived in sight of the enemy after a march of twenty- 
 one Roman or about nineteen and one-third Eng- 
 lish miles, and Julian wonld have preferred to stay 
 for the night, to give his men rest and refreshment. 
 But the feeling of the army and the advice of the 
 Praetorian Praefect Florentius were for instant 
 action, and with vigorous exhortations to the 
 soldiers Julian agreed to give battle. The day was 
 hotly contested, and the result seemed for a long 
 time doubtful. Julian's cavalry on the right wing 
 began to give way, and needed all his efforts to keep 
 it from wild flight. He afterwards punished the 
 cowardly band by making them show themselves in 
 
108 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 
 
 the camp in women's dress. Their panic seems to 
 have been caused partly by the Germans' device of 
 mixing a few foot-soldiers among the horsemen, who 
 inserted themselves between the enemy's lines, and 
 wounded the horses from beneath. The Roman in- 
 fantry, especially the Praetorian band, stationed in 
 the middle of the host, stood firm, and finally the 
 better discipline and arms of the Romans, aided by 
 the ubiquitous activity of Julian, the military skill 
 and energy of Severus, and the fidelity and courage 
 of the Gallic allies, prevailed over the superior num- 
 bers and great physical strength of the barbarians. 
 Six thousand Germans fell, and only 247 of the 
 Romans. Many of the fugitives dashed into the 
 waters of the Rhine, and Julian had to issue strict 
 orders that they were not to be pursued further. 
 King Chnodomarwas taken prisoner in a wood near 
 by. His courage had deserted him, and he dis- 
 gusted Julian by pleading for his life. He was sent 
 captive to the Imperial Court, as a tangible proof to 
 Constantius of the result of the conflict. 
 
 This great victory, 11 won in trying circumstances, 
 and against great odds, was momentous in its effects, 
 principally, perhaps, from the terror it struck into 
 the German tribes all around. Julian sternly re- 
 pressed the acclamations of the soldiers which would 
 have conferred then and there upon him the title of 
 Augustus. It was more prudent for him to allow 
 the Emperor to assume to himself the honour of the 
 victory. This was not contrary to Roman Imperial 
 usage, yet in the credit he took for a battle fought 
 hundreds of miles from the place where he then was, 
 
3591 yulians Ccesarship in Gaul. 109 
 
 Constantius reminds us of the belief into which (as 
 report says) George IV. persuaded himself, that he 
 had been personally present at Waterloo. 
 
 After the victory, Julian returned to Zabern. He 
 left his prisoners and his booty in the neighbour- 
 hood of Metz, and begun an advance into the ene- 
 my's country, crossing the Rhine near Mentz. Like 
 all expeditions of the kind, this march was of a de- 
 structive and devastating character. The houses of 
 the natives were burned down and all their property 
 wasted. The Romans marched on till they came 
 to a thick wood, probably in the neighbourhood of 
 Aschaffenburg on the Main. But the autumnal 
 equinox was past, snow was beginning to fall, and 
 the attempt to make further progress in a difficult 
 and hostile country would have been decidedly rash. 
 The Allemanni were at last willing to retreat. Julian 
 granted them a ten months' truce, and received 
 humble submission from three kings who had fought 
 at Strasburg. He now prepared to go into winter 
 quarters, but he had first to dislodge a company of 
 six hundred Franks, whom Severus had come upon 
 in his march towards Reims, and who had occupied 
 two fortresses on the Meuse. It was not till after 
 a long siege, in frosty weather, that they were 
 obliged to yield themselves prisoners of war. 
 
 The place in which Julian passed the winter of 
 357-8 is one that had been of some slight import- 
 ance from much earlier times. Yet he must be 
 credited with having perceived the peculiar advan- 
 tages of its position, and contributed not a little to 
 its future greatness. " Beloved Lutetia, as the Gauls 
 
no yidi an, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 
 
 call the little city of the Parisii," comprised as yet 
 little more than the island in the Seine, now covered 
 by Notre Dame and the adjacent buildings, and the 
 palace to the south of the river where Julian took 
 up his abode, and which is still associated with his 
 name. 12 It was near the junction of several military 
 roads, and as a French historian has said, " the town 
 was becoming what Paris is to-day, the, centre of 
 resistance to Germany." In later times, writing in 
 the far-off East, Julian remembered its good situa- 
 tion, the purity of its water, the even flow of the 
 river, and the temperate climate, which allowed of 
 the culture of the vine and the fig, if their roots 
 were covered with straw in winter. He told a story 
 against himself how, confiding in that agreeable 
 climate, he had, in Stoic fashion, refused to have 
 his rooms warmed with a furnace, till, when the cold 
 became intense, he sent for braziers, and narrowly 
 escaped asphyxiation from the steam which exuded 
 from the damp walls. 13 
 
 While in Paris, Julian threw himself with energy 
 into the work of financial reform. Here he was 
 hindered by the Praetorian Praefect Florentius. We 
 have already seen this man in the camp before the 
 battle of Strasburg, giving advice which, though 
 justified by the event, was contrary to the judgment 
 of Julian and to the ordinary calculations of pru- 
 dence. Florentius declared that some additional 
 imposts were imperatively required. Julian denied 
 the necessity, and refused to entertain the sugges- 
 tions. Florentius appealed to Constantius, who 
 wrote to Julian, bidding him place confidence in 
 
3591 yulians Cczsarship in Gaul. Ill 
 
 the experience of the Praefect. Thereupon Julian 
 replied that, wasted as the province had been, it 
 could not possibly afford to raise more than the or- 
 dinary revenue. His firmness had the desired result, 
 and at the same time he asked and obtained power 
 to rearrange the method of collecting taxes in the 
 second province of Belgica, greatly to the allevia- 
 tion of the distress from which the provincials were 
 suffering. 
 
 In the spring of 358, Barbatio, assisted by a compe- 
 tent cavalry officer, was sent into Raetia to chastise 
 the Juthungi, a tribe of Allemanni who had appar- 
 ently not been comprised in the truce. Meantime Ju- 
 lian had gathered from Aquitaine supplies (including 
 biscuit, which seems to have been a novelty), sufficient 
 for a long expedition, and now led his army towards 
 the mouths of the Rhine. On the way he met a 
 deputation of Salian Franks, which tribe had lately 
 settled in Zealand, or perhaps in the country more 
 to the south. These had come to demand terms of 
 peace. Julian dismissed them with presents, then 
 fell suddenly on the main army, and reduced them 
 to sue for peace on more humiliating conditions. 14 
 The Chamavi, another tribe of Franks, next felt his 
 strong hand, and that of Severus. Having granted 
 them peace on condition of retreat, he proceeded 
 to fortify the line of the Meuse. At the same time 
 he re-established the water communication between 
 Britain and the Rhine country, which had for a time 
 been interrupted. For this purpose he had to cause 
 the building of a new fleet, in spite of difficulties 
 which Florentius regarded as insuperable. It was 
 
112 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 
 
 apparently through the machinations of this disap- 
 pointed financier that some of the soldiers, being 
 defrauded of their pay and worked upon by agita- 
 tors, showed dangerous signs of insubordination. 
 Even Severus seemed to be wavering in his loyalty 
 and courage. Julian's intimate friend, Sallust, was 
 recalled on suspicions received against him, a blow 
 bitterly felt by Julian, as he showed in an apparently 
 sincere though elaborate farewell address. Never- 
 theless, the result of the campaign was favourable to 
 the Roman arms, both on the Upper and the Lower 
 Rhine. The stream was crossed, and a king of the 
 Allemanni, named Suomar, who seems to have ruled 
 between the Maine and the Rhine, was obliged to 
 sue for peace. A barbarian free-lance, Charietto, was 
 induced to enter the Roman alliance, and afterwards 
 proved very useful. Another barbarian king, Hor- 
 tar, was forced to deliver the Romans whom he 
 had captured in his devastating raids, including 
 some that he tried to keep back, till Julian sus- 
 pected his attempted fraud and speedily defeated it. 
 The winter months were again given to inquiries 
 into civil affairs, and to judicial proceedings which 
 Julian regulated with great attention, insisting on 
 publicity, and on acquittal in absence of adequate 
 proof of guilt. The next year (359) was marked 
 by the establishment of corn magazines, the erect- 
 ion of fortresses on the Rhine (at Bonn, Ander- 
 nach, Bingen, and other places), and by another 
 expedition across that river, in which Julian pene- 
 trated further than he had done before, and reached 
 the confines of the Burgundii and the Allemanni. 
 
359] Jidians Cczsarship in Gaul. 113 
 
 It is noticeable that in marching through the terri- 
 tories of those kings who had made peace the year 
 before, Julian studiously avoided all kinds of plunder 
 or vexation. The submission of the several chiefs 
 of the more distant tribes was now secured. 
 
 The story of wars of civilised against semi-bar- 
 barous peoples is generally distinguished by deeds of 
 cruelty and of perfidy. The Gallic wars of Julian are 
 not an exception to this rule. But they had the 
 merit of success. At the end of his fourth campaign, 
 Julian may be regarded as having accomplished the 
 task he had been sent to perform. The Gallic prov- 
 inces were not likely to be soon again disturbed by 
 the barbarians who had received so hard a lesson. 
 The frontiers were again protected by fortresses ; 
 food was secured to the provincials who dwelt in- 
 land. The oppressive taxation could now be light- 
 ened. Peace and security reigned in Gaul, and the 
 distant Germans again reverenced the majesty of the 
 Roman name. If Julian received no gratitude from 
 his cousin, he probably expected none. Yet his 
 achievements were none the less profitable to the 
 Empire, and may strike us now with admiration, and 
 seem, considering the character and education of the 
 man who did them, almost unique in character. 
 History knows of young military geniuses, like Alex- 
 ander the Great, or Charles XII. of Sweden, who ob- 
 tained wonderful victories without previous experi- 
 ence. Yet the bent of Julian had been distinctly 
 non-military, and he had been summoned from the 
 lecture-room to the camp. History knows also of 
 men of riper years, such as Epaminondas, Timoleon, 
 
 8 
 
i 14 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356-59 
 
 and Oliver Cromwell, who only began a military 
 career after their minds had been formed in other 
 pursuits. But Julian became a great general while 
 still full of youthful ardour for the studies which he 
 was compelled to lay aside. There is in his character 
 and powers a wonderful diversity, which seems, as it 
 were, to blend several lives in one. He had become 
 a general, a statesman, and a man of the world, 
 without ceasing to be a student, an ascetic, and a re- 
 ligious idealist. If, in his letters to his friends, he 
 lamented the literary leisure of by-gone days, if he 
 constantly asserted that the contemplative life was 
 worthier than the active, and the merit of Socrates 
 infinitely above that of Alexander, he let no such 
 preferences appear openly, and shunned no irksome 
 tasks in the camp or in the council chamber. If he 
 stole hours from sleep to spend them in devout med- 
 itation, aspiring speculation, and elaborate composi- 
 tion, his daily life showed, at this stage of his career, 
 no trace of pedantry or of indecision. His success 
 on new and strange ground may be accounted for 
 partly by the versatility of his mind. The man who 
 could write the Oration on the Mother of the Gods in 
 one night must have been able to move swiftly with 
 brain and pen. But the main cause of that success 
 lies deeper. The secret of it is to be found in the pos- 
 session of an iron will, controlled by a stern sense of 
 duty, and in an unswerving faith in the final triumph 
 of good over evil. 
 
 (For designs of coins selected as illustrations for this chapter, see page 262.) 
 
Notes on Chapter V. 115 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER V. 
 
 1 For this narrative, we have Ammianus, books xvi., xvii., and 
 xviii., Zosimus, book iii. (apparently a far less trustworthy account), 
 Julian's Letters to the Athenians, Libanius' Funeral Oration, etc. 
 Of recent accounts, I have made most use of Miicke's Julians 
 Kriegsthalen (Gotha, 1867), a careful and valuable study, though, 
 perhaps, not quite fair towards Constantius, and H.' Schiller's 
 Romische Kaiserzeit, iii., 3. A considerable difference of view pre- 
 vails as to the extent to which the story of Julian's achievements is 
 based on his own narrations. Mr. Hecker regards Julian's lost 
 Commentaries as the source whence Ammianus, Zosimus, and Li- 
 banius alike drew their statements. It does not seem probable, 
 however, that the sober and impartial Ammianus blindly followed 
 such records, even if they existed in as complete a form as Mr. 
 Hecker supposes. 
 
 2 Tillemont, Constance, xxxv., xxxix., etc. 
 
 3 Afterwards Prefect of the Gauls, not the Sallust that accom- 
 panied Julian in his last campaign. 
 
 4 Jul., Or. ii., 51, D. Cf. Tillemont, A r otes stir Diocletian, xii. 
 
 5 Ammianus seems to confound Remagen and Coblentz. His 
 language is here not quite clear. Miicke regards the important for- 
 tifications of Tres Tabernce, mentioned by Ammianus on several 
 occasions, as the lines connecting Zabern in Alsace, Bergzabern, and 
 Rheinzabern. 
 
 6 Of Julian's earlier life we have hardly sufficient knowledge to 
 assert this positively, though the very slightest tendency to licen- 
 tiousness would undoubtedly have been made matter of accusation in 
 the invectives of Gregory Nazianzen and others. 
 
 1 Miicke {Jzilians Leben und Schriften) considers that the first 
 oration in honour of Constantius was delivered in Milan, near the 
 end of the year 355 ; that the second was worked up from the first 
 while Julian was in Gaul ; and that the one in honour of Eusebia 
 was composed just after her arrival in Rome, in the spring of 357. 
 (Possibly Eusebia visited Rome in 356). 
 
 8 See Tillemont, notes xxxviii., xxxix., etc. It is difficult to ac- 
 count for all the movements of Constantius at this time. 
 
 9 I follow the account of Ammianus, who, however, was not pres- 
 ent at these events, as Ursicinus, to whose service he was attached, 
 had been sent to the East. 
 
1 1 6 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 10 Not only Libanius (Epit. Jul.) but also the church historian 
 Socrates (iii., i) represent the barbarians as producing letters on this 
 occasion by which Constantius had authorised this march. What 
 the letters really amounted to is uncertain. But Chnodomar probably 
 interpreted them in very liberal fashion. 
 
 11 The circumstances and topography of the battle of Strasburg 
 have recently been the object of a thorough study by M. Wiegand, 
 in Beilrage zur Landes tend Volkeskunde von Elsass-Lothringen. He. 
 considers that the accounts of Libanius and of Ammianus are prob- 
 ably from Julian, and he finds them remarkably exact, and easily 
 fitting in with indications of topography. He would place the bat- 
 tle-field more to the south-west than the generally accepted site. 
 
 12 The " Thermes de Julien," near the Luxembourg and Palais de 
 Clugny. 
 
 13 Misopogon, 340, 341. 
 
 14 Mucke's version of this affair would acquit Julian of bad faith 
 towards ambassadors, but I cannot reconcile it with Ammianus. 
 
Roman Ensigns. 
 That to the left that of the Celtae ; that to the right that of the Petulantes. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN EAST AND WEST. JULIAN 
 BECOMES EMPEROR. 1 
 
 359-360. 
 
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 rspai Oappeiv. dXX, y6xvvofirjv Seivgq<3 kcci xaredvojUTjv, el 
 do^ai/ii jur/ 7ti6vGD$ oixpi rsXovS vrtaxovdai KGovdrarria).^ 
 
 Julian, Letter to the Athenians, 285. 
 
 " Perfidus ille [Julianus] Deo, quamvis non perfidus urbi." 
 
 Prudentius.* 
 
 jHILE we are tracing the fortunes of 
 
 Roman arms and the efforts towards 
 
 | civil reform of upright Roman gov- 
 
 u ernors in one corner of the vast 
 
 I Empire, we are apt to forget that, 
 
 S3j thousands of miles away, events may 
 
 be happening pregnant with results 
 
 to the Imperial house and to the whole Imperial 
 
 system. In fact it may seem that at no time 
 
 * A Spanish Christian poet, contemporary with Julian. 
 
 117 
 
1 1 8 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 between those days and our own has there been 
 such a close sympathetic connection between the 
 frontier fortresses in the heart of Asia and the 
 political capitals of Western Europe. Now, as then, _ 
 no place in the civilised world can be regarded as 
 entirely shut out from the influence of political dis- 
 turbances or military movements that may occur 
 in distant regions. All countries are again bound 
 together, for good and evil, though not with the 
 ancient cords. 
 
 Thus, to understand the crisis which arrived in 
 Julian's life while he was still occupied with the 
 reconquest and the administration of Gaul, we 
 must turn our attention to the course of affairs 
 on the Danube and on the Tigris. Indeed the 
 causes of the breach between Julian and his cousin 
 seem to have been determined too superficially by 
 those who have not grasped some important factors 
 in the problem. By some, Constantius has been 
 accused of a superfluous assertion of authority in 
 making unreasonable demands. To others, Julian 
 appears as an ungrateful subordinate, preferring his 
 own ambitious plans to the welfare of his patron 
 and to the interests of the whole Empire. A careful 
 examination of the general conditions of the case 
 may lead us to the conclusion that the demands 
 of Constantius, though not made with a prudent 
 regard to time and circumstances, were not deter- 
 mined upon without pressing need, while Julian's 
 opposition had also its grounds of justification, 
 apart from its unforeseen and far-reaching results. 
 
 It has been already remarked that it is not easy 
 
360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 119 
 
 to account for all the movements of Constantius 
 during the years of Julian's campaigns in Gaul. 
 His principal residence was at Milan, whence several 
 of his laws are dated. Whether or no he made an 
 expedition against the Allemanni in 356 is a ques- 
 tion we must leave on one side. 2 The matters 
 which chiefly occupied him were a ceremonious 
 visit to Rome, sundry expeditions against the tribes 
 to the north of the Danube, and some ineffectual 
 attempts at negotiation with the Persian king, fol- 
 lowed by preparations for active hostilities. 
 
 The object of the Emperor's visit to Rome was, 
 according to his detractors, a childish desire to 
 make a notable display of pomp and power in 
 celebrating, some time after the event, his triumph 
 over Magnentius. And there seems some reason in 
 the complaint that a moment at which war was 
 either imminent or actually being waged, in several 
 provinces, was hardly the one to choose for ex- 
 travagant expenditure on meaningless ceremonies. 
 Yet it is quite possible that Constantius may have 
 acted with some statesmanlike purpose when he 
 determined on making this progress. Even if it 
 were not so, it was surely a laudable curiosity that 
 made him desirous of a personal inspection of the 
 great sights of the Eternal City. Political prudence 
 would suggest the expediency of showing himself, 
 with all the paraphernalia of Oriental majesty, to the 
 sight-loving populace that still considered them- 
 selves as par excellence the Sovereign People of 
 Rome, and to the wealthy dilettante officials who 
 seemed to themselves to perpetuate the glories of 
 
1 20 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [359- 
 
 the Roman Senate. The enthusiasm with which 
 he was received might be considered to justify 
 some munificent expenditure, for though it may not 
 have been a matter of great moment what the actual 
 denizens of Rome thought of their ruler, yet the 
 dignified associations which clung to the ancient 
 names might still be, as they again became centuries 
 afterwards, a source of strength to the Imperial 
 power. The attitude which Constantius took up 
 towards the pretensions of his ancient capital is 
 shown by two laws which date from about this 
 time : by one, he withdrew from the Praefect of 
 Rome the cognisance of cases of appeal from Italian 
 and Sicilian courts; by another, all senators were 
 bidden to reside in or near the city. 3 Thus Rome 
 was not to hold a position of political headship in 
 Italy, but at the same time Roman municipal dig- 
 nities were to involve definite civil and financial 
 duties, and not to be regarded as a mere ornament. 
 Constantius was accompanied on this occasion by 
 his wife Eusebia and his sister Helen, who seems to 
 have come on a visit from her husband in Gaul, as 
 we find her there before and afterwards. The entry 
 into the city was very imposing. The Emperor was 
 seated alone in a golden chariot, preceded by legion- 
 aries with their standards held aloft and surrounded 
 by guards in brilliant plate-armour. He preserved 
 his usual imperturbable demeanour in countenance 
 and manners, though startled once or twice at the 
 loud roar of the cheering multitude and at the nov- 
 elty of the spectacle before him. He condescended, 
 however, to allow some indulgence to the fancies of 
 
CHARIOT-RACE BEFORE A CONSUL, 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 121 
 
 the Roman people in the manner of holding the 
 equestrian games, and he made a public speech from 
 his seat in the Forum as well as one to the nobles in 
 the Senate-house. He devoted some time to visit- 
 ing all the principal buildings, baths, theatres, and 
 temples. Though desirous of purging the city from 
 pagan rites, to which end he had lately caused the 
 removal from the Senate-house of the altar to Vic- 
 tory, on which incense used to be offered, neither he 
 nor those with him seem to have felt any scruple in 
 admiring the temples which, even if according to 
 law no longer used for religious purposes, must still 
 have been full of religious symbols and works of art. 
 In fact, the monument with which Constantius de- 
 termined to enrich the city, in memory of his visit, 
 was one of a distinctly pagan character. Constan- 
 tine had issued orders for the removal to Rome of 
 an obelisk which had adorned the city of Thebes in 
 Upper Egypt, and which was connected with the 
 worship of the sun, and bore inscriptions in honour 
 of a solar deity and of one of the Egyptian kings. 
 Augustus had once thought of bringing it away, but 
 had refrained in order to spare the religious feelings 
 of the people. Constantine, however, had no such 
 scruples, for he considered, as Ammianus says, "that 
 it was no injury to religion to remove a religious 
 object from one temple to dedicate it in Rome, the 
 temple of the whole world/' The attempts of Con- 
 stantine to remove it were cut short by his death, 
 but Constantius carried out the project. With vast 
 labour it was brought to Rome and set up. In later 
 times it was thrown down, but was re-erected by 
 
122 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 Pope Sixtus V., and stands to this day before the 
 church of San Giovanni Laterano. 
 
 The original idea of Constantius had been to give 
 an equestrian statue to the city, like that in the 
 Forum of Trajan, with which he had been much im- 
 pressed. But a Persian fugitive who accompanied 
 him suggested that such a steed would require a 
 stable to correspond, and Constantius did not intend 
 to construct another Forum. If Hormisdas had 
 suggested that the rider also should be of Trajanic 
 mould, the remark would have been equally to the 
 point. This same Persian, on being asked what he 
 thought of Rome, replied that he was glad to learn 
 that men died there as elsewhere. Whether the 
 remark was dictated by a spirit of Oriental fatalism 
 or by dislike of an overpopulated city, we are not 
 told. 
 
 Constantius was obliged to abridge his agreeable 
 visit to Rome and hasten northwards, because of 
 alarming news received from the regions of the 
 Danube. 
 
 The vast plains of the southern and western parts 
 of the country known to us as Russia-in-Europe, 
 with some regions more to the south, including the 
 district between the Danube and the Theiss, were at 
 this time the abode of wandering hosts of fierce and 
 predatory horsemen, belonging to the race known as 
 Sarmatians. These had given a good deal of trouble 
 to preceding emperors. Diocletian and afterwards 
 Constantine seem to have flattered themselves that 
 they had reduced them to subjection, but people of 
 their character and habits of life are not easily sub- 
 
360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 123 
 
 dued, as King Darius had experienced long before. 
 According to the ordinary lines of Roman policy, 
 the people of the Thracian Chersonesus had been 
 engaged to make war on the Sarmatians, and had 
 been rewarded for their successful intervention, and 
 subsequently, when the Gothic power in those coun- 
 tries became more formidable, Roman aid was given 
 to the Sarmatian tribes, into which a Vandal ele- 
 ment seems to have been received, against the yet 
 more dangerous foe. When, however, the Sarma- 
 tians found that the Romans were either unwilling 
 or unable to give them much help, they adopted the 
 imprudent course of placing arms in the hands of a 
 subject race, or of subject races, known as the Limi- 
 gantes. These were successful not only in defeating 
 the Goths, but in establishing their own indepen- 
 dence against their former masters, and obtaining 
 fixed territories for themselves. When thus weak- 
 ened, the Sarmatians received more encouragement 
 from the Romans, and were permitted to settle in 
 Pannonia and other border provinces. Some of 
 them, however, preferred the alliance of other bar- 
 barian hosts, especially the Quadi, who seem to 
 have been of Germanic race, and while Constantius 
 was in Rome, he heard that the Quadi and the 
 Sarmatians, as well as the Suevi, were ravaging the 
 Danubian lands. He does not seem to have ac- 
 complished much against them that year, but he 
 wintered at Sirmium, a town on the Save near the 
 Sarmatian frontier, so as to be ready for military 
 operations in the spring. 
 
 Early the next year (358) news came that the 
 
124 ^Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 Quadi and Sarmatians had joined their forces and 
 were doing great mischief in the provinces immedi- 
 ately to the west of the Danube, below the point 
 of its great bend southwards and to the south of its 
 lower course (the Pannonias and Upper Msesia). At 
 the same time the not far. distant province of Raetia 
 was being invaded by German forces, with which, as 
 we have seen, Barbatio had to contend. The Em- 
 peror himself, at about the end of March, crossed 
 the Danube and marched into the enemies' country. 
 The barbarians fled to the mountains. But the sight 
 or the tidings of their burning homesteads (as they 
 had something to burn they cannot have been en- 
 tirely nomadic) induced both Quadi and Sarmatians 
 to sue for peace. Constantius prudently contrived 
 to keep the two sets of negotiations distinct. After 
 some difficulties, terms were arranged. Hostages 
 were to be given, captives restored, and the hosts to 
 retreat. A fine young barbarian named Zizais, who 
 had taken an active part in bringing about the agree- 
 ment, was acknowledged by the Emperor as King of 
 the Sarmatians, and that formidable race was thus 
 made to own the authority of Rome. This authority 
 involved the duty of protecting the client people 
 against their foes and former slaves. The Limigantes 
 had not been behind their quondam superiors in 
 taking advantage of the opportunity given of invad- 
 ing the Roman provinces. Nor were they behind 
 the others in making professions of submission and 
 requests for terms of peace. The Emperor had deter- 
 mined to insist on a wholesale migration of the tribe. 
 But he consented to a parley first, and even invited 
 
360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 125 
 
 them to cross the Theiss and come to his camp for 
 that purpose. They arrived en masse in warlike 
 array, and their formidable mien, together with a 
 real or assumed attempt to attack the sacred person 
 of the Emperor, seemed to the Roman generals to 
 justify an onslaught which degenerated into a mas- 
 sacre in which neither age nor sex was spared. The 
 remnant of the Limigantes retired humiliated to the 
 distant lands assigned to them, while the Romans 
 advanced up the rivers into the territory of those 
 Sarmatian and allied tribes that yet held out, and 
 reduced them to some kind of subjection. Constan- 
 tius again wintered at Sirmium. He had taken the 
 title of Sarmaticus, but his task was by no means 
 complete. Next year news came that the Limi- 
 gantes were wandering away from their new quar- 
 ters. The Emperor advanced into north-eastern 
 Pannonia. Here another conference with the host 
 was projected, and this time the treachery seems to 
 have been on the side of the barbarians. When they 
 perceived that the Romans were unprepared for an 
 attack, they raised their war-cry and advanced tow- 
 ards the Imperial throne. Constantius only escaped 
 by riding off at full speed. Subsequently, the bar- 
 barians were very severely defeated in the encounter, 
 but there was also some loss on the Roman side. 
 The success of the Roman arms seemed, however, to 
 have rendered the frontier in these regions fairly 
 secure. The Emperor returned to Sirmium, and 
 thence proceeded to Constantinople, to devise means 
 for meeting the yet more serious dangers that threat- 
 ened the Empire from the East 
 
126 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [359- 
 
 Meantime, Paul, " the Chain," was doing more 
 damage probably than any barbarian chief to the 
 reputation and authority of his master, by instituting 
 a series of prosecutions based on reports of dreams 
 and oracular responses. Constantius has the credit 
 of certain measures for putting a stop to soothsaying 
 and other pagan superstitions. It would not be easy, 
 however, to determine how far his zeal against such 
 practices was aroused by a jealousy on behalf of 
 Christianity, and how far by the more personal jeal- 
 ousy of his restlessly suspicious temperament. 
 
 At the same time, negotiations had been going on 
 between Constantius and the great ruler of the East, 
 in which probably both parties desired rather to 
 gain time than to establish a permanent understand- 
 ing. These negotiations were begun, apparently, 
 without direct Imperial authorisation, by the Praefect 
 of the East, Musonianus, and the Dux of Mesopo- 
 tamia, Cassianus. Sapor, as already stated, had gone 
 to repel an invasion on his eastern frontier, and it 
 was long before he could receive the letter from his 
 general, Tamsapor, respecting the Roman overtures. 
 In 358, however, he made peace with the chiefs of 
 the warlike tribes, against which he had been con- 
 tending, and some of which — especially the Chion- 
 ites, acted as very valuable allies in the war which 
 ensued. Feeling now at liberty to turn his attention 
 to his western provinces, he sent a certain Narses 
 with presents and a letter for Constantius. The em- 
 bassy arrived at Sirmium in March, 358. The letter 
 (given by Ammianus) is thoroughly Oriental, both 
 in style and in significance. It begins : " Sapor, 
 
360] Julian Becomes Emperor. 127 
 
 King of Kings, Sharer in the Stars, Brother of 
 the Sun and the Moon, to my brother, Constan- 
 tius Caesar." The King goes on to congratulate 
 Constantius on his having renounced the desire to 
 acquire the goods of others, and after making the 
 questionable statement that it is the great privilege 
 of those in high rank always to speak their own 
 minds, he roundly requests him to give up Armenia 
 and Mesopotamia, as rightfully belonging to Persia, 
 the ancient boundary of which had been the river 
 Strymon. He dwells with complacency on his 
 own virtues, declaring that he never from early 
 youth has done any act of which he has had to re- 
 pent, advises the Emperor to consult for the well- 
 being of the whole by cutting off the superfluous 
 parts, and finally declares that if his ambassador 
 does not bring back a favourable answer, he will pre- 
 pare to take the field, with all his forces, next spring. 
 Constantius, in reply, could not but repel the insinua- 
 tion that Mesopotamia was a " diseased limb to be 
 cut off." He rejected the humiliating terms offered, 
 and expressed his confidence in the ultimate success 
 of the Roman arms. Nevertheless he sent compli- 
 mentary presents to Sapor, and an embassy of three, 
 one of whom, Eustathius, belonged to the rhetori- 
 cal philosophers of Asia Minor, whose influence in 
 education and in the ornamental part of public 
 affairs we have already noticed. But in this case, 
 in spite of the pleasure which the eloquence of 
 Eustathius is said to have given to the Great King, 
 the breach was too wide to be filled by a load of 
 rhetoric. The proposal that the status quo should 
 
128 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 be maintained was rejected. The embassy re- 
 turned disappointed from Ctesiphon in Babylonia 
 where Sapor had given them audience. One more 
 mission was sent, with no better success. It was 
 evident that a serious war was at hand. 
 
 It was fortunate for the Romans that the Sarma- 
 tians had been subdued and that Gaul was well-nigh 
 pacified. It was probably at this time that Julian 
 sent to the Emperor a considerable force, both of 
 infantry and cavalry, that had acquired experience 
 and glory on the Rhine. But two serious disadvan- 
 tages made the Roman cause less hopeful. One 
 was the desertion of a certain Antoninus, who had 
 been an official in the finance department of the 
 eastern provinces, and whose fortunes had been 
 broken by ruinous law-suits and unfair decisions. 
 Having vainly attempted to recover them at the ex- 
 pense of the State, he fled with his family, his 
 possessions, and what was far more important, his 
 knowledge of government secrets, to the army of 
 the Persians, where he was received with open arms. 
 The other misfortune which befell the Romans at 
 the outset was the withdrawal of power from the 
 one man likely to be able to meet the storm. 
 Ursicinus had been holding command in Comma- 
 gene, the most north-easterly province of Syria. 
 Meantime, his foes at Court were plotting against 
 him, the suspicions of the Emperor were aroused, 
 and he received a sudden summons to return to 
 Europe. When hostilities broke out, however, he was 
 quite indispensable. He was accordingly sent back 
 to Mesopotamia with the office of Commander of the 
 
360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 129 
 
 Infantry lately held by Barbatio. That General, 
 with his wife, had, in consequence of foolish tamper- 
 ings with diviners, met with the same fate which 
 during this reign overtook many much worthier 
 people. But though entrusted with some military 
 authority, Ursicinus was placed in subordination to 
 a wealthy and inert old man named Sabinianus, who, 
 though totally incapable of conducting a campaign 
 himself, was able to thwart the measures of his abler 
 colleague. 
 
 In all his military expeditions, Ursicinus had a 
 devoted supporter, and, except when the fortunes of 
 war parted them, a constant companion, in the his- 
 torian Ammianus Marcellinus. Thanks to his 
 literary labours, we are able to realise the character 
 of a war which, in its romantic incidents and cir- 
 cumstances of pomp and show, suggests to us other 
 wars carried on in much the same regions many 
 centuries later. The hostilities between Sapor and 
 the generals of Constantius can hardly be considered 
 as a crusade, though they were waged between 
 Christians and fire-worshippers. But though the 
 religious element was not prominent in the conflict, 
 it forms part of the unending struggle between East 
 and West. The romantic character is partly due to 
 Sapor himself, who shows touches of chivalrous 
 feeling in his courtesy towards ladies, both in the 
 case of dedicated virgins, and of the beautiful wife 
 of a Roman official who fell into his hands. Ursi- 
 cinus also has interesting traits of character. We 
 are told of his efforts to save a stray child, and of 
 
 a dramatic interview between him and the traitor 
 9 
 
1 30 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 Antoninus. The story is full of hair-breadth escapes 
 and of deeds of daring, especially on the part of the 
 Gauls, who abhorred the slow work of defending 
 besieged towns, and could only be kept in subordina- 
 tion by being allowed to indulge their appetite for 
 warlike exploits. On the other side are splendid 
 Asiatic barbarian leaders, like old Grunbates, King 
 of the Chionites. The details need not be given 
 here. Ursicinus and Ammianus left their superior 
 to his inert leisure and hurried into Mesopotamia, 
 where they put the city of Nisibis in a state of de- 
 fence. The town of Carrhae was abandoned and the 
 surrounding country wasted by fire, to check the 
 progress of the Persian and allied hosts arriving up 
 the Tigris from Nineveh. Amida, a very important 
 town on the Tigris, near the borders of Armenia, 
 Cappadocia, and Mesopotamia, was taken after a 
 siege of seventy-three days, during which great 
 valour and great engineering skill were shown on 
 both sides, and the efforts of Ursicinus to relieve the 
 city were foiled by the excessive caution of Sabini- 
 anus. Further insult and injury were heaped upon 
 Ursicinus, in that the loss of Amida was punished 
 by his degradation from his military rank. He in- 
 dignantly protested against the false view which 
 Constantius derived from his courtiers of the state 
 of affairs, and exhorted him to take the field him- 
 self. Constantius had probably made up his mind 
 to do so soon after the Sarmatian war was over. 
 Meantime Sapor retreated with the booty of Amida 
 and went into winter quarters. 
 
 From this brief narrative some points are manifest 
 
36 oj yulian Becomes Emperor. 131 
 
 which we must bear in mind in forming our judg- 
 ment as to succeeding events. More troops were 
 certainly wanted in the East, and also a capable com- 
 mander. And far the best troops were those that 
 came from Gaul. One detachment from Illyria had 
 been ignominiously cut to pieces early in the cam- 
 paign. In Gaul at this time was a numerous and 
 well-seasoned army. And if "that goat," as Con- 
 stantius called his bearded cousin, had achieved all 
 the victories, of which the court was tired of hearing, 
 he could surely spare some soldiers to his hard-pressed 
 superior and imperial colleague. The prsefect Flo- 
 rentius, who, as we have seen, had reasons of his 
 own for not loving Julian, offered advice which Con- 
 stantius was only too ready to follow. Possibly, as 
 Julian afterward asserted, their ultimate project was 
 to divest the Caesar of all his military authority. 
 The immediate demand was that four of the best 
 companies of auxiliary troops, the Heruli, Batavi, 
 Petulantes, and Celtae, together with a detachment 
 of picked men from the other forces, should be at 
 once despatched under the command of Lupicinus, 
 for the Persian War. 
 
 Libanius, who does poor service to Julian by per- 
 sistently blackening the deeds of Constantius, asserts 
 what is simply absurd when he would make us be- 
 lieve that there was no special need for soldiers in 
 the East, and that Constantius had no serious inten- 
 tion of making an oriental campaign. The Emperor 
 probably wished to test Julian's fidelity to the ut- 
 most, and it is not probable that he thoroughly real- 
 ised the difficulty of obeying his commands. The 
 
132 yuliaUy Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 orders were not likely to be the more agreeable from 
 being entrusted to commissioners whom Julian be- 
 lieved to be personally hostile to his interests, es- 
 pecially to the tribune Decentius. Had Constantius 
 merely signified, in a confidential manner, his needs 
 and desires, without specifying the regiments or the 
 commander, it would have been only right and rea- 
 sonable for Julian, his colleague and possible succes- 
 sor, to show himself forward in considering the needs 
 of the East as of the West. But in the way of exe- 
 cuting these specific commands there lay difficulties 
 familiar enough to Julian, with which Constantius 
 was but imperfectly acquainted. In the first place, 
 the pacification of Gaul was not so completely ef-. 
 fected that so large a contingent of troops could be 
 safely withdrawn. Had that pacification been com- 
 plete, the commissioners would not have found 
 Julian without crossing the British Channel. A de- 
 vastating raid of the Picts and Scots across the 
 border of the British provinces demanded the 
 prompt intervention of Roman troops under a 
 Roman general. Had Julian considered it prudent 
 to leave Gaul at this juncture, it is not impossible 
 that London, instead of Paris, might have witnessed 
 his elevation to the Empire. Under the circum- 
 stances, however, he thought it wiser to send over 
 an efficient force under the Magister Armorum 
 Lupicinus, a man of ability and experience. This 
 created a further difficulty in the way of executing 
 the Emperor's orders, since Lupicinus had been 
 nominated to the command of the soldiers who were 
 to go to Asia, and among those under his command 
 
360] yuli an Becomes Emperor. 133 
 
 in Britain were some of the bands expressly- 
 demanded, especially the brave Batavians, whose 
 ancestors had given great trouble to the Roman 
 authorities, and who are commonly regarded as the 
 progenitors of the doggedly heroic Dutch nation. 
 Some of the Germanic auxiliaries had only joined 
 the Roman armies on the special condition that they 
 should not be sent South of the Alps, and Julian 
 might well complain that it would be impossible 
 ever to obtain recruits if Rome refused to keep her 
 plighted word to her barbarian allies. Many of the 
 men, too, had wives and children, whom, if they left 
 them now, they had faint hopes of ever seeing 
 again. 
 
 In fact it would seem that Constantius, though 
 head of a military monarchy, failed to realise the 
 conditions on which supremacy can be exercised 
 over the whole extent of a vast empire. Soldiers 
 who were well aware that on their shoulders rested 
 the whole effective power of the reigning house, were 
 not likely to consent to be moved like pawns across 
 the Imperial chess-board to subserve the interests of 
 nobler pieces, or of the immoveable director of the 
 game. Of the three motive powers by which masses 
 of armed men can be readily swayed, patriotism, the 
 hope of glory and gain, and loyalty to a personal 
 leader, all were in this case either absent or opera- 
 tive in the opposite direction from that indicated in 
 the Imperial commands. What patriotism existed 
 in Julian's army was Gallic, not Roman. His men 
 knew and cared nothing about Mesopotamia, but 
 they felt the importance of not suffering Gaul to 
 
134 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 become the prey of barbarous northern hosts. The 
 advantages they might gain for themselves in the 
 East were very shadowy. Roman arms had not of 
 late been very successful there, the country was un- 
 known to them, and the risk great, while Constantius 
 had no military prestige to attract them. They 
 were ready enough, most of them, to follow Julian, 
 because he had shared in their hardships, and led 
 them to glorious victories. They, or their officers, 
 saw in the projected movement the beginning of a 
 process by which their beloved leader was to be 
 deprived of all credit and authority, and possibly 
 brought before long to share the fate of his luckless 
 brother Gallus. 
 
 Julian was placed in an exceedingly difficult posi- 
 tion. Though not prepared for opposition, he con- 
 sented under protest, at least so far as the auxiliaries 
 from beyond the Rhine were concerned. He 
 requested the commissioners to wait till Florentius, 
 who was at Vienne in South Gaul, and Lupicinus 
 could be summoned to Paris to give their advice. 
 But Florentius preferred to leave his superior alone 
 in this extremity. The fidelity of Lupicinus, too, 
 was doubtful, and he had work to do beyond the 
 sea. The commissioners meantime urged haste, and 
 the tribune, Sintula, began to raise levies, paying no 
 heed to warnings or remonstrances. Julian, in des- 
 pair, offered to throw up his authority altogether, 
 and retire into private life, but the suggestion seems 
 not to have been taken seriously. 
 
 The act which brought about the crisis is (accord- 
 ing to Zosimus) to be attributed to some of the 
 
360] Julian Becomes Emperor. 135 
 
 officers in the army. Inflammatory notices were 
 anonymously drawn up and circulated in one of the 
 chief bands commanded to march, the Petulantes. 
 They ran somewhat in this fashion : " We are ban- 
 ished, like condemned criminals, to the ends of the 
 earth. Our dear ones, whom our swords have 
 rescued from captivity, will fall again into the hands 
 of the Allemanni." A disturbance was naturally 
 aroused, and tidings of it were brought to Julian, 
 who had not left his winter quarters in Paris. He 
 hastened to avoid dangerous consequences, as well 
 as to satisfy the justice of the complaints, by mak- 
 ing arrangements for the wives and children of the 
 soldiers to accompany them on the march. At the 
 same time, he advised Decentius not to arrange the 
 route so that the forces should pass through Paris. 
 This advice, like the rest which Julian had offered, 
 was disregarded. 
 
 When the troops arrived before Paris, Julian went 
 out to meet them, and endeavouring to make the best 
 of a bad business, spoke cheerfully to the soldiers of 
 the great rewards for which they might hope in the 
 East, and invited the officers to a farewell dinner, at 
 which he encouraged them to make any parting 
 requests of him that they desired. Of course it 
 might easily be alleged afterwards by Julian's ene- 
 mies that he was secretly at the bottom of the 
 resistance of the soldiery, that the anonymous 
 papers were drawn up at his instigation, and that 
 the farewell dinner gave an excellent opportunity 
 for an outbreak of insubordination. On the other 
 side we can place Julian's most solemn assertions, 
 
l 3& Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 to friends such as Maximus, as well as to public 
 bodies, that what was done occurred without his 
 connivance, and even against his will. And, con- 
 sidering all the circumstances, this seems the most 
 probable view of the case, though we may never be 
 able to decide, and perhaps Julian himself scarcely 
 knew, exactly to what extent personal ambition, the 
 belief in his special vocation, and a profound dis- 
 trust of the Emperor, may have influenced him in 
 permitting what he was after all powerless to 
 prevent. 
 
 During the night, the excitement in the camp 
 waxed high. Julian retired to the apartments in 
 the palace which he occupied with his wife, but was 
 soon aroused by the din of arms and of many voices 
 uttering the momentous cry " Julian Augustus." He 
 endeavoured at first to pacify the men by assuring 
 them that he would secure the withdrawal of the 
 Imperial order for their removal. As he prevailed 
 nothing, he kept the bolts of his room fastened, and, 
 looking through an opening in his chamber to the 
 starry skies, he besought Heaven for a token. Some 
 sign, probably a meteor, at once appeared, yet with 
 the inconsistency of most people who consult oracles 
 and observe stars, he did not at once resign himself 
 to the decision. After a while, however, the door 
 was broken open, the soldiers forced their way in, 
 and hoisted him on a shield. A cry was raised for 
 a diadem with which to crown him. No such thing, 
 of course, was at hand, and it was proposed to take 
 a necklace or coronet from among his wife's jewelry. 
 But Julian rejected what would have seemed to 
 
360] Julian Becomes Emperor. 137 
 
 prognosticate an effeminate character for his reign. 
 Finally a standard-bearer belonging to the Petulantes 
 unbuckled his military collar and placed it on Julian's 
 head. This rough act of coronation accomplished, 
 Julian, in fear for his life, as some said, or wishing 
 to prevent the Imperial honour from being accepted 
 by another, as he afterwards said to Constantius, 
 yielded to the storm. The die was cast and he was 
 Emperor. 
 
 Yet the partisans of Constantius made at least an 
 effort, by bribing the ringleaders, to create dissen- 
 sions among them or to reverse their act. An officer 
 of Helen's household discovered their machinations. 
 There was a fresh rush of soldiers to the palace, and 
 the cry resounded : " Soldiers, both strangers and 
 citizens, never give up the Emperor ! " When they 
 found him alive and safe in the council-chamber, 
 their joy knew no bounds. They next prepared to 
 wreak their ill-will on the leaders of the opposite 
 party, but Julian succeeded in saving their lives. 
 Decentius was permitted to escape, and he returned 
 at once to the Imperial court. Florentius, when he 
 heard at Vienne what had been done, departed, as 
 might have been expected, in the same direction. 
 His family and his property were scrupulously re- 
 spected by Julian. Lupicinus, on his return from 
 Britain, was placed under temporary arrest. 
 
 The first tasks which lay before Julian under these 
 changed circumstances were to make sure of the 
 disposition of the whole Gallic army, and to attempt 
 to come to some sort of understanding with Con- 
 stantius. Of these, the first undertaking was far 
 
l 3% Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 easier than the second. The smaller band which, 
 under the command of Sintula, had already begun 
 its march, returned to the main body, and the new- 
 made Emperor, who had, on accepting the diadem, 
 already promised the usual donative to the soldiery, 
 made a harangue to the army, expressive of his 
 gratitude to them and of the community of fortunes 
 which bound them together, and announcing his 
 intention of making all military appointments with 
 regard solely to the merits of the candidates, with- 
 out giving ear to personal recommendations. He 
 immediately put this rule in practice by' refusing 
 promotion to some members of the commissariat- 
 stafT of the Petulantes and Celtae whom their com- 
 rades wished to see in higher offices. He seems, 
 however, to have given no umbrage by this refusal. 
 
 He next drew up a careful letter to Constantius, 
 who, he doubted not, had already heard from De- 
 centius and others of the unexpected turn which 
 affairs had taken in Gaul. He protested his own 
 loyalty, to which his labours and conflicts since his 
 elevation to the Csesarship had abundantly testified. 
 He showed the great provocation under which the 
 army had acted, and his own unwillingness to accept 
 the dignity violently forced upon him. He urged 
 the necessity, in the present circumstances, of avoid- 
 ing a breach between the rulers, and the expediency 
 as well as the wisdom on the Emperor's part of par- 
 doning what had been done and accepting the con- 
 ditions offered. These were that Julian should 
 furnish him with Spanish horses and with certain 
 contingents of barbarian forces that could be spared ; 
 
360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 139 
 
 that the Emperor should appoint men of worth to 
 the post of Praetorian Prefect, and leave other 
 appointments, civil and military, in the hands of 
 Julian himself, who also claimed the selection of his 
 own guards. He again warned Constantius against 
 the scheme of removing the flower of the Gallic 
 Army into Asia. Finally he expressed his desire 
 not to insist on his new dignity, as he preferred to 
 appeal to past experience and future prospects in 
 urging a course which might make for peace. 
 
 This letter as Ammianus gives it (though he does 
 not profess to make a perfectly literal translation) 
 agrees in the main with what is told us by Julian 
 himself. But now comes in a rather puzzling diffi- 
 culty. Ammianus says that with this reasonable 
 and modest letter was sent another, drawn up in 
 very different terms, and full of biting reproaches. 
 This document he declines to publish, as he would 
 not consider such publication to be seemly.* Now 
 Ammianus generally aims at giving an honest and 
 impartial account of the events he is narrating, he 
 is not slow to reproach Constantius on his own 
 account, nor does he try to hide Julian's faults when 
 he considers him unfair or undignified. What could 
 have prevented him from telling us more about so 
 important a document? Again, we can hardly be- 
 lieve that Julian was likely to spoil the effect of a 
 carefully written letter by sending with it a childish 
 ebullition of petty spite. His great desire, according 
 to his own writings and to the probabilities of the 
 case, was to avoid a rupture as long as possible. 
 
 * Or because he had not been allowed to see it. 
 
1 40 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. t359- 
 
 Why should he have gone out of his way to give 
 perfectly gratuitous provocation to the Emperor ? 
 That some private letter was written seems indubi- 
 table, if our text of Ammianus is correct. Three 
 hypotheses may be suggested : (1) That we have a 
 confusion here between the communications made 
 by the embassy and those which came later, after 
 Julian's offers had been rejected. (2) That the second 
 and secret letter was sent with the other, but not to 
 be delivered if the first were favourably accepted : or 
 (3) That the secret letter was a part of Julian's orig- 
 inal communication but that it contained matter on 
 which Ammianus preferred to be reticent. Here I 
 would hazard a conjecture : May it not have related 
 to religious affairs, and have insisted, as an additional 
 demand, on freedom of ritual and profession to 
 Julian himself and to those who with him adhered 
 or wished to adhere to pagan ways ? Ammianus 
 always seems to have been a sober-minded neutral 
 in religious matters ; he had no sympathy with 
 Julian's ruling passion, and would probably have 
 regarded his demands as very unreasonable ; he was 
 desirous, moreover, that his work should be read by 
 men of all parties, and should steer clear of burning 
 controversies ; thus he might have regretted that 
 such a letter was ever written, and seeing that it 
 had been written, might wish to say as little about 
 it as was consistent with his love of truth and fair- 
 ness. But however this may be, there can be little 
 doubt that the primary object of Julian in sending 
 the embassy was to make a satisfactory accommo- 
 dation. 
 
360] Julian Becomes Emperor, 141 
 
 To our notions of military subordination and ad- 
 ministrative authority, it may seem that Constantius 
 could not, consistently with the dignity of his posi- 
 tion, acknowledge the result of a mutiny as if it 
 were a lawful act. But the experience of centuries 
 had forced the rulers of the Empire to regard the 
 preference of the soldiery as a factor seldom omitted 
 in the elevation or destruction of potentates and 
 dynasties. There were examples, too, like that of 
 the rise of his own father, Gonstantine, in which the 
 forcibly expressed choice of the soldiery had subse- 
 quently received the sanction that could not safely 
 be withheld. But either Constantius, or those 
 whose influence prevailed with him, felt too bitterly 
 against Julian to receive his advances in a pacific 
 spirit. 
 
 His friend and well-wisher, the Empress Eusebia, 
 was already dead, and he had now probably no 
 friends at court. Constantius, in his progress, had 
 reached Caesarea in Cappadocia when the ambassa- 
 dors arrived. Having received their despatches, he 
 exhibited such wrath as to strike terror into them, 
 and refused to give them audience. They were, 
 however, permitted to return in safety. At the 
 same time the quaestor Leonas was sent with a 
 letter to Julian, bidding him confine himself to the 
 authority he had previously held, and making sun- 
 dry appointments in the government of Gaul. In 
 particular Nebridius was to succeed Florentius as 
 Praetorian Praefect. 
 
 When Leonas arrived at Paris, Julian received 
 him with personal friendliness, but as the letter 
 
142 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 
 
 from Constantius was received and read aloud in the 
 presence of the whole army, there was not much 
 likelihood that the conditions, especially as to the 
 proposed abdication, would be accepted. Leonas 
 was sent back with a description of the opposition 
 made by the army to the Emperor's suggestions. 
 Of the new appointments, that of Nebridius alone 
 was recognised. 
 
 Other negotiations, the details of which are 
 unknown, were carried on, both parties being unwil- 
 ling to begin a civil war. A certain bishop Epic- 
 tetus was commissioned to assure Julian, from 
 Constantius, that at least his life would be secure if 
 he complied with his cousin's requirements. But, 
 ambitious motives apart, Julian had to consider his 
 duty to the soldiers and the provincials who had 
 entrusted themselves to his care. He declared at 
 once his political intentions and his religious belief 
 in proclaiming openly that he preferred to trust 
 himself and his life to the Gods rather than to the 
 words of Constantius. 
 
 Different stories are given as the ground of 
 Julian's confident assurance that the events which 
 had raised him to the Empire were a call to a 
 divinely appointed task. According to his own nar- 
 rative, he saw, at the critical moment, the sign he 
 had prayed for in the heavens. Others tell of his 
 dreams, or of his enquiries, made by means of the 
 occult sciences. Modern readers can hardly justify 
 a usurpation for which no higher sanction can be 
 brought. Nor can they easily discern a vox dei in 
 the shouts of an insurgent army. But if we must 
 
360] 
 
 Julian Becomes Emperor. 
 
 Hi 
 
 acknowledge Julian's accession to be, in a sense, a 
 departure from the legitimate order, we must also re- 
 member how little legitimate principle was to be 
 found in the common practice of succession to the 
 Imperial throne, and how hopeless it was to find any 
 orderly means of discovering and enthroning the 
 man whom the crisis of events demanded. The 
 Petulantes and the Celtae boldly cut the knot, and 
 decided that he alone who had driven away the 
 devastating hosts of the enemy deserved to hold 
 supreme power over the lands he had saved. 
 
 Coin of Julian. 
 Reverse, Securitas REiPVBlicse. The Bull Apis ; above, stars. 
 
144 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1 The chief authorities for the circumstances of Julian's elevation 
 to the empire are his letter to the Athenians, and Ammianus, Book 
 xx. The accounts given in Libanius, Epitaph, andZosimus, iii., 9, 
 are apparently based on Julian's own accounts. We have no detailed 
 narrative written from the opposite standpoint. Ammianus is excel- 
 lent for the Persian War. I have followed him closely also for that 
 with the Sarmatians. 
 
 2 See Tillemont, Constance, Note xxxviii. 
 
 3 Cod. Theod. xi., 30, 27 ; vi., 4, 11. 
 
Coin of King Sapor II. 
 A.D. 340-370. Reverse, Fire-altar. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WARS IN EAST AND WEST CONTINUED. DEATH OF 
 
 CONSTANTIUS AND BEGINNING OF JULIAN'S 
 
 REIGN AS SOLE AUGUSTUS. 1 
 
 360-361. 
 
 Ov rtGortors r/vt-djur/v ditoycrEivai Koovdravnov , judXXov 
 8k aitrjv^difJLTqv . Ti ovv rjXQov ; £Tt£i8r) juoi oi Qsoi 8iappr/8r/v 
 EKsXsvdav 6G0Trjpia.vfJ.kv E7tayyEXX6jnEvoi 7t£iQojj.evap fiivovri 
 8s o jur/dsiS Qegqv 7toirj6£i£v. 
 
 Julian's Letter XIII. (to his uncle, Julianus). 
 
 " By my prescience, 
 I find my zenith doth depend upon 
 A most auspicious star, whose influence 
 If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes 
 Will ever after droop." — Tempest, L, 2. 
 
 I HEN we read the narrative of the 
 exciting events in Paris described 
 in the last chapter, the elevation of 
 a successful general to the supreme 
 Imperial authority by the uncon- 
 stitutional and unauthorized conduct 
 of a scarcely national army, and the 
 acceptance of that authority by the man of the 
 10 145 
 
1 46 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 soldiers' choice, as of a vocation direct from heaven, 
 we are prepared to pass at once to the story of a 
 disastrous civil war. And, in fact, if Julian had 
 marched eastward or Constantius westward in the 
 spring of 360 A.D., backed as each was by an ex- 
 perienced, brave, and devoted army, hostilities must 
 have ensued of a most destructive and demoralising 
 character to the whole Empire. It is, perhaps, to 
 the credit of both rivals, though partly owing also 
 to propitious circumstances, that this was not the 
 case. Neither was animated by a feeling of good- 
 will or a conciliatory disposition towards the other. 
 Neither can have hoped for a successful issue to the 
 negotiations that had been set on foot. But both 
 had enough of the spirit of military rulers to prefer 
 not to leave undone the tasks still in hand, nor to 
 risk, in a struggle of personal rivalry, the safety and 
 resources of the great empire which was the stake 
 for which both were contending. Both wanted to 
 gain time. Julian had his work to finish in the 
 West. Constantius desired to make a serious begin- 
 ning of what he had undertaken in the East. Thus, 
 between the elevation of the rival Augustus at Paris 
 and the beginning of the internecine war which 
 seemed its necessary consequence, we have two 
 campaigns, or p^rts of two campaigns, both in Gaul 
 and in Asia, in which the Roman armies contended 
 against barbarians, not against one another. 
 
 Early in the year 360, before Constantius arrived 
 on the scene of war, Sapor crossed the Tigris and 
 laid siege to the already memorable town of Sin- 
 gara. Like the other sieges of the war, this one 
 
3611 Events to Death of Constantius. 1 47 
 
 was conducted with much engineering skill and for- 
 midable artillery, and sustained with great deter- 
 mination. The town was taken by storm, there was 
 a general massacre, and the survivors of the gar- 
 rison, consisting of two legions and a company of 
 cavalry, were captured, led forth with hands bound, 
 and sent off to a distant part of the Persian empire. 
 The chief part of the Roman forces, however, were 
 stationed at a little distance from Nisibis, which 
 town Sapor made no attempt to take. Pressing on 
 northwards, he laid siege to another important 
 frontier port, Bezabda or Phcenice, situated on the 
 Tigris near the border of Mesopotamia and Armenia. 
 The garrison consisted of three legions, which 
 received the assailants with storms of arrows. In 
 self-defence, the Persians placed in the front the 
 prisoners taken at Singara. After a good deal of 
 fighting and an ineffectual attempt at accommoda- 
 tion made by the Bishop, the fate of the town was 
 decided by the fall of a much battered tower. The 
 massacre and pillage which ensued seems to have 
 been more extensive than at Singara. The town 
 was refortified and strongly garrisoned against any 
 Roman attempt at reconquest. Another strong 
 place, Virta, an old fortress of Alexander, was 
 the next object of attack, but the King's army 
 had probably been considerably weakened in the 
 course of the other sieges, and he thought best 
 to retire. 
 
 Constantius, meanwhile, was trying to obtain 
 allies in his projected campaign for the next year. 
 He advanced into Cappadocia and secured the 
 
148 yulian> Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 friendship of Arsaces, King of Armenia, by giving 
 him the hand of a noble lady formerly betrothed to 
 the Emperor Constans. He then set out in the late 
 summer or early autumn, crossed the frontier into 
 Armenia, and then struck south to Edessa. In 
 September he advanced northwards to Amida, now 
 a heap of ruins, and determined to attempt the 
 recapture of Bezabda. This important post proved, 
 however, no more easy of attack by Romans than 
 by Persians. In spite of the use they made of an 
 enormous battering-ram, which had previously 
 belonged to the Persians, and had been left behind 
 at Carrhae, all attempts to storm the walls were 
 frustrated by the courage and energy of the defend- 
 ers, who made vigorous sorties and set fire to the 
 Roman machines. Constantius determined to turn 
 the machine into a blockade, but when the rainy 
 season came on, the discomfort felt by the besiegers, 
 combined perhaps with a superstitious dread of the 
 frequently appearing rainbows, led him to abandon 
 the attempt for the present, and retreat to Antioch 
 for the winter. There he married his third wife, 
 Faustina. Before the next campaign he sent rich 
 presents to the kings of Armenia and Iberia, whose 
 alliance he felt to be of great importance. Another 
 measure imperatively required was the despatch of 
 some trusty person to take precautions against any 
 attempt that Julian might make on the coast of 
 Africa. The man chosen for this task was Gauden- 
 tius, who had formerly been an Imperial agent 
 attached to Julian's establishment in Gaul, and 
 who bore him no good-will. Gaudentius accom- 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius, 149 
 
 plished what was required of him promptly and 
 efficiently. He speedily raised a force of Mauri- 
 tanian cavalry, with which he watched the coast, and 
 prevented any invasion which might have been 
 made from East Gaul or from Sicily. Early in May, 
 Constantius left Antioch and marched to Edessa, as 
 he had heard that Sapor was again about to cross 
 the Tigris. He was, however, in a doubtful state of 
 mind. Julian, he heard, had left Gaul and marched 
 through Illyria, on his way to Constantinople. It 
 would not be safe to weaken the army in the East 
 by a very adventurous campaign. Fate seemed gene- 
 rally to declare for Constantius when he contended 
 with internal foes, against him when he strove 
 against foreign potentates. Yet he could hardly 
 have left affairs in Asia to go and meet his enemies 
 in Europe, if Sapor had taken advantage of his em- 
 barrassed position. Why he failed to do so, we can- 
 not tell. The hostilities in Mesopotamia lasted but 
 a short time, and the Roman officers had special 
 directions to run no unnecessary risks. Sapor 
 seems to have found the auspices unfavourable, and 
 probably also his presence was required elsewhere. 
 He retreated, and Constantius feeling able to do the 
 like, moved back to Hierapolis, about midway be- 
 tween Edessa and Antioch, and there, in a great 
 military meeting, he set forth his own deserts, the 
 ingratitude and enormity of Julian's conduct, and 
 his hope of speedily crushing the insurrection. The 
 army expressed its readiness to march against Julian, 
 and light troops were sent on ahead to prevent, if 
 not too late, the occupation of the pass of Succi 
 
150 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 which the usurper must cross in his march on Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 Julian meantime had been actively occupied in 
 the West. As has been already said, he felt the 
 necessity of completing the pacification of Gaul 
 before marching against the Emperor. The sum- 
 mer campaign of 360 was chiefly occupied with the 
 punishment of the Attuarian Franks, who occupied 
 the territory about Cleve, and had made incursions 
 over the Gallic border. This involved another ex- 
 pedition across the Rhine which was entirely success- , 
 ful. Having taken many captives, and imposed 
 conditions of peace, Julian marched along the fron- 
 tier to make sure of all the important posts, and 
 passed by Besantio (Besancon, a place vividly des- 
 cribed in one of his letters and to judge from its re- 
 mains, an important town under the Roman Empire), 
 to Vienne, where he stayed for the winter. During 
 the winter months, it was necessary for him to ma- 
 ture his plans for the future. He soon resolved to 
 postpone no longer the assumption of the Imperial 
 pomp and dignity, the symbols, in the eyes of the sol- 
 diers, of the authority which they had conferred upon 
 him, and which the Emperor did not seem inclined 
 to recognise. Thus he celebrated the completion 
 of the fifth year of his Caesarship in solemn fashion, 
 wearing a magnificent diadem. In religious matters 
 he seems to have advanced tentatively. In a letter 
 written in the course of the next year, 2 he expresses 
 his delight that public sacrifices are being offered, 
 and that the army is devoted to the ancient cults. 
 Yet we are positively told by Ammianus that while 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius. 151 
 
 at Vienne he went publicly to church and took part 
 in the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany. It 
 is not impossible that he may have been thinking 
 of carrying out an idea of Constantine, and of join- 
 ing together men of various religions in a common 
 ceremonial. The Feast of the Epiphany was one of 
 the very earliest ever observed in the Church, and 
 the precise nature of its significance only came to 
 be defined much later. In Julian's day it was not 
 specially commemorative of the Adoration of the 
 Magi. It was generally associated with the baptism 
 of Christ, although in some churches it was not distin- 
 guished from Christmas, and regarded as part, if 
 not the whole, of the Festival of the Nativity. 
 This confusion is not found in the Gallic churches, 
 but probably existed in those with which Julian was 
 acquainted in the East. Now we shall see later on 
 that there was another festival occurring just at 
 Christmas time which Julian most strongly desired 
 to have celebrated with due honours, the " Birth- 
 day of the Unconquered Sun." He probably 
 thought that to the day set apart " in honor of the 
 manifestation on earth of creative and life-giving 
 power " he might hereafter give a Mithraic character 
 without destroying all the associations that it had 
 for the Christians. 
 
 It must have been about this time that Julian lost 
 his wife. She probably died in her confinement, 
 but, as we have already shown, nothing definite can 
 be stated as to the manner of her end. Neither 
 politically nor personally had her influence been of 
 importance, and her removal seems to have made 
 
152 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 no change in the plans and prospects of her hus- 
 band. Her body was sent to Rome, to be laid beside 
 that of her sister Constantina. 
 
 In his anxiety to ascertain the course he should 
 pursue, Julian had recourse to the various arts of 
 divination. The results seem to have been favour- 
 able, and the historians have preserved some rude 
 hexameter lines, 3 communicated to Julian in the 
 visions of that night, in which a sudden and speedy 
 end to Constantius was attached to certain planetary 
 conjunctions. 
 
 Meantime, the world must be prepared for the 
 coming changes, and partisans must be secured. 
 There was hardly anything like a public opinion to 
 which Julian could appeal to judge between himself 
 and his cousin. If there had been such an opinion, 
 he would probably not have treated it with deference. 
 But he strongly desired to have on his side the sym- 
 pathy and the counsel of those who represented, in his 
 eyes, the collective wisdom of the world. It is very 
 characteristic of his mental attitude that he issued 
 manifestatoes not only to the Senate of Rome (to 
 which some kind of address might seem necessary), 
 but to the " Senate and People " of the Athenians, 
 the Spartans, and the Corinthians. These letters 
 were not issued till the next summer, but it seems 
 probable that they were prepared during the winter. 
 The appeal to the Roman Senate was, as we shall 
 see, a lamentable failure. Julian's intercourse with 
 Greek and oriental philosophers and with Gaelic 
 soldiers had not fitted him to deal with Romans 
 who thought themselves statesmen. The very fact 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius. 153 
 
 that he thought it worth while to appeal to the 
 venerable cities of Greece shows how far his mind 
 always was from comprehending the distance be- 
 tween the present and the past. It can surely not 
 have mattered greatly to Julian what the fourth- 
 century Spartans thought of his proceedings, and 
 the opinion of the commercial city of Corinth, if it 
 had any opinion, was not representative of any influ- 
 ential society. These two addresses have perished, 
 except, perhaps, a fragment of that to Corinth, 4 and 
 we can only guess at their substance and character 
 by that which survives, the letter to the Athenians. 
 We have already seen Julian's extravagant regard 
 for that unique city, the brightness of whose ancient 
 glories has often blinded the eyes of enthusiastic 
 admirers to her later decrepitude. And to Julian 
 Athens was not only the great city of the past, she 
 was the headquarters of sophists and scholars. It 
 was not unnatural that his long pent-up feeling 
 should find an outlet in the little autobiographical 
 treatise which he wrote to justify himself in the eyes 
 of the fellow-citizens of Aristides the Just, and in 
 which the rhetorical form does not entirely hide the 
 burning passion beneath. We have already had 
 several occasions to cite this letter, which is one of 
 the most important sources of information about 
 Julian's early life and his Gallic campaigns. Not 
 that he writes with the idea of drawing .up a com- 
 plete autobiography. He only dwells upon those 
 points which are likely to secure for him the sym- 
 pathy of those to whom he is writing, and the style 
 is that of a rhetorical manifesto, not of a sober his- 
 
154 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 tory. In apology for his usurpation of the Imperial 
 authority, he urges the shameful treatment he had 
 received from Constantius, the compulsion used by 
 the soldiers, and the manifest will of the Gods. He 
 expresses his willingness even yet to come to terms 
 with Constantius, but he has evidently given up 
 hope of a peaceable settlement, and therefore sees 
 no reason to be reticent on the expression of his 
 feelings both towards his so-called benefactor and 
 towards the Gods of Hellas. 
 
 One of the charges brought by Julian against 
 Constantius is that of stirring up barbarians to in- 
 vade a Roman province. The last enemy with 
 whom he had to cope in Gaul was a chief of the 
 Allemanni, who was either in communication with 
 Constantius, or seeking to secure his own ends by 
 trimming between the rivals. We have already seen 
 that in the year 354, Constantius forced terms of 
 peace on two brother-chiefs, Vadomar and Gundo- 
 mad, who dwelt on the borders of Raetia. Gun- 
 domad was now dead, and Vadomar, who bore a 
 great reputation for cunning, wrote very subservient 
 letters to Julian, addressing him not only as Em- 
 peror, but as a god. A messenger of his was, how- 
 ever, seized, and a despatch to Constantius was taken 
 from him, in which the warning was given : " Your 
 Caesar is becoming insubordinate." This must have 
 been before the great event at Paris. But early in 
 361, Julian, at Vienne, received tidings that the 
 Allemanni were pillaging the province of Raetia. 
 Accordingly he sent the brave Petulantes and Celtae, 
 under a certain Libinio, to chastise the barbarians 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius. 155 
 
 and restore order. The Roman commander, how- 
 ever, was taken at unawares, and in an engagement 
 fought near Sanctio (probably Seckingen, in the 
 Aargau), Libinio was killed and his troops put to 
 flight. Julian determined to secure the person of 
 the slippery chieftain. For this purpose, he sent 
 his trusted and able secretary, Philagrius, on an 
 embassy to Vadomar, furnishing him with secret 
 instructions which he was not to look at until Vado- 
 mar had crossed the Rhine. On finding that this 
 was already the case, Philagrius consulted his direc- 
 tions, and found that he was ordered to make 
 Vadomar his captive. This was accomplished with- 
 out difficulty at the conclusion of a social meal. 
 Vadomar was conveyed into the presence of Julian, 
 who treated him with more clemency and forbearance 
 than he seems to have expected, and merely ordered 
 his withdrawal to Spain. 6 We afterwards find him 
 acting as Dux in Phoenicia. This step was followed 
 on Julian's part by another crossing of the Rhine 
 (the fifth he had made during his government of 
 Gaul), and by a brief campaign which led the bar- 
 barians to sue for peace. 
 
 Julian now had leisure to turn his attention east- 
 wards. Before he began his march, he made a 
 spirited harangue to the soldiers, in which, after 
 recapitulating the work of conquest and of settle- 
 ment which they had accomplished together, he 
 showed them how desirable it was to take possession 
 of Illyria, while it was so scantily supplied with 
 troops, to advance to the frontier of Dacia, and 
 there to await the course of events. Throwing 
 
156 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 himself on their loyalty and sympathy, he besought 
 them to identify their cause with his by taking an 
 oath of fidelity. He further requested them to 
 respect the property and all the rights of private 
 citizens and the safety of the provinces. The speech 
 was received with loud applause, and the desired 
 oath taken with great fervour. One man, Nebridius, 
 the Praetorian Prsefect lately appointed by Con- 
 stantius, and approved by Julian, had the courage 
 and the loyalty to his old master to refuse it at the 
 peril of his life. Julian interposed between him and 
 the infuriated soldiers, and while refusing him any 
 demonstration of confidence, permitted him to retire 
 into Tuscany. 
 
 It would thus seem that many of the very soldiers 
 who had remonstrated so loudly against being with- 
 drawn from Gaul to serve under Constantius in the 
 East, were ready to follow Julian to the ends of the 
 world. Yet he must have found it necessary to 
 leave a considerable force behind him, and his con- 
 tinued care for the Gallic provinces was shown by 
 the appointment of his friend Sallust 6 as Prsefect 
 over them. Other promotions were made, both in 
 the army and in the civil government, to fill the 
 places of those whose fidelity was doubtful. Nevitta, 
 a Frank, was set over the cavalry, and a certain 
 Dagalaif over the guards. It is evident that in spite 
 of the reproaches that Julian directed against the 
 promotion by Constantius of barbarians to offices of 
 trust, he could not escape from the necessity of 
 following the same policy himself. 
 
 His forces amounted altogether to about twenty- 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius, 157 
 
 three thousand men. Feeling anxious lest this 
 small number might appear contemptible, and lest 
 they might be surprised on their way, he divided 
 them into several detachments, and impressed on 
 the leaders of each the necessity of taking abundant 
 precautions. Jovius and Jovinus were to lead one 
 division through North Italy. Nevitta was to con- 
 duct another portion of the army through the Swiss 
 passes and the land known as Rhaetia. He seems 
 himself, 7 with a band of picked troops, to have 
 penetrated northwards through the Black Forest 
 to the sources of the Danube, on which he embarked 
 as soon as he came to a navigable part of the river. 
 The divided forces were to be concentrated near 
 Sirmium, which lay, as we have seen, on the Save, 
 near its junction with the Danube. This important 
 post had been left in the care of Lucillianus, while 
 the governments of North Italy and that of Illyria 
 were in the hands of Taurus and of Florentius 
 respectively, both of whom were consuls for this year 
 361. Both these officials fled as Julian's army ap- 
 proached. Lucillianus, in Sirmium, was surprised by 
 Dagalaif with a chosen band, seized in his bed, and 
 brought into Julian's presence. He seemed scared 
 out of his wits, but on being allowed to kiss the 
 Imperial purple he recovered sufficient voice and 
 confidence to volunteer some good advice to the 
 adventurous leader who was pressing on so rapidly 
 among unknown dangers. Julian replied with a 
 smile : " Keep your wise counsels for Constantius ; 
 I did not reach the purple to you because I wanted 
 your opinion, but to remove your fright." Lucil- 
 
158 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 lianus was withdrawn and Julian proceeded to the 
 city, where he was received with much enthusiasm. 
 The next day he rewarded the good-will of the 
 people by delighting their eyes with a chariot race. 
 Immediately afterwards, he proceeded to occupy 
 the important pass of Succi, between the mountain 
 chains of Rhodope and Hsemus. Leaving it under 
 the care of Nevitta, he retreated for a time to Nais- 
 sus, in Upper Dardania. 
 
 Hitherto, his progress had been continuous and 
 easy. But now unexpected dangers arose in two 
 different quarters. We have already mentioned the 
 letter which he addressed to the Senate of Rome. 
 Though it has not been preserved, it seems to have 
 contained a justification of Julian and an arraign- 
 ment of Constantius of much the same kind as are 
 found in the Letter to the Athenians. We can 
 imagine that it was couched in flattering terms and 
 was bristling with rhetorical illusions, and that the 
 old Roman hatred of tyrants was appealed to as in 
 the other document the Athenian love of fairness. 
 But there yet remained more ballast in the Roman 
 Senate than in the so-called " Boule and Demos " 
 of the Athenians. The recent visit of the Emperor 
 had probably increased his popularity, and the ex- 
 penditure which Ammianus blamed as lavish had 
 thus, after all, achieved some result. The Praefect, 
 Tertullus, read the letter to the senators, who indig- 
 nantly uttered in one breath the laconic reply : " We 
 require you to respect your superior." Two senators, 
 Symmachus and Maximus, were deputed to go to 
 the Court of Constantius. At Naissus they were 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius. 159 
 
 intercepted 8 and well received by Julian, who made 
 Maximus Praefect of Rome in the place of Tertullus. 
 We may regret that he did not see his way to con- 
 tinue in office so bold an opponent as Tertullus, but 
 the appointment of Maximus, said to have been 
 dictated by private motives, is partly justified by 
 results, seeing that he was able successfully to cope 
 with a serious famine that threatened Rome. 
 
 Far more dangerous, however, was the action of 
 two legions of soldiers who had been quartered in 
 Sirmium, when he acquired that city. Strangely 
 unmindful of his late experience with the Gallic 
 army, or perhaps acting on an exaggerated impres- 
 sion of his own powers over soldiers that had not, 
 like the Gallic legions, shared his fortunes for better 
 and worse, he ordered the troops from Sirmium to 
 march westward into Gaul. But the terror of the 
 German enemy and of the chilly and unknown west- 
 ern lands was as formidable to these eastern troops 
 as was the dread of the dry desert and of Asiatic 
 siege-warfare to the Petulantes and the Celtae. To 
 complete the turning of the tables, the ringleader in 
 the military agitation, Nigrinus, was a native of 
 Mesopotamia. The determination to resist was, 
 however, kept secret till the legions reached Aqui- 
 leia, at the head of the Adriatic Gulf. They then 
 swooped upon the city, the inhabitants of which 
 were favourable to Constantius, and summoned all 
 the disaffected in Italy to join them. Julian felt his 
 position to be critical, especially as he had heard 
 that forces were being raised against him in Thrace. 
 Jovinus, with the portion of the army that had taken 
 
1 60 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 the most southerly route, was ordered to go to 
 Aquileia, and if possible to bring the rebels to reason 
 without resorting to force. His efforts at negotiation, 
 however, proved futile, and the siege began in ear- 
 nest. The assailants, finding a difficulty in bringing 
 their machines against the walls, stationed in the 
 river and bound firmly together three vessels on 
 which towers could be raised, so as to give a vantage 
 ground for the hurling of missiles. The defenders, 
 however, succeeded in firing the towers, and in other 
 ways inflicted great loss on the besiegers. How the 
 affair would have ended, apart from startling news 
 that arrived from the East, it is useless to conjecture. 
 This news was of no less an event than the sudden 
 death of the Emperor Constantius. He had already, 
 as we have seen, determined to march against Julian, 
 and in the autumn of 361 he left Antioch and travelled 
 through Cilicia. But his health seems to have been 
 weakened by the anxiety and fatigue he had lately 
 undergone, and at Tarsus he was attacked by a fever, 
 such as, in the very same spot, had well-nigh cut short 
 the career of Alexander the Great. At first he 
 hoped to drive away the malady by exercise, or per- 
 haps rather by removal from an unhealthy region, 
 and proceeded on his way, but when he arrived at 
 Mopsucrene, not far to the north of Tarsus, he was 
 forced to make a final halt. Feeling the approach 
 of death to be near, he had recourse, as his father 
 had before him, to a death-bed baptism. The rite 
 was performed by Euzoius, the Arian bishop of An- 
 tioch. According to one report he left directions 
 that Julian should be appointed his successor. His 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius. 1 6 1 
 
 young wife gave birth, shortly after his death, to a 
 little girl, who was in course of time married to the 
 Emperor Gratian. 
 
 Though the death of Constantius occurred at a 
 most opportune moment for his far more interesting 
 kinsman, and perhaps also for his own reputation, it 
 is natural to feel a passing regret at the sad and dis- 
 tressing circumstances in which the last male de- 
 scendant of the great Constantine ended his days. 
 Constantius was not by any means a great man, nor 
 yet a man whom we greatly esteem, yet he seems to 
 have acted under a sense of duty in his military and 
 civil government, and even in his unfortunate eccle- 
 siastical policy. Cool and self-controlled in his 
 demeanour and chary with his favours, he could not 
 stir much enthusiasm, though it is evident that there 
 was a strong feeling in his favour both in Italy and 
 in the army of the East. His good intentions were 
 foiled by the want of an independent mind resolved 
 to see things for itself and not only through the 
 eyes of overbearing and interested persons, while 
 his natural inclination to justice and forbearance 
 was entirely counteracted by the vice, so constantly 
 besetting the despotic ruler, of jealousy and suspi- 
 cion. And his whole reign, with its record of foreign 
 wars and civil rebellions, of failure and exhaustion, 
 forms a dark setting to a somewhat pitiable per- 
 sonality. His efforts to alleviate the financial dis- 
 tress of the Empire riveted yet more closely the 
 bands which attached the mechanic to his art and 
 the peasant to the soil. His attempt to restore 
 unity in the Church had borne, as we shall see, no 
 
 IT 
 
1 62 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [360- 
 
 better fruit than had his military expeditions against 
 the Persians. "Such as he was, he was," wrote 
 Julian, " may the earth lie lightly on him." 
 
 Some of the courtiers who had devoured the 
 Imperial resources under Constantius, especially 
 the infamous chamberlain Eusebius, saw their only 
 hope of safety in the project of setting up another 
 rival candidate to Julian. But no such scheme 
 could be set on foot, and two military legates, who 
 bore the barbarous names of Theolaif and Aliguld, 
 were sent to inform Julian of what had happened 
 and to recognise him as Emperor. Meantime, the 
 corpse was conveyed to Constantinople in a funeral 
 car, on which was seated the " Protector Domes- 
 ticus," Jovianus, who from his somewhat ghastly 
 elevation celebrated games and received gifts in the 
 towns through which he passed. In later times, 
 this circumstance was regarded as a prognostic of the 
 high dignity to which Jovian was destined to rise, 
 and the brief period during which he was to hold it. 
 
 Julian was still in Dacia when the messengers 
 came. We have already seen that certain omens 
 had made him inclined to hope for a speedy issue to 
 the conflict. Another which is recorded at this 
 time is like many which illustrate the skill of a ready- 
 minded leader in giving an encouraging interpretation 
 to little accidents. When he had one day mounted 
 on horseback, the soldier who had assisted him fell 
 to the ground. " He who helped me up is fallen 
 himself," said Julian. Whether expected or not, the 
 news was accepted thankfully, as delivering him 
 from the necessity of further bloodshed, yet without 
 
A CONSUL, BETWEEN TWO DIGNITARIES. BELOW, CAPTIVES. 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
361] Eve7tts to Death of Constanttus. 163 
 
 any unseemly exultation. He speedily marched 
 through the pass of Succi to Philippopolis and 
 thence to Constantinople. His easy and triumphant 
 march made his pagan friends think of the progress 
 of Triptolemus. He entered Constantinople on the 
 nth of December, and was received by senators 
 and people with great demonstrations of delight. 
 When the corpse of the Emperor arrived, he received 
 it with all honour and acted as chief mourner in the 
 funeral ceremonies. It seems probable that he was 
 then present at Christian rites for the last time. 
 
 The peaceable acquisition of Constantinople led, 
 as might have been expected, to the surrender of 
 Aquileia. The besieged legions were not easily 
 convinced of the genuineness of the message sent to 
 them, but as soon as they were satisfied on that 
 point, they gave themselves up. The ringleaders 
 were punished with that refinement of cruelty which 
 marks the executions of this period. The bulk of 
 the men were allowed to depart unhurt. 
 
 Julian had now three great tasks to accomplish 
 before he could think of an eastern campaign or of 
 any but the most pressing affairs of the Empire. 
 The first was to visit with condign punishment the 
 detested ministers of the late Emperor. The second 
 was to purge the palace and the whole city of the 
 miserable hangers-on that sucked the blood of the 
 provinces and infested the palace and the government 
 orifices. The third was to establish on a sure basis 
 those religious changes which he had long contem- 
 plated. We must postpone these latter changes till we 
 can interpret them in the light of Julian's religious 
 
164 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 system and ideals. The first measure that he under- 
 took seems to have been executed more summarily 
 than was desirable or necessary. A special com- 
 mission of six, at the head of which was the new and 
 worthy Praefect of the East, Secundus Sallustius(not 
 to be confounded with the other Sallust, Julian's 
 friend in Gaul, 9 ) held sessions at Chalcedon, on the 
 Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, to hear charges and 
 pass sentence against several notable officials of 
 Constantius. Some were undoubtedly deserving 
 of the hard fate that was measured out to them. 
 Paul " the Chain " and Apodemus the Sycophant 
 perished by the hideous death, which seems to have 
 been a not uncommon sentence, of burning alive. The 
 chamberlain Eusebius also suffered death, and there 
 were numerous sentences of banishment. The dig- 
 nity of ancient Rome was offended by the banish- 
 ment of the fugitive Taurus in the very year of his 
 consulship. The other consul, Florentius, had hidden 
 himself, and did not reappear during Julian's reign. 
 The hardest sentence was that pronounced against 
 the finance minister Ursulus, who, it was said, ought 
 to have been an object of Julian's gratitude, since he 
 had secured supplies to him in Gaul. But Ursulus 
 had incurred the anger of the soldiery by some 
 scathing remarks about the loss of Amida, and 
 several officers of the army took part in the pro- 
 ceedings at Chalcedon. When Julian heard that he 
 had been put to death, he declared that the sentence 
 had been carried out in consequence of military 
 demands and without his own knowledge. The 
 strangest part of the affair is that the moving spirit 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius. 165 
 
 of the commission was the miserable Arbetio, who 
 had been mixed up with many of the least creditable 
 proceedings of the late reign. The most plausible 
 hypothesis is that Julian allowed Arbetio to sit on 
 the tribunal for the sake of fair play, and as repre- 
 senting different factions and interests from those 
 of the other judges, and that he trusted to the re- 
 spected Sallustius to maintain order and justice, but 
 that Sallustius, being a very old man, was not 
 equal to coping with Arbetio. In a letter written 
 at this time, 9 Julian vehemently denies (what some 
 one must have asserted) his intention of visiting the 
 crimes of these men too harshly. The many-headed 
 hydra, he says, must be dealt with, and where there 
 are charges, judges must be appointed to hear them. 
 The difference between his spirit in administering 
 justice and that of Constantius was shown in his 
 indignant refusal of an offer made to reveal the 
 lurking-place of Florentius. After all, the cases of 
 capital punishment inflicted were few, and probably 
 almost all were very richly deserved. 10 
 
 A like indifference to vested interests and public 
 opinion was shown in Julian's palace reforms. A 
 sudden reduction of the numbers of those directly 
 and indirectly nourished at the public expense, 
 must, however just and expedient, inflict some losses 
 on innocent people and lead to charges of oppression 
 and favouritism. Doubtless the fact that many of 
 these schemers and idlers bore the reputation of 
 having waxed wealthy on the spoils of temples com- 
 bined with Julian's hatred of government by espion- 
 age in leading him ruthlessly to thin their ranks. 
 
1 66 yuliariy Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 
 
 Long accustomed to plain living, and combining a 
 philosophic with a military aversion to luxury, he 
 had little tolerance for the costly paraphernalia of 
 Court life. When he sent one day for a barber, and 
 a pompous individual in costly clothing entered his 
 apartment, he exclaimed in feigned surprise : " I sent 
 for a barber not for a finance minister." Nor did 
 the "artist" rise in his esteem by admitting that he 
 expected as remuneration twenty rations of food per 
 day with the like for his horses, an annual salary, 
 and various extras. Julian's disgust at all which 
 savoured of pomp and effeminacy dictated a policy 
 not unlike that which a cold-blooded economy would 
 have recommended. 
 
 But if Julian wished to economise in the salaries of 
 personal servants and of useless dependents, he was 
 only too demonstrative and lavish in favours he con- 
 ferred on his philosophic friends. He eagerly in- 
 vited several of his former teachers or fellow-students 
 to come to him, and allowed them free passage by 
 the public conveyances. One of them was his revered 
 master, Maximus of Ephesus." He arrived while 
 Julian was presiding at a meeting of the Senate, and 
 the Emperor seemed to some critics oblivious of his 
 Imperial dignity, as he rushed out to meet the old 
 man and bring him into the illustrious assembly. 
 The sophist Chrysanthius had been summoned at 
 the same time, but he, finding omens adverse, had 
 declined the invitation. No omens were sufficient 
 to deter Maximus, who persisted in his enquiries till 
 the gods gave the desired answer. Priscus likewise 
 came from Greece, and Himerius followed in about 
 
A CONSUL, BETWEEN TWO DIGNITARIES. BELOW, CAPTIVES. 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
361] Events to Death of Constantius. 1 67 
 
 a year's time. Among those promoted to high 
 offices, we find several whose literary tastes and pro- 
 fession had recommended them to the Emperor. 
 Thus the rhetorician Mamertinus was one of the 
 consuls for the year 362. 
 
 During his stay in Constantinople, Julian did much 
 to increase the dignity and beauty of the city, which 
 he regarded with much affection as his native place. 
 He increased the powers of the Senate, enlarged the 
 port, and built and furnished a library. The defence 
 of the Thracian provinces and the reorganisation of 
 the army also occupied his attention. He celebrated 
 the inauguration of the consuls with due solemnity, 
 and having performed an act of manumission which 
 properly belonged to the new consuls, acknowledged 
 his error by paying the judicial fine. He received 
 embassies from many remote peoples, from Armenia, 
 Mauritania, and far-off India. But no part of his 
 work was in his own eyes and that of his sophist 
 friends so important as the restoration of the ancient 
 worships, and the remodelling of the religious sys- 
 tem in accordance with the ideas of which we have 
 now to take a brief survey. 
 
 (For designs of coins selected as illustrations for this chapter, seepage 262.) 
 
1 68 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1 The chief authority for this chapter is Ammianus, books xxi., 
 xxii. Zosimus gives a few additional particulars (bk. iii.), but is 
 slight and brief ; Libanius {Epitaph.) agrees in the main, but is, as 
 usual, rhetorical and indefinite. 
 
 2 Letter 38. 
 
 3 Ammianus gives them as follows, and there is hardly any differ- 
 ence in the version of Zosimus : 
 
 Zev$ vrav sis itXarv repju.cc jj,6Xy kXvtov vdpoxooio, 
 IIccpQEviKrjS Se KpovoS fioipiQ fia.ivq kiti 7tEjU7tT7j 
 EiKodry, fiadiXevS Kcav6rdvrio'-, 'Adid oS ai'rjZ 
 Ts'pjucc qjiXov fiiorov 6rvyepdv Hal eitoodwov e%ei. 
 
 4 Given in Hertlein, Fragment. 
 
 5 There is perhaps here a discrepancy between Ammianus and 
 Libanius. 
 
 6 For the two Sallustii, see Tillemont, Notes sur Julien, v. 
 
 7 This seems to be the usual interpretation given to the statements 
 of Ammianus, which are not perfectly clear. 
 
 8 Or possibly they passed through Illyria on their return journey. 
 
 9 Letter 23. Hermogenes is not mentioned by Ammianus as a 
 member of the commission, and I see no ground in the Letter for 
 regarding him as such. 
 
 10 For stringent measures to secure the wealth of the proscribed, 
 see Cod. Theod. y ix., tit. 42. 
 
 11 According to Eunapius, Maximus had already visited him in 
 Gaul, and Julian seems to have hoped to meet him there. See 
 Letter 38. 
 
Coin of Julian and Helena : Heads of Serapis and 
 
 Isis. Reverse, vota publica : Isis and 
 
 Nepthys, face to face. 
 
 Coin of Rhodes. 
 Head of Helios. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 JULIAN'S RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY. 1 
 
 Ei/il rov Ba6iXiaoi ditadoS 'HXiov. 
 
 Julian, Or. iv., 130. 
 
 "£167tsp yap aXrjQeia juia, ovroa 8e nal <pi\.otiocpia /xia, 
 Bavjua6r6v 8e ovSev, si nar aWa$ ual a\\a<Z odovS kit 
 avrrjv TtopevojueQa. 
 
 Orat. vi., 184. 
 
 " We needs must love the highest when we see it." 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 j|N a letter which Julian wrote to the 
 philosopher Maximus, 2 most likely 
 during the latter part of the year 
 361, from which we have already 
 had occasion to quote, he expressed 
 his gratitude to the Gods that his 
 success in the office which he had 
 unwillingly accepted had hitherto been free from 
 bloodshed or spoliation, and that he was now able 
 
 169 
 
i 70 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 to sacrifice publicly hecatombs of oxen, his army 
 entering sympathetically into his religious changes. 
 He also stated his purpose of resolutely carry- 
 ing out the work from which he had reason to ex- 
 pect good results. The attitude of mind shown 
 in this letter, and very frequently throughout his 
 writings, is one which cannot be apprehended 
 without difficulty, yet it is that which chiefly at- 
 tracts the student of human nature to the career 
 of the reactionary theosophic emperor. There is 
 sufficient paradox about that mental attitude and 
 that career to have tempted historians of all ages to 
 try to solve the problems they offer. How was it, 
 it has been asked, that a man whose moral standard 
 was, to say the least, higher than that of his contem- 
 poraries, had no respect for the morals of the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount ? How could the follower of a 
 highly spiritualised theology and cosmology prefer 
 in religious worship the sacrifice of hecatombs of 
 oxen, Which some of the Neo-Pythagoreans already 
 felt to be brutal and disgusting, 2 to the prayers and 
 praises offered in the Christian assemblies? How 
 could a reformer, painfully aware of the religious 
 and moral degradation of his own times, be so blind 
 as he was to the real character of the only forces by 
 which a healthier society could be erected ? We 
 may set aside the justification he has received at the 
 hands of some strongly anti-Christian writers, 
 especially of some "philosophers" of the last cen- 
 tury, whose patronage has probably been worse for 
 his reputation than the invectives of his foes. To 
 those in any degree familiar with the high-flown and 
 
yulian's Religion and Philosophy. 171 
 
 imaginative strain of his religious musings and with 
 the violence of all his attractions and repulsions in 
 regard to persons and things of religious character, 
 the idea that even the force of a common hatred 
 could induce the rationalist opponents of supersti- 
 tion to claim him as an adherent is almost ludicrous. 
 Modern friends of Julian's fame are perhaps likely 
 to err in another direction and to minimise that ab- 
 horrence of Christianity which, it cannot be denied, 
 was one of the ruling passions of his life. It has 
 been suggested that his earliest ideas of Christianity 
 were of a religion in the name and the strength of 
 which his Imperial relatives had persecuted his near- 
 est and dearest, and had murdered the chief mem- 
 bers of his house. Again, it is said that Christianity 
 was always presented to him in an uninteresting and 
 unattractive manner, and some, as we have seen, 
 have laid on the Arian bishops of the Court the bur- 
 den of his apostasy. None of these reasons is with- 
 out some weight, yet none of them goes to the root of 
 the matter. We have seen that the poems of Homer, 
 in which Julian from childhood took such keen 
 delight, were presented to him by Mardonius in as 
 unattractive a guise as were ever the narratives of 
 Bible story to children of strict Puritans. He showed 
 himself quick enough, when dealing with the apathy 
 or with the crimes of those who shared his views, to 
 distinguish between the logical and the practical 
 results of religious beliefs and between the offices and 
 the persons of religious authorities. Again, in his 
 polemics against Christianity, he boldly attacked the 
 Christian Scriptures, not any imperfect or mislead- 
 
172 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 ing interpretation of them. With those Scriptures 
 he was well acquainted, and he had at least as good 
 facilities as most men of his generation for separa- 
 ting the grain from the chaff, a process he was well 
 able to perform with regard to all systems save the 
 Christian. If he had been a mere visionary, without 
 any practical acquaintance with men and with life, 
 his enthusiasm for an effete system might have been 
 less surprising. But, as we have seen, the perils, 
 vicissitudes, and responsibilities of his early life had 
 developed in him a high degree of mental energy 
 and promptness in thought and action. Then again 
 his views of life and duty seem in some respects 
 much more like those which have grown up under 
 Christian teaching than like those of the joyous, life- 
 loving paganism of the best days of Greece. Yet 
 nowhere is he more bitter in his denunciations of 
 Christian depravity than where he is exhorting to 
 what we are accustomed to regard as peculiarly 
 Christian virtues. 
 
 In fact we can only approach the question with 
 any hope of success if, without any thought of accu- 
 sation or of apology, we study his beliefs, first on 
 their positive and afterwards on their negative side. 
 The great problem is not so much why he was not a 
 Christian as what made him such an ardent Hellene. 
 For it was the ideas of Hellenic mythology and 
 philosophy which so entirely possessed his mind as to 
 make the reception, or even any faint comprehension 
 of the Christian ideal a total impossibility to him. 
 While he was yet in his student days, his young and 
 enthusiastic mind, saturated with Greek culture, mov- 
 
Julians Religion and Philosophy. 173 
 
 ing in a world peopled with the imaginations of Greek 
 poets and illumined by the splendid speculations of 
 Greek philosophers, felt a bitter scorn and indigna- 
 tion in seeing this culture and this world receding 
 before the inflowing tide of new principles totally 
 foreign to his whole view of life. For whatever may 
 have been the case with less ardent souls or with 
 more quiet minds, with him, at least, no compromise 
 between Christianity and Hellenic culture was in 
 any degree possible. It is interesting to observe 
 the inconsistency in the feelings expressed at dif- 
 ferent times by the more cultivated of the Fathers 
 of the Church as to the value of the old records of 
 pagan wisdom and the character of the philosophers 
 and poets of ancient Greece. Gregory Nazian- 
 zen, Julian's fellow-student at Athens, denounces 
 the greatest names of antiquity with the scurril- 
 ity of a fish-wife, yet he is driven to quote the 
 writings of those very men in illustration of his mean- 
 ing, and had thought it worth while to undergo a 
 costly training in order to familiarise himself with 
 their methods of thought and speech. Nobler and 
 gentler spirits like Origen show r ed some respect for 
 the philosophers, and would derive part of their 
 wisdom from Palestine, yet even they scorned the 
 tragic writers and regarded the Olympic deities as 
 actually existing malicious demons. Augustine, with 
 all his contempt for secular learning, expressed a 
 hope that the great men of old might have been the 
 " spirits in prison " to whom the Gospel was preached. 
 One is almost driven to relinquish any attempt to 
 discover the mind of the early Church on the subject, 
 
i 74 ^Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 and to fall back on the hypothesis that in so rhetori- 
 cal an age, the alternate invectives and laudations 
 represent not so much the conflicting views of a 
 divided society or the varying moods and phases of 
 individual minds, as different fashions of speech, cor- 
 responding to the various methods according to 
 which subjects of this kind had to be handled. Now 
 Julian was himself something of a rhetorician, else 
 he could not have been a fourth-century Hellene. 
 But at the same time he was imbued with a whole- 
 hearted loyalty to the great men of the past and to 
 the teachings and the mode of life that had come 
 down from them. The heathen writings which his 
 Christian contemporaries regarded as a dangerous 
 though necessary article of diet, only to be taken 
 with copious antidotes, were to him the staff of life 
 and the medicine of the soul. He could not divide 
 his allegiance. With all his short-sightedness, he 
 perceived some things that were hidden from most 
 men of his time. In the triumph of Christianity he 
 foresaw the Dark Ages. We cannot wonder that he 
 did not see the Renaissance on the other side. 
 
 But apart from his attitude toward Christianity, 
 there is yet another paradox in the position taken 
 up by Julian as to the beliefs of his day. His reli- 
 gion was Hellenism ; he aspired to be a Greek of the 
 Greeks. Yet both in his religious philosophy and in 
 the religious cults which he chiefly preferred, there 
 is a very strong admixture of Oriental thought and 
 feeling, and the philosopher whom he most deeply 
 reveres, Jamblichus, 3 of Chalcis, was more than half 
 a Syrian. But we must remember that for centuries 
 
yulzans Religion and Philosophy. 175 
 
 the process had been going on by which Oriental 
 elements were being assimilated into the substance 
 of Greek thought. The Egyptian Alexandria had 
 been the great meeting-place of eastern and western 
 ideas. At one time it may have seemed as if the 
 Greek mind would perish under the weight of a more 
 ancient civilisation, as it had in its turn overborne 
 and diverted the current of culture in Italian lands. 
 But in the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria the Hellenic 
 intellect asserted its supremacy and its powers of 
 receiving and recasting things new and old. 
 
 If, however, we desire to leave generalities and to 
 endeavour to attain some knowledge as to what 
 Julian's religion actually was, we must study his own 
 obscure and hastily written but pregnant little 
 treatises on King Helios, and on The Mother of 
 the Gods, especially that on the deity to whom he had 
 peculiarly devoted himself. The religion of Julian in 
 his public capacity was Romano — Hellenism. In his 
 private observances and dominant thoughts he was a 
 follower of Mithraicism, or the philosophy of Solar 
 Monotheism. The origin and character of this strange 
 system need some preliminary explanation before 
 we see how it was developed in Julian's hands. 
 
 The worship of Mithras was, according to Plutarch, 4 
 introduced into the Roman world by the Cilician 
 pirates, who were put down by Pompeius Magnus in 
 the year 70 B.C. Before that date, Mithraicism had 
 already passed through many phases. In the simple 
 nature-worship of the early Aryans, Mithras held a 
 high place as one of the gods of light and of benefi- 
 cence. The stern dualism of the Mazdean religion 
 
i 76 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 of the early Persians reduced him to a subordinate 
 station. For them, Ormuzd, the creative god of light 
 and of good, constantly thwarted by Ahriman, the 
 power of darkness and of evil, was separated by a vast 
 interval from the nearest members of the celestial 
 hierarchy. But not even among these, the six Amesha 
 Spentas, did Mithras find a place. He was merely 
 a Yazata, a personification of the natural phenomenon 
 of solar light. But the inherent tendency to poly- 
 theistic nature-worships which seems to characterise 
 a certain phase of social and intellectual develop- 
 ment, soon undermined the simplicity of the Mazdean 
 religious system. The early Persian kings ascribe 
 generally their strength and their success to Ormuzd. 
 From the first part of the fourth century B.C., to the 
 reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, Mithras holds a place 
 of almost equal honour. Ormuzd might still be re- 
 garded as superior Creator, but Mithras ranked as the 
 strongest and the holiest of divine creatures. His 
 qualities of purity and of ubiquity made him the 
 special protector of honest men and guarantor of 
 oaths. Later on, he becomes identified with deities 
 of more distinctly solar character, who had their seats 
 in Phrygia, notably with Atys and Sabazius. Both 
 of these deities were closely associated in their 
 honours with Cybele, the Mother of the Gods. Ac- 
 cording to legend, Atys had been beloved by her, 
 had proved unfaithful, had suffered mutilation and 
 death, had been transformed into a pine-tree, and 
 had finally risen, purified, to a new life. All this 
 story was commemorated in the Mysteries of Cybele 
 and Atys, with hideous orgies, which the symbolic 
 
yuliaris Religion and Philosophy. i yy 
 
 interpretation of the learned might justify, but could 
 never render generally instructive and wholesome. 
 In monumental art, the attributes of Mithras and of 
 Atys are hardly to be distinguished. Sabazius, too. 
 though possibly in his origin a lunar deity, loses his 
 distinctness, and becomes another form of Atys and 
 of Mithras. The connection between Mithras and 
 the goddesses of fecundity worshipped in Phrygia 
 and in Babylon is shown again in the curious confu- 
 sion made by Herodotus, who identifies the Persian 
 Mithras with the Assyrian Mylitta, a goddess closely 
 analogous to Cybele. But while to the Semitic or 
 partly Semitic races that bowed under the Persian 
 yoke this process of syncretism emphasised the 
 naturalistic side of the early Aryan deity, a somewhat 
 similar process was, in the Persian theology, bringing 
 into prominence the more spiritual attributes of his 
 character. In the Mazdean system, one of the Ame- 
 sha Spentas 5 called £aoshyant, was regarded as the 
 redeemer from death, and the giver of immortality. 
 This being likewise seems to have become identified 
 with Mithras, as indeed it is in accordance with the 
 instinct of man all over the world to associate in 
 thought the loss of light and life during the winter 
 and their recovery in the spring with the death of 
 the body and the hope of a resurrection. 6 Thus 
 when the Romans first became acquainted with the 
 Mithraic cult, it had already acquired those charac- 
 teristics which rendered its appeal to the religious 
 consciousness of Imperial times so forcible and 
 effective. 
 
 With the spread of Roman military power all over 
 
1 78 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 the known world and with the gradual assimilation 
 by Roman society of all the elements that it could 
 contain of Greek culture, there set in a current of re- 
 ligious thought and sentiment, which is easily traced 
 and accounted for, among the uneducated towards 
 sensationalism, among the educated towards mono- 
 theism, among all towards mysticism. That cosmo- 
 politan spirit, which had resulted from the conquests 
 of Alexander and which was among the chief gifts of 
 Greece to Rome, had so far broken down national 
 barriers that national religions had well-nigh lost 
 their raison d'etre. Religious observances had come 
 to be regarded rather as a means of satisfying the 
 aspirations of the individual than as a compliance 
 with the requirements of the State. The highly ar- 
 tificial character of the society in which men and 
 women of the upper classes lived, the equally artifi- 
 cial and generally precarious life of the lower classes 
 in overcrowded cities, were favourable to the growth 
 of self-consciousness and of a morbid desire for nov- 
 elty. A reaction had set in against the incredulity 
 we see in the companions of Caesar and of Cicero, and 
 the once widely prevalent scepticism seemed to have 
 paved the way for a similarly prevalent superstition. 
 A wider knowledge of nature and of man had led 
 nobler minds up to the wide and comprehensive 
 doctrine set forth in the Hymn to Zens of the Stoic 
 Cleanthes. For Stoicism, based as it was on the idea 
 of universal law in nature and of ever-binding duty 
 among men, was the only form of Greek philosophy 
 that the narrow, legal mind of the Roman could 
 adequately grasp. The later Mithraicism appealed 
 
Julians Religion and Philosophy. 1 79 
 
 both to the better and to the worse sides of the re- 
 ligious consciousness of the times. It satisfied the 
 desire for universality," for it was confined to no one 
 nation and to neither sex. It gratified also the long- 
 ing for mystery and for obscure symbolism. It set 
 forth, when expounded by the worthiest of its pro- 
 fessors, the all-importance of moral purity. It sup- 
 plied exciting and extravagant ceremonies to the 
 morbid imagination of the weak-minded. It had, 
 in its further development, acquired that strong hi- 
 erarchical organisation which has enabled some reli- 
 gious societies to hold their own through all vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune. It seemed to point back to those 
 days of primeval simplicity so dear to the fancy of a 
 decadent civilisation ; for is not the sun one of the 
 earliest recipients of religious honours among all peo- 
 ples, was not all-seeing Helios appealed to alike by 
 the suffering Titan groaning under the tyranny of 
 Zeus, by the heroes swearing solemn oaths under the 
 walls of Troy, and by Greeks and Romans of later 
 times when undertaking obligations under the most 
 sacred, that is, under the most primitive sanctions? 
 And when once the cult of Helios had gained a foot- 
 ing in the Roman Empire, the frequent transfers of 
 the legions were sure to spread it over all the length 
 and breadth of the known world. 
 
 The development of Mithraicism after it had be- 
 come one of the principal religions of the Empire 
 was still in the direction of comprehensiveness, of 
 mystery, and of closer organisation. Mithras became 
 more frankly identified with the sun, and altars to 
 him often bore the inscriptions Soli invicto. At the 
 
1 80 jfulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 same time he aggregated to himself the attributes 
 of almost all the other deities of the pantheon. He 
 was worshipped in subterranean grottos with mystic 
 rites, and a whole system of symbolism grew up in 
 connection with his worship. The most familar 
 form of Mithras in art is. that of a young man, in 
 Phrygian cap, stabbing a bull. But many other 
 animals besides the bull — the scorpion, the owl, the 
 lion, the dog — are regularly found in artistic repre- 
 sentations of Mithraic import. The mysteries be- 
 came more and more severe in their demands on 
 candidates for initiation, more significant in the 
 teachings as to immortality and metempsychosis. 
 Neophytes were admitted by a bath of blood. The 
 tongue was purified by honey. Severe tests were 
 applied to those who would join the inner circle of 
 worshippers, or would rise from a lower to a higher 
 grade in the society. All members, or perhaps all 
 who attained to a certain dignity, regarded them- 
 selves as soldiers of Mithras, and signified their 
 relation to him, in one of their rites, by thrusting 
 aside a proffered garland and grasping a sword, 
 while uttering the words : " I will have no crown but 
 Mithras." The passage of the soul from a lower to 
 a higher state of existence was represented in their 
 mysteries by a ladder leading from one to another 
 of the planetary spheres. 7 A strict discipline was 
 enforced among all men and women who joined the 
 society. But while the weaker were kept to their 
 allegiance by the iron yoke of authority, and the 
 superstitious gratified their cravings by the excite- 
 ments of a sensational worship, some at least of the 
 
yuliaris Religion and Philosophy. 1 8 1 
 
 philosophers of the day regarded chiefly the doctrinal 
 side of the religion, and adapted it to the expression 
 of their highest thoughts on the substance and origin 
 of all things, and on the relation of human nature to 
 the divine. 
 
 Of this philosophy of sun-worship, Julian is the 
 most notable exponent. In those habits of thought 
 and feeling which had favoured the growth of solar 
 monotheism, he was the child of his age. In his be- 
 liefs and philosophic principles he was a disciple 
 of Jamblichus of Chalcis in Ccele-Syria, who had 
 developed and added to the doctrines of Plotinus 
 and Porphyry. In personal character and habits 
 of mind he was, as we have seen, swayed by a 
 passionate devotion to the traditional wisdom of the 
 past, and by the conviction that his great task in life 
 was to restore Greek culture and to save the treasures 
 of old time from the inroads of barbarism and of 
 oriental superstition. And for this mission he nerved 
 himself by constantly thinking that he was bound to 
 the service, and strengthened by the protection of 
 King Helios. In many passages of his work Julian 
 shows by apparently voluntary ejaculations or by 
 express statements how constantly and habitually he 
 regarded himself as the servant of Helios or of 
 Mithras, and the idea of his special mission from 
 that deity is worked out in the form of a fable in 
 one of his Orations against the Cynics. 
 
 Although single-hearted in his Hellenism, Julian 
 found most of the purely Greek gods, like Apollo 
 and Hermes, too anthropomorphic to satisfy his 
 mystic aspirations. Zeus might be identified with 
 
1 82 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 the supreme unity or with the chief creative force. 
 Athene might be regarded as a personification of 
 Divine Providence, but most of the other gods of 
 the Greek pantheon, though always to be honoured 
 and kept in mind, were necessarily relegated to a 
 subordinate position. Nor was the spiritual nature 
 of Julian's theology, any more than his Hellenism, 
 irreconcilable with sun-worship. He always carefully 
 distinguishes, especially when he is controverting 
 the Mosaic story of creation, 8 and again when he is 
 setting forth the nature of King Helios, 9 between 
 the visible solar disc and the real supersensual sun. 
 The compatibility of Mithraicism with Hellenism, 
 with idealism, and with monotheism, can be realised 
 only after a careful study of Julian's oration in 
 honour of King Helios. But in order to grasp, even 
 in slight measure, the meaning and the language of 
 that oration, it is necessary to have in our mind some 
 notions of the theories of Plotinus and his followers 
 as to the divine nature and the divine power and 
 attributes. 
 
 Plotinus (who lived from 204 to 269 A.D., and 
 studied and taught at Alexandria and later in Rome), 
 always considered himself a disciple of Plato, and 
 was probably hardly aware of the extent to which he 
 modified the teachings of his master and of the dif- 
 ference in tone which they acquired through his 
 elaborations and interpretations. The splendid Pla- 
 tonic myths hardened, in the hands of the Neo- 
 Platonists, into systems of dogma, whence weapons 
 were often produced for fighting against the doc- 
 trines of the Church. The writings of Plato which 
 
yuliaris Religion and Philosophy. 183 
 
 they chiefly preferred were the most speculative, 
 such as the Timcens, and they dwelt most willingly 
 on the most obscure elements of his teaching. Thus, 
 unlike some followers of Plato, both of ancient and 
 modern times, who prefer to fix their eyes on 
 human life, set against a mysterious background of 
 divine and supersensual existence, and deriving all 
 its reality and all its nobleness from communication 
 of the divine energy, Plotinus turned his gaze from 
 earth to heaven, started from the conception of a 
 supreme Unity, identical with the supreme Good, 
 descended thence to the realms of pure Reason, of 
 Nov5, comprehending within itself the Platonic Ideas, 
 the archetypes of all sensible things, and thence 
 down to the second emanation, Wvxrj, the animating 
 soul of the universe. The chief development which 
 the doctrine received, at the hands of Jamblichus, was 
 in the first place the removal of To 'Ev one step 
 further from all human thought, the supposition of 
 a yet more exalted Unity, above that Unity, iden- 
 tical with the Good, which was regarded as the 
 parent of Novs. Of this development, however, I 
 have not met any trace in the writings of Julian. 
 The second development in the Plotinic school, im- 
 portant in relation to the philosophy of Julian, is the 
 separation of Nov? into two noGfioi (orders), the 
 rorjro5 and the roepot, the designations of which 
 have been not quite adequately translated as 
 the intelligible and the intellectual worlds. It 
 seemed to the Alexandrian philosophers that any 
 act, even the act of thinking, was unworthy of the 
 denizens of that highest ideal world, who possessed 
 
1 84 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 merely passive attributes, who might be contem- 
 plated, but who performed no action save the crea- 
 tion or the generation of an order of intelligent 
 creatures, the rospoi. These beings, according to 
 the Neo-Platonic system, on the one hand, are ever 
 contemplating the archetypes of the notf/iog vorjros, 
 while on the other hand they create, according to 
 those archetypes, not directly the physical universe, 
 but the psychical, of which the physical is a faint 
 copy. Now to give unity to these conceptions of a 
 primordial divine existence, a world of archetypes, 
 another world of creative agencies, and yet another 
 of generative forces among phenomena, some medi- 
 ating spirit or agency is required, and this mediation 
 Julian finds in the being and functions of King He- 
 lios. He is a perfect manifestation of the Divine 
 Good, whence he has proceeded. He gives being, 
 unity, and beauty to the intelligible or archetypal 
 deities (yorftoi). He rules among the intelligent and 
 creative, whose power is derived from him. He gives 
 form to matter, bestowing at once knowledge and the 
 faculty of knowing, just as from the sun in the 
 heavens are derived both the faculty of vision and 
 the light by which we see. In short, being an 
 exact image of the superintellectual Idea of the 
 Good, the highest being of the intelligible order 
 and the archetype of the great source of light 
 and order in the sensible universe, he stands to 
 the creative intelligence in the relation held by 
 the Idea of the Good to the archetypal principles 
 of being and in that of the solar disc to the 
 creations of the universe of space. Most of the 
 
Julians Religion and Philosophy. 185 
 
 gods known to the Greeks and the Egyptians may 
 be regarded as special energies or manifestations of 
 " Helios, the King of all," though, as Julian sugges- 
 tively remarks, in treating of a divine being we 
 cannot entirely separate nature from power or from 
 functions. It is because of the imperfection of hu- 
 man nature that man often wills to be that which he 
 is not, and fails to achieve that which he wills. With 
 the divine nature it is otherwise : " Whosoever he 
 willeth, that he is, that he can, that he doth." Yet 
 we who judge of things imperfectly and symbolically 
 may divide his power, identifying the creative force 
 with Zeus, the harmonising with Apollo, the life- 
 giving or healing with Asclepios, the distributive 
 with Dionysos, the generative and joy-inspiring with 
 Aphrodite, the soul-liberating with Hades or Sarapis. 
 Likewise Athene, who has sprung not, according to 
 the fable, from the head of Zeus, but from the whole 
 nature of Helios, derives from him her functions as 
 teacher of arts and of wisdom. By superintending the 
 mixtures of the four elements, the gods subordinate to 
 Helios create bodies and souls and give good gifts to 
 both. From the heavenly motions, men derive their 
 knowledge of mensuration and mathematics. From 
 the divine orders upheld by King Helios, Greeks and 
 Romans have derived their orderly systems of gov- 
 ernment and all their civilisation. The Romans 
 show their gratitude to Helios by worshipping him 
 under the names of Jupiter and Apollo, by rever- 
 encing as their founder's mother Aphrodite, who is 
 one of his manifested forces, by their care for the 
 sacred flame kept up by the Vestal Virgins, by mak- 
 
1 86 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 ing the beginning of their year coincide with the 
 return of the sun from the south, and by keeping 
 the festival of Mithras, or Helios, immediately after 
 the Saturnalia. 
 
 From this slight sketch of a very obscure and 
 difficult treatise may be gleaned some notion of 
 Julian's use of Greek mythology and also of the 
 stronger and the weaker sides of philosophic sun- 
 worship. On the one hand, that worship afforded 
 sublime objects of contemplation ; it left the mind 
 free to recast the old myths so as to explain away 
 any ugliness and make them vehicles of sound in- 
 struction, it gave a meaning to life and a hope in 
 death. With one element in some of the oriental 
 systems Julian had no sympathy, the belief in 
 metempsychosis. He abhorred the doctrines of the 
 resurrection of the body and of successive rebirths of 
 the soul, and regarded it as one of the noblest func- 
 tions of Helios to deliver the soul after death from 
 all its bodily fetters. And this freedom from the 
 body was always associated in Julian's mind with the 
 conquest of all low and base desires, such a conquest 
 as might in the present life be attained by those who 
 endeavour to rise to a state of philosophic calm. 
 But here we see the weaker side of this religion. 
 Essentially and apart from strained interpretations 
 of its rites and customs, it was, if not immoral, 
 entirely non-moral in character. Not only was its 
 teaching dark and symbolic; — all religions must deal 
 largely in symbolism, and any which embraces 
 various classes of votaries must, in its symbolic 
 teaching, convey different meanings to different 
 
ASKLEPIOS AND TELESPHOROS. 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
yzdians Religion and Philosophy. 187 
 
 types of mind. But in the cult of Mithras or of 
 Helios, there was, we may say, no moral substruc- 
 ture. What moral meaning it was subsequently 
 made to convey was an artificial addition due to 
 conscious adaptation by individual thinkers who had 
 no claim to represent a common tradition, no influ- 
 ence on the life and thought of the common people. 
 A religious enthusiast himself, Julian could not per- 
 ceive the horrible perversions which must arise 
 where religious enthusiasm is not tempered by re- 
 spect for the moral law. He felt no fear of familiar- 
 ising the people with the loathsome stories perpetu- 
 ated in some of the Mysteries, such as those of the 
 Great Mother. Nay, it even seemed to him a posi- 
 tive advantage that stories about the gods should be 
 strange and monstrous in character. Noble and 
 dignified representations of divine beings give, he 
 said, a lofty but still a purely human conception of 
 their character, while these grotesque myths lead 
 men to think of the mysterious and supernatural. 
 In dealing with the story of Cybele and Atys, both 
 of which deities are very closely associated with King 
 Helios, he guards against any acceptance of it in a 
 literal sense. Since the gods cannot go astray, Atys 
 has never fallen, but rightly interpreted the whole 
 story may be taken as an allegory of the relations be- 
 tween the Supreme Cause and the natural world, of 
 the duty of the soul to moderate its excessive desires 
 and to rise towards the Gods, while from each stage 
 in the ritual celebration, and in each rule of absti- 
 nence practised during the ceremonies, may be de- 
 rived some valuable rule for the guidance of life. 
 
1 88 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 In the treatment of this and of some other myths, 
 Julian shows an eager desire to make the pagan 
 traditions of the Gods a vehicle of moral and reli- 
 gious instruction in rivalry to the teachings of 
 Christianity. The word used for the descent of Atys 
 from the upper world to organise and vivify the 
 world of matter (GvynarafiaGis) is the very one 
 sometimes used by Christians to describe the incar- 
 nation of their Lord. Again, in his exposition of 
 the Labours of Heracles, 10 he represents him as a 
 divine but suffering and struggling son of man, over- 
 coming the resistance of the elements and of all 
 human woes, through the aid of Athene Pronoia and 
 of his father Zeus, who had brought him forth as a 
 deliverer to the world, and received him home with 
 thunder and lightnings. Julian goes on to contrast 
 Heracles, the hero apotheosised after his human life 
 with Dionysus, who has, if the myths are wisely ap- 
 prehended, no human side, but is to be identified 
 with certain creative powers of the Divine Intelli- 
 gence. He refers in another place " to Asclepios as 
 a divine messenger from Zeus and Helios, who as- 
 sumed a human form, walked on the earth, and 
 cured, both during his earthly course and subse- 
 quently by special inspiration, the diseases from 
 which men suffer in soul and body. 
 
 Thus the habit of meditating upon and of endeav- 
 ouring to analyse the Divine Power, manifested in 
 nature and in man, made it possible for Julian and 
 other Alexandrian philosophers to keep to a polythe- 
 istic mythology, while maintaining a monotheistic 
 position in their serious belief and in their most 
 
HYQIEIA AND EROS. 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
yulians Religion and Philosophy. 1 89 
 
 cherished religious practices. To Julian, polythe- 
 ism implied not merely an analysis of the divine 
 attributes. It also supplied a hypothesis for ac- 
 counting for different races of men and different 
 forms of civilisation. To this point we shall re- 
 turn in considering Julian's controversial writings 
 against the Christians. Here we may remark the 
 unfitness of Mithraicism or any similar system to be- 
 come in any sense a universal religion. It needed 
 a JHSGITTJ5 as powerful as Helios himself, to bring 
 into harmony the minds of the rude soldiers, who 
 raised - an altar to the Unconquered Sun, and of the 
 fiery fanatic who exhausted himself in the degrading 
 rites of Atys and Cybele, with the high aspirations 
 of the philosopher, who found in the conception of 
 Mithras a consistent and satisfactory account of 
 the origin of all things, and in the half-orientalised 
 mythology of the late Greek civilisation a source of 
 worthy motives which continually urged him for- 
 ward in the path of duty. The orgies which had 
 disgraced the reign of Elagabalus, that devoted 
 priest of a solar deity, might have shown how much 
 force the arguments on behalf of moral cleanliness 
 drawn from the veneration of the pure sunlight were 
 likely to exert on a fundamentally unclean mind. 
 
 It is possible that some survivals of the old Mi- 
 thraic worship still linger among us. The pine-tree, 
 once sacred to Atys, is in the form of the Christmas 
 trees still honoured with joyous rites on the day 
 once kept as the " birthday of the Unconquered 
 Sun," although the honour paid to both may date 
 from far earlier days. Some writers are inclined to 
 
1 90 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 see elsewhere influences of Mithraicism l2 in Chris- 
 tian ritual. And whether or no this last effort of 
 pagan theosophy had any permanent results on the 
 organisation of the Catholic^ Church, it has been 
 clearly shown that many Mithraic symbols and 
 modes of thought and worship are to be found 
 among the heretical bodies, especially the Gnostic 
 sects, of the half-Christianised provinces of the East. 
 But it is time to turn from this twilight of obscure 
 speculations and aspiring dreams, and to observe 
 how Julian contended, in words and deeds, against 
 those religious teachers whose impiety and barba- 
 rism, according to his judgment, forced him into 
 action both as a religious controversialist and as a 
 sacerdotal reformer. 
 
 Coin of Smyrna. Head of Cybele. 
 
Notes on Chapter VIII. 19 1 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1 Besides Julian's own writings, especially Orations I V.,V., and VII., 
 and the authorities already referred to, among the books which throw 
 most light on this subject are Vacherot's Ecole d' Alexandrie (espe- 
 cially the chapter entitled ;< Successeurs de Plotine"), Jean Reville's 
 La Religion a Konie sous les Sever es, which contains a good account of 
 the Mithraic cult, and Maury's Religions de la Grece, vol. iii. ; 
 Ueberweg and the other historians of philosophy give, of course, an 
 outline of the Neo-Platonic system. Since writing most of the above 
 chapter I have read M. Adrien Naville's little treatise on Julian 
 V Aposiat et sa Philosophie du Paganisme, which is interesting and 
 appreciative, but does not trace the connection between Julian's 
 doctrine and that of the other philosophers of his school. This 
 would, however, be an almost impossible task, seeing that so much 
 of the work of Jamblichus, Porphyry, and the rest is hopelessly lost. 
 For this reason, we cannot determine how much of Julian's thought 
 is original and how much is directly borrowed from others. But 
 where he borrowed, even, as he said he did, from Jamblichus in the 
 treatise on Helios, he probably did not merely copy without rearrange- 
 ment and adaptation to his special objects. For the influence of 
 classical education on the pagan reaction, I would refer to the inter- 
 esting work of M. Boissier La Fin dzi Paganistne. 
 
 2 Notably Apollonius of Tyana. See the curious life of this 
 oriental mystic by Philostratus. 
 
 3 There can be little doubt that the letters purporting to be from 
 Julian to Jamblichus are spurious. See Cumont, Sur V Authenticite de 
 quelques Letires de Julian, also Schwarz, De Vita et Scriptis Juliani 
 imperatoris. According to one theory, these letters were written 
 by Julian to the younger Jamblichus (of Apamea), but their style 
 is against this supposition. For the two Jamblichi, see Brucker 
 Hist. Phil., vol. ii., pp. 268, 269. In the new collection of letters at- 
 tributed to Julian published by Papadopoulos in the Maurogord- 
 ateios Bibliotheke, there is one (No. 4) which mentions both uncle 
 and nephew, and seems to say that the latter excelled in theosophy 
 as the former in philosophy. Probably the works of the two have 
 become hopelessly mixed. See pamphlet by F. Cumont just referred 
 to, p. 4, note 6. 
 
 4 De Lside et Osiride. Plutarch mentions a way of regarding 
 Mithras as mediator between Ormuzd and Ahriman. This idea may 
 
1 92 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 be brought into harmony with Julian's if we take Ahriman to repre- 
 sent waiter and Ormuzd pure spirit. 
 
 5 Or a Yazata? 
 
 6 De Iside et Osiride. 
 
 7 Origen Against Celsus, vi., 22. For Mithraic symbols, see C. W. 
 King, Early Gnostic Gems. 
 
 8 Contra Christianos, 65. 
 
 9 Oration iv., 132, etc. 
 
 10 Oration vii., 219 et sea. 
 
 11 Contra Christianos, 200. 
 13 Such as C. W. King, 
 
 A further interesting point in Julian's Oration in honour of the 
 Mother of the Gods is that the allusion in it to the mystic sacrifice of 
 unclean animals (Or. v., 176) has led to, or at least assisted, some 
 notable theories on the subject of sacrifices generally. See Robertson 
 Smith : Religion of the Semites, Lecture viii.,/. 272. 
 
Coin of Julian and Helena. Heads of Serapis and Isis. Reverse, vota publica. 
 Isis with sistrum and vase. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JULIAN AS A RELIGIOUS REFORMER AND CON- 
 TROVERSIALIST. 
 
 Aidov ita6i juev drQpoo7toiS svdaijuovi'ar } ?}S to HeqxxXaiov ?j 
 tcoy Qegdv yvcio6iS e6ti, uoivijj 8e rcp^aojuaiGor dyjucp /.idXi6va 
 juev aitorpi'ipa6Bai rrjS dQeo'rTfroZ ttjv urj'A.ida. 
 Julian, Or. v., 180. (From concluding prayer to the Great Mother.) 
 
 " Great God ! I 'd rather be 
 A pagan, suckled in a creed outworn, 
 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
 
 Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn ; 
 Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea ; 
 Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 E have insisted on the necessity for all 
 those who would attain some insight 
 into the mind and character of Julian 
 to study the positive and constructive 
 elements in his religious philosophy 
 and governmental policy, before ap- 
 proaching the negative and destructive 
 
 work. But in practice, this course is not 
 193 
 
 of his 
 
1 94 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 always easy to pursue. True, we can, as a rule, sep- 
 arate his controversial from his didactic or devotional 
 treatises, and distinguish the prohibitory from the 
 regulative orders which he issued on religious affairs. 
 Even here, however, we are not free from apparent 
 interpolations and ill-fitting adjustments in the text, 
 and from the difficulty of deciding how much, in 
 satirical or rhetorical sketches, is meant to be taken 
 literally. And on a nearer view, there appears a con- 
 servative tendency in what is most destructive, while 
 in the defence of the old, so much seems to have 
 been borrowed from the new, that the product has 
 the effect of a grotesque patchwork. Julian was too 
 wise to think that he could by a series of enactments 
 make men cease to feel those religious needs which 
 they sought to satisfy in the ways he did not favour. 
 Nay, he was himself in sympathy with those very 
 tendencies towards spirituality in religion and a 
 broader humanity in ethics which were both cause 
 and effect of the rapid spread of Christian doctrine 
 and institutions. Accordingly, he endeavoured con- 
 sciously and of set purpose, to engraft on the old 
 pagan system all that in the new teaching which 
 most powerfully appealed to the better instincts of 
 man. No doubt it seemed to him that in so doing 
 he was only developing the hidden and neglected 
 meaning of the old poets and sages. And certainly 
 there is much in Homer, not to mention the more 
 didactic writers, which can bear interpretation in a 
 rationalist and moralist sense. Even in our days, a 
 Christian scholar has found in Helen of Troy some 
 features of the Magdalene, and in Apollo and Athene 
 
yulian as a Religious Reformer. 195 
 
 types of the Divine Word. And without soaring so 
 high, we may gather from the Homeric poems both 
 examples of heroic virtue and intimations of the ulti- 
 mate triumph of the better cause. If such moral in- 
 struction is only to be obtained by neglecting other 
 phases of Homeric life and thought which would 
 tend in a contrary direction, we must remember that 
 Julian's eye was less capable than ours of judging 
 works in all their relations, and indeed perhaps few 
 eyes can judge in an impartial and critical spirit any 
 books which it regards as peculiarly sacred. Sim- 
 ilarly, no society, and no man deeply imbued with 
 the religious ideas of his society, can judge quite 
 fairly the character and the tendency of the docu- 
 ments and observances of any religion which is re- 
 garded as a dangerous rival. To Julian, all the 
 professions and even the practice of active philan- 
 thropy on the part of Christians savoured of im- 
 posture and charlatanry. Nowhere does he show 
 less practical sense, yet nowhere does the great aim 
 of his life more clearly appear than in his laudable 
 efforts to raise the paganism of his day to a moralis- 
 ing and spiritually elevating power in the world. His 
 aims and methods appear throughout his correspond- 
 ence and his various writings, but are most clearly 
 set forth in four letters of injunction and exhortation 
 to different officials in the hierarchical system. We 
 purpose therefore to give here a brief sketch of these 
 most interesting documents. 
 
 One of them Ms to a lady named Callixena, who 
 seems to have kept staunchly to her functions as a 
 priestess of Demeter all through the time of Chris- 
 
1 96 yuliariy Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 tian domination. In a style of graceful compliment, 
 Julian asserts the superiority of the faithful priest- 
 esses to Penelope, whose virtues like theirs bore well 
 the test of time. For piety is an even higher virtue 
 than conjugal fidelity, and again the trial of the 
 priestesses had been twice as long as that of Pe- 
 nelope. In recognition of her merit, Callixena is to 
 receive, in addition to her previous office, that of 
 priestess to the Mother of the Gods at Pessinus. 
 
 More important as elucidating all Julian's ideas 
 and plans is a very important fragment 2 addressed 
 to some unknown priest in a high and responsible 
 position. At the point where the extant portion of 
 this letter begins, Julian is in one of those digressions 
 common in his longer letters, and in his treatises, 
 which has led him astray from his main subject — the 
 duties and privileges of the priesthood. He is in- 
 veighing against the life of solitary asceticism which 
 he holds to be contrary to the social nature of man. 
 
 Returning to his subject, he remarks that as civil 
 rulers have to see that the laws of the State are 
 obeyed, it belongs to those who have authority over 
 priests 3 to cause them to follow the laws of the 
 Gods. The first necessary qualification in a priest is 
 philanthropy. The Gods love those men who love 
 their fellows. Their love is to be shown in divers 
 ways, — it may be even in chastisements. In nature 
 it is like the love of the Gods to men, which love 
 has bestowed all the gifts by which man is superior 
 to the beasts, gifts far richer, and less directly be- 
 stowed than the " coats of skin," with which, accord- 
 ing to the Jewish story, the Creator clothed Adam 
 
Julian as a Religions Reformer. 197 
 
 and Eve. Men selfishly appropriate these gifts, and 
 cause the poor to blaspheme the Gods. They even 
 ask for more, and if a shower of gold were to fall, 
 they would try to keep it each for himself. Yet 
 if they distributed to the poor, they would not 
 become losers thereby. Julian bears witness that 
 he has never had cause to repent an act of generosity. 
 It was just after relieving some poor people from his 
 scanty means that he recovered the inheritance of 
 his grandmother. We should give more liberally to 
 the good, yet relieve even the bad and our personal 
 enemies, according to their wants, in virtue of their 
 humanity. Prisoners should be treated kindly, es- 
 pecially seeing that they are often innocent. The 
 names by which the Gods are known should be suf- 
 ficient to inculcate this duty. How can a man less 
 kindly and hospitable than the Scyths dare to ap- 
 proach the temple of Zeus Xenius or of Zeus 
 Hetaerius? And how inconsistent it is to worship 
 family deities and neglect the fact that all men are 
 of one family ! For this truth stands whether all 
 men are descended from a single pair or whether, as 
 Julian himself believes, men are of divers origins and 
 fashioned by many divinities, but inspired by Zeus 
 with a common life. 
 
 Starting them from the performance of their duty 
 towards their brother men, priests should add to 
 their philanthropy piety and purity. The presence 
 of the Gods must by them be ever clearly realised. 
 The images of the Gods should be reverenced, not 
 with idolatrous regard, but as symbols conceded to 
 our fleshly nature, one degree removed from those 
 
198 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 visible manifestations of the Gods which we see in 
 the starry heavens. We may not excuse ourselves 
 from serving the Gods by saying that they do not 
 need our services ; neither do they need our praises, 
 which nevertheless we are bound to render, accord- 
 ing to immemorial custom. Veneration for the 
 images of the Gods is not more idolatrous than is 
 the affection of a child for the portraits of his 
 parents. One argument used in disparagement of 
 such images is that they are perishable. But if they 
 were not, they would not be the work of man at all. 
 It is sometimes permitted by the Gods that even 
 great and good men, those worthier images of God, 
 may be destroyed by evil men, although the Gods 
 ever watch over the good. But the divine vengeance 
 overtakes murderers ultimately, not always immedi- 
 ately ; and so it is with profaners of temples and 
 images. A proof that even sacred things are subject 
 to irretrievable decay is shown in the failure of 
 Julian's late attempt (made in all reverence and 
 sincerity) to restore the Jewish Temple. For Julian 
 reverences the God of the Jews, though he despises 
 that race for their want of culture and for their 
 indistinct ravings, so different from the poetry of 
 the Greeks. 
 
 Everything to do with the divine service should 
 be respected, and the persons of the priests held 
 in honour, as was that of Chryses by the host of 
 Agamemnon. 
 
 Julian now returns to the subject from which, 
 with his usual tendency to fly off at a tangent, he had 
 wandered, and resumes the consideration of the 
 
Julian as a Religious Reformer. 199 
 
 duties of priests. He guards, however, against the 
 idea that the reverence due to a priest should depend 
 on his moral character. So long as he performs his 
 functions, he should be respected by virtue of his 
 office. If he is an evil-doer, he should be convicted 
 and degraded, but while he is a priest at all, those 
 who despise him incur the wrath of the Gods, as 
 certain oracular verses plainly teach. 
 
 To return then : What should the character of the 
 priest be ? The immediate recipient of this letter 
 needs no admonitions, but it may be useful for him 
 to feel the support of Julian's authority as Pontifex 
 Maximus, in his endeavours to maintain discipline 
 among his subordinates. Speaking as a priest to 
 priests, Julian says that he feels unworthy of his 
 office, but he trusts in the Gods, who, even during the 
 life of the body, are able to bring order out of dis- 
 order, and yet are more certain to fulfil the hopes of 
 the soul after death. These hopes should enable 
 priests to stand towards the people as sureties on 
 their behalf with the Gods, and as examples of 
 virtuous living. As was said before, piety, a con- 
 stant recognition of the invisible presence of the 
 Gods, should be found in every priest. Hexameters 
 attributed to Apollo are quoted as showing that 
 the eye of the God penetrates both Olympus 
 and Tartarus, and rejoices in the good deeds of 
 pious men. Surely if the Gods can see through 
 stones and rocks, they can see into our souls, which 
 they are able to deliver from the realms of the dead. 
 
 This piety involves purity, in thought, word, and 
 deed. No coarse jesting, no reading of impure 
 
200 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 poems, can ever be permitted to those of the priestly 
 order. They should study Plato, Zeno, and other 
 philosophers who have taught the existence and the 
 providence of the Gods. Mythological tales, whether 
 of Greek or Hebrew origin, which represent the Gods 
 as envying, fighting, or otherwise acting unworthily 
 of the divine nature, are to be shunned. Histories 
 should be read, but not fictitious love stories. Nor 
 may priests read sceptical works like those of Epi- 
 curus and Pyrrho, which, however, have (thank 
 Heaven !) mostly disappeared. For the guarding of 
 the thoughts from evil is even more important than 
 that of the tongue. Hymns in honour of the Gods 
 should be learned, both such as have been composed 
 by the Gods themselves, and such as men have writ- 
 ten under their inspiration. Three times, or at 
 least twice a day, the priest should pray and offer 
 sacrifices. 
 
 As, however, priests are after all men in the flesh, 
 the nature of their service must depend partly on 
 circumstances. When not on actual duty, the priest 
 should purify himself night and morning. He must 
 dwell in the temple the prescribed number of days 
 (in Rome thirty), and during that time he must give 
 himself to meditation, and not go to his own home 
 nor to the market-place. After he has given over 
 his charge to another, he must still regulate his life 
 carefully. He may only frequent the society of 
 worthy people. He may occasionally go to the 
 market-place, and may hold intercourse with the 
 magistrates, and he must administer relief to the 
 poor. When officiating, let the priests wear splen- 
 
yulian as a Religious Reformer, 201 
 
 did vestments, but in private life they should dress 
 as ordinary men, and imitate the modesty of Amphi- 
 araus, which, as ^Eschylus relates, won the favour of 
 the Gods. Common use of priestly garments brings 
 them into dishonour. 
 
 Priests should not go to the theatres, though if 
 the stage could be purified, the case would be other- 
 wise. But such purification, though a noble work, 
 seems impracticable. The company of dancers and 
 actors is to be avoided, as well as wild-beast combats 
 and all spectacles and contests, except those of a dis- 
 tinctly sacred character, at which the presence of 
 women is prohibited, 8 both on the stage and in the 
 audience. 
 
 Passing on to the mode of selecting candidates 
 for the priestly office, Julian lays down the principle 
 that men should be chosen according to their merit, 
 and especially their reputation for piety and active 
 benevolence, not for birth or wealth. They should 
 be such as guide their own households in ways of 
 piety, and are also eager to relieve the poor. It is 
 the neglect of the poor by the priesthood that has 
 incited the wretched Galilseans to simulate philan- 
 thropy, as kidnappers decoy children with sweet- 
 meats. In the midst of a bitter invective against 
 the Christian love-feasts, the fragment suddenly 
 ends. 
 
 It seemed desirable to paraphrase this document 
 at some length, in spite of its fragmentary character 
 and the many imperfections of the text, because it 
 contains several points very characteristic of Julian's 
 mode of thought and schemes of action. It is an 
 
202 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 example of the rambling style in which he generally 
 wrote, constantly pulling himself up after wide di- 
 gressions suggested by a passing thought, especially 
 by some allusion to the habits of Jews or of Chris- 
 tians. There is a striking approximation to the 
 Christian standard of morals, especially in the incul- 
 cation of active benevolence and of kindness to ene- 
 mies, and in the insistence on purity, in thought, 
 word, and deed. Other interesting points are his 
 justification of Hellenic paganism from the charge 
 of idolatry ; his mention of the attempt (which we 
 shall consider later on) to restore the temple at 
 Jerusalem ; his separation, in thought, of the person 
 from the orifice of priest ; his remarkable anticipa- 
 tion, in the part relating to the choice of religious 
 officers, of the democratic tendency of the Catholic 
 Church ; and, chief of all, his attempt to derive from 
 the heathen poets and the popular beliefs the same 
 kind of incitement to good works that the Christians 
 found in their Scriptures, combined with the reluc- 
 tant admission that such motives had not been very 
 successfully applied, and that the hated Galilaeans 
 bore at least the semblance of active philanthropists. 
 The same principles as to priestly duties and a yet 
 more strongly marked disappointment as to what 
 had thus far been accomplished, in comparison with 
 the works of the Galilaeans, are to be found in a let- 
 ter addressed by Julian to Arsacius, high-priest at 
 Galatia, 4 as well as in a very imperfect fragment to 
 Theodorus, 5 who seems to have held priestly au- 
 thority in the province of Asia. Arsacius is ordered 
 to enforce discipline among the Galatian priests, and 
 
yulian as a Religious Reformer. 203 
 
 to insist that they with their wives and families 
 frequent regularly the religious services. He is also 
 to see to the maintenance of inns for strangers, 
 for which purpose the Emperor has made special 
 provision. 
 
 All people are to be exhorted to kindliness and 
 hospitality by the example of Eumaeus in the 
 Odyssey. The priests are not to flatter the civil 
 magistrates with unbecoming servility. 
 
 The fourth letter 6 of Julian which we shall cite is 
 addressed to some person, probably in a priestly 
 office, who had been guilty of an assault on a priest. 
 Julian points out the heinous character of the offence, 
 which is not to be excused by any alleged misconduct 
 on the part of the priest who has received the blow. 
 Whatever his actions, his sacred character ought to 
 have protected him. In virtue of his own sacerdotal 
 authority, both as Pontifex Maximus and as custo- 
 dian that year of the Didymaean oracle, Julian pro- 
 hibits the offender from undertaking any service 
 about the temple for three months. At the end of 
 that time, if the high-priest gives a satisfactory 
 report of him, the oracle shall be consulted with a 
 view to his restoration. But Julian forbears to curse 
 him, as he disapproves of such a practice, and would 
 rather pray, and exhort him to pray, that his sin may 
 be forgiven. 
 
 In all of these letters, we see Julian acting in a 
 priestly capacity, using, for the purposes of religious 
 discipline and reform, those offices which had of old 
 been attached to the Imperial dignity, but not always 
 regarded as an important branch of the Emperor's 
 
204 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 prerogative, and still less as conveying a far-reaching 
 spiritual authority. It is natural to suppose that the 
 active part taken by Constantius and his sons in 
 assembling church councils and trying to settle 
 ecclesiastical disputes, may have prepared men for 
 the exercise of a similar power on behalf of the 
 ancient institutions and cults. Before we pass on to 
 see the nature of the efforts made by Julian as liter- 
 ary controversialist and as supreme lawgiver, to win 
 men from Christianity to Paganism and to edify 
 pagans in their faith, we may compare with the tone 
 of these letters the general indication of his intentions 
 which caused great alarm among some Christians. 
 The invectives of Gregory Nazianzen are not unex- 
 ceptionable authority for Julian's motives and actions, 
 but he had some real ground to go upon when he 
 denounced the Emperor's projected reforms. For, 
 as we have seen, one of Julian's chief ideas was to 
 bring about an alliance between a pure and en- 
 lightened morality and a devotion to the worship of 
 the Hellenic deities, by infusing into Hellenic edu- 
 cation an element of religious instruction, based on 
 the old mythology and literature and designed to 
 train the character and the affections of men up to 
 the purest Hellenic ideal. 
 
 Gregory says : 7 
 
 " He [Julian] also, having the same design [as 
 that of Sennacherib], was intending to establish 
 schools in every town, with pulpits and higher and 
 lower rows of benches, for lectures and expositions 
 of the heathen doctrines, both of such as give rules 
 of morality and those that treat of abstruse subjects, 
 
Julian as a Religious Reformer. 205 
 
 also a form of prayer alternately pronounced, and 
 penance for those that sinned proportionate to the 
 offence, initiation also and completion, and other 
 things that evidently belong to our [the Catholic] 
 constitution. He was purposing also to build inns 
 and hospices for pilgrims, monasteries for men, con- 
 vents for virgins, places for meditation, to establish 
 a system of charity for the relief of prisoners, and 
 also that which is conducted by means of letters of 
 recommendation, by which we forward such as re- 
 quire it from one nation to another, — things which 
 he had specially admired in our institutions." There 
 may be some exaggeration in this statement, but in 
 the main it is probably correct. 
 
 We pass on to consider the controversy in which 
 Julian engaged against the doctrine, discipline, and 
 worship, of the Christian Church. This portion of 
 his work has not the unique interest of that which 
 we have considered or of that which will concern 
 us hereafter. Destructive criticism does not require 
 great originality of mind or strength of character, 
 whereas the reconstruction of an ancient system in 
 rivalry to an encroaching new one demands the 
 powers of a philosopher and of a statesman in one. 
 Arguments seldom make converts, and even in their 
 historical aspect they interest us rather in showing 
 what men regarded as the chief bases of their faith 
 than as indicating the ground on which that faith 
 actually rested. It is important for us, however, to 
 observe the nature of the charges brought by Julian 
 against Christianity, since they both illustrate the 
 kinds of proof to which the Helleno-Roman world 
 
206 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 (here very unlike our own) would submit a religious 
 system, and also help us to understand the attitude 
 taken up in these matters by Julian himself. 
 
 A question here meets us to which it is difficult to 
 give a satisfactory answer: How far were Julian's 
 arguments against Christianity original and how far 
 were they derived from previous writers ? The chief 
 reason why we cannot arrive at any degree of cer- 
 tainty on this point is that very little of the ancient 
 controversial writings against Christianity has escaped 
 the hands of pious opponents who thought, perhaps 
 rightly, that their best refutation was to be found in 
 the " ordeal by fire." The arguments of the philoso- 
 pher Celsus have been preserved for us in the replies 
 of Origen. Occasionally they run along the same 
 lines as Julian's, but the resemblances are merely 
 such as one would expect to find between the rea- 
 sonings of two Hellenes against the new faith. It 
 does not seem probable that Julian studied Celsus. 
 If, as Origen says, that philosopher was an Epicurean, 
 Julian would not have felt much respect for his au- 
 thority. He is much more likely to have read the 
 works of Porphyry, no longer extant. But even if 
 he borrowed from them, it is not probable that he 
 did so to any large extent. He was no doubt far 
 better acquainted with the Christian Scriptures and 
 Christian usages than Porphyry was. But whether 
 borrowed or original, these arguments represent his 
 own convictions. We see clearly in them, what we 
 have observed already, that Julian's main quarrel 
 with Christianity was simply that it was non-Hellenic, 
 — -that it was a barbaric religion which, unlike a 
 
Julian as a Religiotcs Reformer. 207 
 
 national cult like that of the Jews or of the Egyp- 
 tians, aspired to universality, and that, in spite of 
 any compromise that might be made between luke- 
 warm Christians on the one hand and half-educated 
 Greeks on the other, the two systems of thought and 
 life could not long exist side by side without one of 
 them either secretly undermining or else absorbing 
 the other. 
 
 Julian's work against the Christians was probably 
 written 8 during the winter 362-3 A.D. According to 
 Jerome there were seven books, but Cyril, who exam- 
 ined and confuted them, only mentions three. Of 
 these the second was probably occupied with the 
 Gospels and the third with the other books of the 
 New Testament. The first is more general in its 
 scope, and is devoted to an examination and com- 
 parison of Hellenic, Jewish, and Christian theology. 
 It has been restored almost entire from the quota- 
 tions of Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, who wrote about 
 432, and has been examined and published in an 
 excellent edition by Dr. Neumann. The general 
 drift is clear enough, though of course we cannot be 
 sure that we have all the thoughts and reasonings in 
 the order and fashion in which they first appeared, 
 and we have probably lost a good many connecting 
 links. 
 
 In approaching Julian's objections to Jewish and 
 Christian doctrine, we must not expect to find a 
 similar idea of doctrinal proof to that which prevails 
 in our own age. The modern mind has generally 
 become sceptical by steeping itself in the methods of 
 the inductive sciences, till it has come to demand, 
 
208 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 for every theory whether of sensible or supersensuous 
 things, an absolutely verifiable basis of fact. Many 
 of the modern difficulties with which Christianity has 
 to contend are altogether out of harmony with the 
 spirit of Julian. The miracles, for example, recorded 
 in the Old and New Testaments, are so far from pre- 
 senting to his mind a stumbling-block to faith that 
 he speaks scornfully of the small number and unim- 
 portant character of the mighty works attributed to 
 Christ. But here, perhaps, we may draw a distinc- 
 tion. Where he is dealing with things that are said 
 actually to have happened, or to be about to happen, 
 in the material world, and which are amenable to 
 the evidence of the senses, Julian argues very much 
 after the fashion of a modern sceptic. Thus in treat- 
 ing of the story of the Tower of Babel, he naively 
 remarks that if all the earth were made into bricks, 
 it would not furnish material sufficient for a tower 
 reaching only to the orbit of the moon. Again, he 
 asks, from what source St. Luke could have derived 
 his information as to the angel strengthening Christ 
 in the garden, since the only possible witnesses were 
 asleep. He complains of the want of agreement be- 
 tween the pedigree given by St. Matthew and that 
 in St. Luke, and of the confusions and contradictions 
 in the narratives of the resurrection of Christ. In 
 one passage, too, probably referring to the resurrec- 
 tion of the saints at the Second Advent, 9 he remarks 
 that not to distinguish, in forecasting the future, be- 
 tween the possible and the impossible, marks the 
 very summit of human folly. 
 
 But in judging of all such matters of religious 
 
Julian as a Religiotts Reformer. 209 
 
 belief as lie beyond the regions of observation and 
 experiment, past, present, or future, the proofs which 
 Julian demands are of another character. In his 
 eyes any abtruse religious doctrine handed down by 
 tradition or thought out by a great and original 
 mind is worthy to be received if it be sufficient to 
 acccount for known facts, and if it harmonises with 
 our innate ideas of the character of God and the 
 duty of man. 
 
 Thus in combating the Jewish account of the 
 creation of the world, Julian does not ask for evi- 
 dence or appeal to physical probabilities, but tries to 
 show that the story is inconsistent with itself, that it 
 is insufficient to account for the facts, and that it 
 presents unworthy notions as to the character of the 
 Deity. In Genesis, he says, we have nothing stated 
 about the creation of angels, and certain things " the 
 waters," " the darkness," and " the deep " are left 
 wholly unaccounted for as to origin. Again, the 
 Creator is said to have made some things and simply 
 to have commanded others to be. And how could 
 an omniscient being have framed woman to be a 
 help-meet for man, knowing all the while that she 
 would be the cause of his fall from Paradise ? Still 
 more serious are the two objections to the story of 
 the first disobedience ; the notion that God would 
 withhold from man so excellent a gift as the knowl- 
 edge of good and evil, and the malignant jealousy 
 supposed in the exclusion of Adam and Eve from 
 the Tree of Life. Julian gives no rival theory of the 
 origin of evil. He seems, from some passage in his 
 works, to regard it as an imperfection due to the 
 14 
 
2 1 o Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 connection of soul and body, but the absence of 
 belief in an active power of evil is one of the causes 
 or signs of his inability to apprehend thoroughly 
 either the Jewish or the Christian religion. In the 
 Jewish story of the confusion of tongues, again, be- 
 sides criticising, as we have seen, the possibility of 
 building a sky-reaching tower, Julian objects to the 
 narrow view that must needs account somehow for 
 differences of speech among nations, but sees no 
 need to explain the origin of far deeper distinctions 
 in customs and character. And even if the Babel 
 story be accepted, it is insufficient to account for 
 the facts. Natural distinctions are not to be attrib- 
 uted to an arbitrary flat, but the commands of God 
 must always be in accordance with the essential 
 nature of things. 
 
 For these reasons Julian greatly prefers, as a reli- 
 gious explanation of the origin of man and the 
 world, and of the differences among men and 
 nations, the splendid myth in the Timceus, where the 
 Demiurgus is represented as delegating to the inferior 
 and derivative deities, the creation of the various 
 orders of living beings, to which, within certain limits, 
 the divine element or the rational soul is to be dis- 
 tributed. This myth both affords a theory of the dif- 
 ferences existing among various orders of life and 
 various races of men, and also shows more clearly than 
 the Jewish story the universal beneficence of the Cre- 
 ator. The point in Jewish theology which most deeply 
 stirs Julian's ire is its exclusiveness, and that in two 
 ways : the supreme God is represented as jealously 
 refusing to share His glory with the inferior deities, 
 
yulzan as a Religious Reformer. 2\\ 
 
 whom from the use of the plural number (in Gen. 
 xi., 7, and other passages) the Jews must have sup- 
 posed to exist ; and again, He is supposed to have 
 squandered all His favours on one little race in one 
 corner of the world, to the neglect of the rest of 
 mankind. " I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous 
 God." What more unworthy notion of the Almighty 
 could be formed than this ? Jealousy is a hateful 
 passion in man ; is it not blasphemous to attribute it 
 to God ? And has not Divine Providence bestowed 
 on Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, as good gifts as 
 those possessed by the Hebrews? Arts, sciences, 
 politics, all those elements of Greek life and culture 
 which the devout mind associated each with the 
 idea of a particular divinity ; were they not a stand- 
 ing protest against all Hellenes who abandoned the 
 faith of their fathers for the worship of an arbitrary 
 and capricious tyrant and of a dead Jew? 
 
 Against the Christians, in addition to the objections 
 urged to those points of theology held by them in 
 common with the Jews, Julian asserted that in their 
 interpretation of prophecy and in their elevation of 
 Jesus to the rank of a divinity, they were taking un- 
 warrantable liberties both with the Hebrew Scriptures 
 and with the Gospel narrative. The " Prophet like 
 unto Moses " (of. Deut. xviii., 15), the " Shiloh " (of 
 Gen. xlix., 10), the " Star out of Jacob " foretold by 
 Balaam (Numbers xxiv., 17), the " Virgin-born " (of 
 Isaiah vii., 14) are not to be identified with Jesus, 
 and, even if they were, they would not prove his 
 divinity. This doctrine is entirely contrary to the 
 Mosaic insistence on the unity of the Godhead. He 
 
2 i 2 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 refers also to the passage in which Israel, not Christ, 
 is called the first-born of God (Ex. iv., 22). It is St. 
 John, he says, who first asserts the divinity of Christ, 
 and even he does it in such ambiguous language that 
 we cannot tell whether he entirely identifies the 
 Word of God with the man Jesus. The doctrine 
 of the Xoyos was by no means strange to Julian's 
 theology, but the conception of the " Word made 
 flesh ' was to him a gross absurdity. He pre- 
 ferred, as we have seen, to regard as the perfect 
 image and the manifested power of the Changeless 
 One, the life-giving and ever-active Helios, 10 whose 
 functions in the world of ideas and among the sub- 
 altern gods correspond to those of the revolving sun 
 in the natural universe. 
 
 If we proceed next to Julian's views as to Chris- 
 tian practical morality, we find here, as in the theo- 
 retical portion of his work, some strictures directed 
 against what is common to the Christian and the 
 Jew, others against what is peculiar to Christians. 
 He regards the Decalogue as unworthy of the high 
 estimation in which it has been held. With the ex- 
 ception of the commands not to worship strange 
 gods and to keep the Sabbath, it contains, he says, 
 no elements which are not to be found in the codes 
 of all peoples, and the exhortation against polythe- 
 ism is enforced by the assertion of the doctrine, so 
 hateful to Julian, of the jealousy and revengefulness 
 of God. For the rest, the laws of the Jews are far 
 inferior in justice and gentleness to those of Lycur- 
 gus, of Solon, or of the Romans. Indeed, the Jew- 
 ish stories of vengeance taken, or allowed to be 
 
Julian as a Religious Reformer. 2 1 3 
 
 taken, on innocent and guilty alike (especially the 
 story of Phineas and the Israelites in Num., xxv.), 
 tend to confuse all notions of calm and deliberate 
 justice. 
 
 But to the Jewish law, whatsoever it may be 
 worth, the Christians have not kept faithful, in spite 
 of the saying of their Founder that he came " not 
 to destroy but to fulfil." They have rejected the 
 mild institutions and customs of the Greeks, but 
 they have only learned to combine Jewish presump- 
 tion with Gentile impurity. With a strange unfair- 
 ness, Julian tries to prove the loose lives of Chris- 
 tians by citing St. Paul's description of what some 
 of the Corinthians were before their conversion 
 (1 Cor., vi.), and when he comes to the words 
 (v. 1 1), " but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified," 
 he asks, contemptuously, how such washing can 
 have been effected by the rite of baptism, which is 
 unable to cure the diseases of the body, and surely 
 incapable of reaching the soul. This protest must 
 be taken in connection with the fact that, as we 
 have seen, in Julian's day, baptism was often de- 
 layed till the last illness, in order that with the pros- 
 pect of purification before death, the catechumen 
 might feel no fear of free living. Julian's indigna- 
 tion at this pernicious idea is very strongly expressed 
 in a passage at the end of his satire, The Ccesars 
 (of which we shall say something later on), where 
 he represents Jesus as standing and crying in words 
 which are a parody on Matt, xi., 28 : " Come unto 
 me, all ye that are corrupters, bloodstained, impure, 
 and shameless, and I with this water will make you 
 
214 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 clean. And if ye again become subject to the same 
 ills, I will grant unto him that beateth upon his 
 breast and striketh his head that he shall be 
 purified." 
 
 This passage shows, perhaps, more clearly than 
 any other how far Julian was from recognising in 
 the Gospels any power to reclaim from evil or stim- 
 ulate to good. He believed, as we have seen, in the 
 possibility of repentance and amendment, even in 
 the case of great offenders, but in the Christian 
 Scriptures he saw nothing which could by any pos- 
 sibility make any man better. If in one or two pas- 
 sages he quotes the authority of Christ against his 
 professed followers, it is merely an argumentum ad 
 hoc, and does not show that personally he felt any 
 respect for that authority. When, for instance, he 
 upbraids the Christians for their quarrels among 
 themselves, and says that neither Jesus nor Paul left 
 any rules for persecution, he hastens to explain that 
 fact by declaring that when Christianity was first 
 set on foot, its promoters had no notion that it 
 would ever spread much beyond the miserable little 
 set of fanatics who had first received it. It is not 
 surprising, therefore, that Julian could see nothing 
 but simulation in the apparent virtues of the Chris- 
 tians around him, and that he was but too ready to 
 believe in all the vices attributed to them by their 
 adversaries. 
 
 It is in matters connected with religious worship 
 that Julian has the least fault to find with the Jews 
 and the most with the Christians. In all such mat- 
 ters, he always shows himself strongly conservative, 
 
yulian as a Religious Reformer. 2 1 5 
 
 and though he is willing to acknowledge the essen- 
 tial identity of the spiritual beings venerated in 
 widely different places and in very diverse forms, he 
 would yet have each nation keep to its peculiar tra- 
 ditional observances. He admires the fidelity with 
 which the Hebrew law and ritual have been main- 
 tained. He tries to find traces of augury and astrol- 
 ogy in the history of Abraham, and acknowledges 
 himself as a worshipper of the God of Abraham, of 
 Isaac, and of Jacob. But the Galilaeans have re- 
 jected all the Jewish ritual, and accepted from the 
 Gentiles one thing at least : the license to eat what 
 they will and never to fear defilement. They refuse 
 to sacrifice and to venerate the images of the gods, 
 either those made by man, or those shining upon us 
 from the everlasting heavens. They do not practise 
 circumcision, saying that " circumcision is of the 
 heart," as if, forsooth, they were really separated 
 from other men by superior virtue ! Yet by what 
 authority was the Jewish law ever annulled for the 
 followers of the Jews ? What right had Paul, that 
 supreme charlatan, ever hovering between a Jewish 
 and a universal interpretation of his doctrines, to 
 declare that " Christ is the end of the law " ? But 
 the Galilaeans depart most decisively from both 
 ^Hebrew and Hellenic modes of worship in their 
 degrading reverence for the tombs of martyrs and 
 for dead men's bones. Christ himself spoke of 
 sepulchres with manifest aversion, and bade the 
 dead bury their dead, and Isaiah prophesied against 
 those who " sleep in the graves and in the tombs 
 that they may dream dreams " (Is., lxv., 4. Sept.). 
 
2 1 6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 And, again, the worship of Christ seems to him 
 directly contrary to Jewish monotheism. 
 
 It will be readily acknowledged that though these 
 controversial writings are not destitute of suggestive 
 thoughts and instructive side-lights, yet in them Julian 
 is not seen at his best, perhaps, indeed, theologians 
 seldom are so seen in their most combative efforts. 
 Yet on behalf of the history of religious thought, we 
 cannot regret that they were written and have been 
 in some measure preserved. For Julian affords a 
 conspicuous illustration of the fact, not easily grasped 
 and borne in mind, that it is possible for a man of 
 devout spirit, subtle mind, and strong love of truth 
 and justice, to fall far short of comprehending the 
 most essential characteristics of a religion in the 
 documents and institutions of which he has been 
 carefully instructed. The question as to what quali- 
 ties of heart and head are further requisite for such 
 comprehension lies, of course, very far beyond the 
 scope of our present investigations. 
 
 Coin of Helena. Head of Isis Pharia. Reverse, vota 
 pvblica : Isis Pharia on a galley, holding a sail. 
 
Notes on Chapter IX. 2 1 y 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1 Ep, 21, Spanheim, 388-9. 
 2 Sp. 288-305. 
 
 3 This seems to me the natural meaning. Talbot renders it differ- 
 ently. 
 
 4 Ep. 49. 
 
 5 Ep. 63. 
 
 6 Ep. 62. 
 
 7 First Invective, c., 11 1, C. W. King's translation. 
 
 8 See introduction to the valuable edition by Neumann. These 
 writings are not to be found in Hertlein, and are not treated of by 
 Mucke. The earlier attempts to piece the fragments together were 
 not quite satisfactory. 
 
 9 Fragment from Suidas referred by Neumann to this connection. 
 
 10 Besides Contra Chris, and Oration in Honour of King Helios^ 
 see Letter to the Alexandrians. 
 
Coin of Smyrna. Imperal Times. Cybele in her chariot, drawn by lions. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 JULIAN S POLICY AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 c< EyGojud rovS QsovS ovrs xrsivs6Bai rovi TaXiXaiovi ovrs 
 rvrfrsdOai 7tapd to di'xaiov ovrs aXXo ri 7t(x6x Elv X-Ockov 
 fJovXojuai, 7tponjuddQai fxivroi rovS bso6s(Ssii nal itdvv cp^jui 
 Ssiv." Julian, Ep. vii. 
 
 " In dealing with religious sectaries there is no middle course be- 
 tween the persecution which exterminates and the toleration which 
 satisfies." Henry Hallam. 
 
 i-T seemed desirable to make some 
 study of Julian's religious princi- 
 ples and ideals, his aspirations and 
 the motives of his efforts in work- 
 ing for himself and for his subjects, 
 before attempting to understand the 
 legislative and administrative meas- 
 ures which he used to effect the ends set before 
 him. It is chiefly through these measures that he 
 has been held up to the obloquy of all ages, as it 
 
 218 
 
Julians Policy against the Christians. 219 
 
 was by them that he incurred the violent hatred of 
 his opponents and unfavourable criticism from some 
 who were otherwise favourable judges of his conduct. 
 Rhetoricians have delighted to point out the incon- 
 sistency of a profession of calm and philosophic im- 
 partiality with a practice of religious exclusiveness in 
 bestowal of trust and privileges, and of an insidious 
 proselytism accompanied by something very like 
 persecution, in the army and in the State. Sober 
 men of ancient and of modern times have regretted 
 that Julian did not maintain the attitude of strict 
 neutrality which would, they consider, have best be- 
 come him. Yet if we realise the man and his en- 
 vironment, the inconsistencies seem to explain 
 themselves, and the strictures, if not wholly unde- 
 served, to need modification and allowance. Re- 
 ligious toleration, as we understand it now-a-days, 
 must rest on one or other of two bases : on the opin- 
 ion that differences in religious feelings and beliefs 
 are of subordinate importance in the life of individ- 
 uals and of societies ; or on the experience, which 
 men in office are ever slow to acquire, that the put- 
 ting down of error and the establishment of truth 
 had better be left to other powers than those which 
 hold supreme authority in the state. The former 
 ground might be taken by some thinkers and by 
 some politicians in Julian's day. We have seen that 
 it was eloquently set forth, in the cause of humanity, 
 by the philosopher Themistius, and it even finds 
 expression in the earlier edicts of Constantine, who, 
 though not quite indifferent himself, yet preferred 
 that aid should be invoked on his behalf from rival 
 
220 Julian, Philospher and Emperor. 
 
 heavenly powers rather than that a portion of his 
 subjects should cease to pray for him at all. But, as 
 has been already shown, to maintain the position of 
 strict neutrality was found impossible by Constan- 
 tine himself and by his sons after him. What we have 
 learned of the mind and character of Julian is suffi- 
 cient to convince us how utterly removed were his 
 thoughts and feelings from everything that savoured 
 of indifference or of an equal regard or non-regard 
 to all religious forms. To him the one thing worth 
 having in life was the consciousness of a close 
 relation to the Divinity. This relation might, of 
 course, be realised in divers forms, but the " Gali- 
 laean superstition " tended to obscure it altogether, 
 to give men unworthy thoughts of the Divine, and 
 to cause an ungrateful neglect of all the manifesta- 
 tions of a heavenly presence and power throughout 
 the past life of the Hellenic and Roman peoples. 
 Julian considered, as Libanius says, that " were he 
 to make all men richer than Midas, every city greater 
 than Babylon of old, and overlay with gold the walls 
 of each city, yet should reform none of their errors 
 in religion, he would be acting like a physician who, 
 having taken charge of a person full of maladies in 
 every part of his body, should doctor everything 
 except the eyes." 1 
 
 Nor was it possible for Julian to accept the second 
 basis of religious equality : the strict limitation, in 
 matters spiritual, of any authority that can effec- 
 tively be asserted by the civil power. He saw, to 
 his credit be it said, that a policy of persecution is 
 worse than useless ; that (to quote again the words 
 
yuliaris Policy against the Christians. 221 
 
 of Libanius) " a false belief in matters of religion 
 you cannot eradicate by cutting and burning ; but 
 even though the hand burns incense, the conscience 
 blames and accuses the weakness of the body and 
 holds to the same things as at first." Yet this be- 
 lief did not hinder him from using the vantage- 
 ground of his Imperial position to counteract the 
 influence and the teaching which he regarded as per- 
 nicious. It is a trite saying that autocrats do not 
 easily recognise the bounds which must always exist 
 to their absolute power. And when we consider 
 the exalted position of a Roman Emperor, summing 
 up in his person the authority of all the ancient 
 magistrates, and of the sovereign people as well ; 
 the one head of the civilised world, dispensing mercy 
 and justice to all men, fighting and caring for them 
 in life, and worshipped by them after death, we re- 
 alise how the only check to his authority that such 
 a potentate could readily conceive would be one of 
 those revolutions that so frequently brought an end 
 to authority, title, and life at the same moment. 
 Julian, with his Greek conceptions of political pow- 
 ers and relations, recognised the supremacy of law 
 as above the individual will of the ruler, and re- 
 garded the sovereign as bound to guard and rever- 
 ence the constitution of the State. Yet finding 
 himself in possession of the helm of the common- 
 wealth, with practically unlimited powers in legisla- 
 tion, administration, foreign politics, and appoint- 
 ment of officials, and accepting these powers as 
 instruments given to him from Heaven, to effect 
 a radical reform in morals and religion, he was not 
 
222 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 likely to minimise his functions. His high ideal of 
 the kingly office is shown not only in the sentiments 
 attributed to him by Libanius, but in his own wri- 
 tings, especially in The Ccesars, the Epistle to The- 
 mistius, and the Second Oration in Praise of Constan- 
 tius. He likes to dwell on the Homeric idea of 
 kings as " shepherds of the people," and the office 
 of a shepherd does not leave much scope for laisser- 
 faire. Nor was it probable that the more zealous 
 among the Neo-Platonic philosophers whom he had 
 called to aid him by their counsels would help him 
 to forget that he was a Hellene and a philosopher 
 while seated on Caesar's throne. If he had adopted 
 a far more fanatical policy than he did, he would, if 
 we consider both the character of his advisers, and 
 the absence of all reasonable critics, have been en- 
 titled to the same kind of excuse as is accorded to 
 more than one mediaeval monarch who proved " ane 
 sair saint for the crown." Let him receive due hon- 
 our in that he not only abjured every directly vio- 
 lent means of action, but also in general strove to 
 follow the lines of a fair and economical policy inde- 
 pendently of any religious considerations. This 
 policy we shall see when we consider his general 
 legislation. 
 
 That Julian should endeavour, by peaceable means, 
 to lead men to embrace his own views, is what we 
 must naturally expect. But the modern reader can- 
 not but regret that with his intense belief in the 
 pernicious effects of Christianity and in his own 
 mission as philosophic despot, he should have some- 
 times tolerated or even sanctioned measures which 
 
yuliaris Policy against the Christians. 223 
 
 we regard as undignified and unfair. That he was 
 actuated throughout by a radical misconception of 
 Christianity in itself and in its relation to the Hel- 
 lenic world, must likewise be acknowledged, and 
 need not be excused. The bearing of these con- 
 siderations will become more evident if we take up 
 separately the chief points in which, as Emperor, he 
 directed his policy against the Christians, their insti- 
 tutions and doctrines. 
 
 In trying to understand this policy, however, we 
 meet with difficulties in the documentary and liter- 
 ary evidence before us. Several of his laws are ex- 
 tant, in the Theodosian Code or in the collection of 
 his letters, but many must have been expunged, and 
 of those which we have, investigators are not quite 
 agreed as to how far some of them were framed with 
 directly anti-Christian intentions. A good deal of 
 what has been written on the subject by contempo- 
 rary churchmen is marked by gross improbability 
 and sometimes by pure childishness. In trying to 
 use both the statements of his enemies and his own 
 professions, we need to read carefully between the 
 lines. In the one case, we have to notice what are 
 the kinds of unfairness and intolerance of which 
 Julian's enemies do not venture to accuse him. In 
 the other, we need to reflect on the indirect con- 
 sequences, painful and unjust to Christian individuals 
 and communities, yet very likely to follow the 
 measures which he, acting in all integrity, considered 
 legitimate and reasonable. 
 
 In the first place, Julian declared his intention not 
 to persecute anyone for religious opinions. So far, 
 
224 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 he seemed to go back to the principle of the Milan 
 decree. There is something almost naif in the in- 
 dignation expressed by the leading Christians at his 
 adoption of a course which allowed no scope for 
 honourable suffering on the part of confessors. " He 
 begrudged the honour of martyrdom to our com- 
 batants," wrote Gregory Nazianzen, " . . . that 
 we might suffer, and yet not gain honour as suffering 
 for Christ's sake." 2 There certainly was an irritating 
 contempt in the manner in which the boon of re- 
 ligious liberty was granted. There might even seem 
 an element of superstition in his fear lest sacrilege 
 should be committed, if unwilling persons were 
 dragged to the temples and altars of the gods. Two 
 of his letters show how he understood and inter- 
 preted the grant of liberty he was making. One is 
 directed to a certain Artabius, and runs thus : " In 
 the name of the gods, I do not desire that the Gali- 
 laeans be killed or beaten contrary to justice, or that 
 they suffer any other evil, but I emphatically assert 
 that god-fearing persons are to receive greater 
 honour ; for it is through the Galilaeans' folly that all 
 things have been well-nigh overturned, but it is by 
 the favour of the gods that we are all preserved. 
 Wherefore we should honour the gods and god-fear- 
 ing men and cities." 3 The other letter, which we 
 shall have to cite again, is to the people of Bostra 
 (probably the Arabian city of that name), and con- 
 tains these words : " We do not permit anyone of 
 them [the Galilaeans] to be dragged unwilling to 
 the altars, but we expressly command them, if any- 
 one wishes to partake with us in purifications and 
 
Julians Policy against the Christians. 225 
 
 libations, first to offer the expiatory sacrifices and to 
 supplicate the gods who avert evil. So far is it from 
 us to desire or dream that any of the impious 
 should ever desire or dream of sharing in our holy 
 sacrifices, before he have purged his soul with sup- 
 plications \\iraraiai\ to the gods, and his body 
 with the appointed offerings." Further on, after 
 complaining of the presumption and unruliness of 
 the clergy and their partisans (to which we shall 
 recur), he says that he has given them public per- 
 mission to meet as they will, to offer what they are 
 pleased to call prayers on their own behalf, but that 
 they are not to abuse the privilege by deeds of 
 violence and sedition. He has already held up his 
 own policy in contrast to the partiality and persecu- 
 tion of Constantius, and we cannot wonder that some 
 of the Christians while accepting the grant of toler- 
 ation, felt no great thankfulness, but were inclined 
 to attribute it less to any really liberal policy on 
 his part than to a hatred of his predecessor com- 
 bined with a desire to sow dissensions among them- 
 selves and to deprive them of the prestige of digni- 
 fied suffering. The typical agitator of all times 
 will " prefer the grievance " to its removal. 
 
 With the edicts of toleration there went a number 
 of arrangements by which Christian symbols were 
 removed and pagan ceremonies restored in all public 
 places and functions. Not that the extirpation of 
 all signs of paganism had been as yet accomplished. 
 Some tokens, however, especially the Labarum 
 which was borne before the army, had publicly sig- 
 nified that Christianity was the religion of Emperor 
 
226 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 and Empire. These were of course, removed. Public 
 sacrifices were again offered and temples everywhere 
 reopened, though, as we have seen, no one was com- 
 pelled to take part in the worship of the Gods. An 
 exception is mentioned by Gregory Nazianzen 4 which 
 may possibly be due to a voluntary or involuntary 
 misunderstanding. Julian seems to have restored 
 the thuribulum or incense altar which had previously 
 been one of the Imperial insignia, and to have ex- 
 pected every soldier (or perhaps only each member 
 of his own guard) who was entitled to receive the 
 Imperial donative, to throw a few grains of incense 
 on the fire. The ceremony implied little more than 
 the kind of reverence which kneeling to perform 
 homage used to betoken in feudal times, or bowing 
 towards the mace in our House of Commons. 
 There can be little doubt, however, that such an act 
 could not have been performed without qualms by 
 conscientious Christians, and Gregory relates how 
 some soldiers, who had fallen into the snare, on dis- 
 covering that some of their messmates regarded 
 the act as a renunciation of Christianity, rushed in 
 horror to the Emperor to implore the honour of 
 martyrdom which, of course, though he banished 
 them for their sedition, he had no desire to confer. 
 Among the pagan symbols which replaced the 
 Christian, the most remarkable are the heads of 
 Egyptian deities, or his own head with divine sym- 
 bols, on some of his coins. These coins, are, how- 
 ever, considered 6 to belong to the later part of his 
 reign. 
 
 Another and very important part of his religious 
 
Julians Policy against the Christians. 227 
 
 policy consisted in the withdrawal of a good many 
 privileges that had of late come to be enjoyed by 
 the Christian clergy. The cutting down of immuni- 
 ties by which an important part of the well-to-do 
 classes escaped their obligation to contribute towards 
 the expenses of the government, is part of the system 
 of finance reform which we shall consider hereafter. 
 Other provisions follow from his idea of entrusting 
 to pagan officials the administration of public doles, 
 and from his principle of recognising no official rank 
 among the different classes or orders of Christians. 
 On this part of his action, the testimony of his 
 laws and letters and of the writings of pagans and 
 Christians is tolerably consistent. We have a letter 
 of his to the Byzantines 3 in which he orders that no 
 man who ought to discharge the duties of a senator 
 shall be excused by reason of " the superstition of 
 the Galilaeans." Again in the letter to the people 
 of Bostra, he declares that the liberty granted to 
 the clergy does not mean that they may exercise 
 special judicial functions or draw up wills. He nat- 
 urally associates this latter power with a desire to 
 secure to themselves the wealth of the superstitious. 
 In the Theodosian Code 6 we have special orders that 
 Christians who are trying to escape from the charges 
 to which they were liable as Decurions are to be 
 recalled to their duties, and if they have sought 
 refuge in the houses of powerful persons, such 
 persons are to be heavily fined, while slaves or clients 
 who, unknown to their masters or patrons, have aided 
 and abetted such evasion, are to suffer capital 
 punishment. Sozomen 7 says that he " compelled the 
 
228 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 virgins and widows, who, on account of their poverty, 
 were reckoned among the clergy, to refund the pro- 
 vision which had been assigned them from public 
 sources." This demand cannot possibly have been 
 made from the poor who were recipients of charity, 
 and seems to point to a politic restriction of " benefit 
 of clergy " as well as to a design for withdrawing 
 the monopoly of charitable relief from the Christian 
 communities and officers. Another of the advan- 
 tages now withdrawn from the clergy was that of 
 the frequent use of public means of conveyance. 
 Ammianus 8 mentions the journeys of the clergy to 
 their synods as sometimes, in the reign of Constan- 
 tius, entailing serious damage to the finances of the 
 state. The retrenchment might be commendable, 
 yet we cannot wonder that it was felt to be hard, 
 especially as free use of the public post was accorded 
 by Julian to many of the philosophic friends whom 
 he summoned to his court. 
 
 Few things, perhaps, caused more intense dissatis- 
 faction, or led to more of the violent local tumults in 
 which some enthusiasts sought and found the glory 
 of martyrdom, than the Emperor's orders for the 
 restoration of the temple property of which the 
 Christians had taken possession and the rebuilding 
 of temples that had been destroyed. It is not easy 
 to determine with accuracy the limits of the process 
 of refunding, which, as is natural, some of Julian's 
 enemies represent as a case of shameful spoliation. 
 That what had been unlawfully seized should be 
 restored does not seem unreasonable. That no new 
 endowments should be made from the Imperial 
 
yulians Policy against the Christians. 229 
 
 treasury, is what we must necessarily expect. How 
 far recent gifts were to be resumed, our authorities 
 do not agree in telling us. The Emperor's wish to 
 be fair is shown in the fact that not only heathen 
 temples, but churches belonging to sects that had 
 been recently oppressed were to be rebuilt, as was 
 especially the case with a church of the Novatians 
 at Cyzicus. This had been destroyed by the Arian 
 bishop, Eleusius, who was now compelled to rebuild 
 it, within two months, at his own expense. 9 Any 
 such orders, were, of course, attributed by Julian's 
 detractors to his eagerness in sowing dissension 
 among the Christian parties. With regard to the 
 pagan restoration, it seems most probable that no 
 uniform rule was followed, and that the execution 
 of the Emperor's orders was modified by the discre- 
 tion, or indiscretion, of the various provincial gov- 
 ernors. Probably the very divers degrees in which 
 the different regions were by that time christianised 
 made the task much easier of accomplishment in 
 some cities or districts than in others. On one 
 point, however, we can have no doubt : that neither 
 Julian's officials, nor Julian himself (who had not 
 personally, before the days of his freedom, been 
 withheld by conscientious scruples from assisting at 
 rites which he hated), could quite understand, or 
 see the justice of tolerating that compunction which 
 made it impossible for some fiery souls to do or 
 help to do anything that might tend to encourage 
 or promote the " worship of devils." Hence the 
 cases of persecution and martyrdom which must 
 wear in the eyes of the civil government the appear- 
 
2 3° Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 ance of just punishment necessitated by obstinacy 
 and insubordination. One of the sufferers on whose 
 treatment the church historians and the orator 
 Gregory chiefly dwell, was Bishop Marcus of Are- 
 thusa. He had, says Sozomen, demolished a costly 
 and magnificent temple, and was now ordered to 
 rebuild it. Difficulty in raising the funds, combined 
 with religious scruples, induced him to fly. On 
 hearing, however, that his friends were suffering on 
 his account, he returned, and allowed himself to be 
 brutally lynched by the mob which, by a refinement 
 of cruelty, anointed his bruised body with honey, 
 and exposed him, in a rush basket, to the stings of 
 bees. His fortitude is said to have moved the ad- 
 miration of the Praefect. A small amount would 
 have at the last been accepted in commutation of 
 the penalty, but he persisted in refusing even a 
 penny to what he considered the idolatrous cause. 
 
 In Arethusa, we see, the people were fanatically 
 pagan. In Csesarea of Cappadocia, 10 situated in the 
 regions where Julian had spent many dreary years 
 of boyhood, it was the inhabitants of the city that 
 had themselves been guilty of wholesale iconoclasm 
 and sacrilege. Here, as was not unnatural, strict 
 inquisition for the stolen property was made among 
 the citizens, orders for rebuilding were peremptorily 
 issued, and meantime the fiscal privileges of the city 
 were reduced. 
 
 Elsewhere the orders for temple restoration led to 
 iconoclasm and to consequent suffering for con- 
 science' sake on the part of zealous persons of pri- 
 vate station. Thus, at Merus, in Phrygia, 11 three 
 
yuliaris Policy against the Christians, 231 
 
 brothers broke into a temple at night, and destroyed 
 the newly polished statues. We are told that they 
 were tortured with a view to compelling them to 
 offer sacrifice, and that they perished in agony 
 rather than soil their consciences by complying. But 
 if this is true, the governor of the province must 
 have been acting on his own responsibility, and 
 contrary to the Emperor's declared and customary 
 policy. 
 
 The point, however, about Julian's behaviour tow- 
 ards the Christians which is of most importance in 
 its results on ecclesiastical history, is the equal in- 
 dulgence accorded to the representatives of jarring 
 sects, which led to changes in the balance of ecclesi- 
 astical parties. We have already seen, that, in the 
 Arian reaction, the party opposed to the Nicene 
 creed acquired the ascendency which it held to the 
 death of Constantius. This party, however, was by 
 no means united in itself. Arius, and his statesman 
 supporter, Bishop Eusebius, had both been long 
 dead, and while the Nicene party formed a tolerably 
 compact band, their adversaries were divided into 
 theological factions, which local jealousies, personal 
 differences, and the rancour excited by Court intrigue 
 and backstairs politics, had greatly emphasised and 
 embittered. Without going minutely into differ- 
 ences of creed, we may broadly distinguish three 
 principal factions : — that of the semi-Arians, not in 
 all respects incapable of reconciliation with the Ni- 
 cenes, though dissatisfied with the Nicene formula : 
 the Anomceans, who stood on the left wing of Arian- 
 ism : and the Homceans, whose main principle was 
 
232 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 the rejection as unscriptural and superfluous of all 
 such terms as " of the same essence," " of like 
 essence/' and so forth. In 359 some of the leaders 
 of the semi-Arian and Homcean parties had drawn to- 
 gether and issued from Sirmium a somewhat ambigu- 
 ous formula 12 to which, as they believed, or as they 
 sought to persuade the Emperor Constantius, most 
 men might assent without violating their principles. 
 A council of bishops of the West was held at 
 Ariminum and one of eastern bishops at Seleucia. 
 Neither assembly was entirely favourable to the 
 proposed compromise, but after a conference held at 
 Constantinople, late in the same year, the influence 
 of Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, and not a little 
 pressure from the Emperor Constantius, who was 
 eager to bring about some kind of harmony, and 
 was easily swayed by some intriguing prelates who 
 had secured his ear, forced a somewhat reluctant as- 
 sent. This brought about a victory of the Homcean 
 party, and the exile of some prominent members of 
 other factions. 
 
 To all these disputes, Julian was, of course, pro- 
 foundly indifferent. As we have already seen, he 
 had no more sympathy with one form of Christianity 
 than with any other. If Arianism seemed to har- 
 monise with Platonic doctrines of emanation, it de- 
 prived King Helios of his glory to give it to one who 
 had assumed the semblance of a man ; and between 
 the various shades of Arianism, Julian probably took 
 no pains to distinguish. The Nicene persuasion, on 
 the other hand, was closely identified with the one 
 man whose energy and single-heartedness Julian had 
 
yulians Policy against the Christians. 233 
 
 most reason to regard with aversion and dread, the 
 exiled patriarch of Alexandria. The Emperor's first 
 decided step in these matters was to order the recall 
 of all who had been exiled for religious reasons. He 
 seems next to have held a conference at Constanti- 
 nople in which he vainly hoped to bring about some 
 compromise 13 and a general toleration. " Hear me," 
 he cried, as the voices of the disputants drowned his 
 arguments, " the Franks have heard me, and the 
 Allemanni." But the words, adopted from the say- 
 ing of his hero-model, Marcus Aurelius, fell to the 
 ground. If he were to establish a modus vivendi 
 among Christians, it was not to be by means of any 
 concessions drawn from the hostile camps. 
 
 Among the prelates recalled from banishment, two 
 may be especially noticed, the one for his curious 
 personality and wandering life, and for his friendly 
 relations with the Emperor, the other for his com- 
 manding influence and the strength of his opposition 
 to Julian's aims, — these are Aetius of Antioch and 
 Athanasius of Alexandria. 
 
 Aetius 14 seems to have been an Anomcean, of the 
 class of Arians furthest removed from catholic or- 
 thodoxy. Certain expressions of a different ten- 
 dency attributed to him are probably less due to 
 vacillation or to self-interest than to the delight 
 often taken in paradoxical and sensational state- 
 ments by a mind more subtle than deep. He had 
 worked his way up from the ranks, having been left 
 by his father, an army contractor who had failed in 
 his business, in a state of extreme destitution, with 
 a widowed mother to support. According to one 
 
234 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 account, he became for a time a household slave, 
 and after he had recovered his liberty, a working 
 tinker. The craft of a gilder seems to have been 
 that by which, when grown up, he supported his 
 mother and himself, till her death set him free to 
 follow his own intellectual bent, though he returned 
 to his gilding when more congenial work failed. His 
 quick intellect, which shone in the logical and rhet- 
 orical disquisitions so much practised during that 
 age, attracted the attention of certain teachers, 
 Christians and pagans, under whom he studied at 
 Antioch, Tarsus, and elsewhere. He seems to have 
 acquired an ardent passion for controversy, and on 
 being once worsted in a disputation with a heretical 
 teacher, felt that life was no longer worth living, till, 
 as Philostorgius says, a vision appeared to comfort 
 him, and " from that time forth Aetius had a special 
 gift from God which saved him from defeat in his 
 disputations." Subsequently, at Alexandria, he con- 
 founded a leading Manichee so completely, that the 
 unfortunate heretic sickened and died in a few days. 
 He had received ordination from the Arian bishop of 
 Antioch, and seems to have used his clerical status as 
 a means of exercising more actively his power of dis- 
 putation. When the Homcean party obtained the 
 ascendency, he was banished, and now by Julian's 
 order he was recalled. The Emperor must have 
 been personally acquainted with him during some 
 period of his life, possibly when Aetius was living in 
 Constantinople, or else in Asia. According to one 
 account, Gallus had employed Aetius in a fruitless 
 attempt to make Julian a good Christian. Julian 
 
yuliafts Policy against the Christians. 235 
 
 was probably attracted by the versatile intellect of 
 the man, and by his skill in logic and dialectic. Or 
 there may have been another reason for showing 
 him especial favour. Aetius, in addition to his other 
 occupations, had studied and practised the art of 
 medicine, and Julian, who was very desirous of 
 maintaining the high status of physicians, may have 
 hoped to win over Aetius from less fruitful fields to 
 the useful art of healing. Accordingly he wrote 
 to invite him, 15 in the name of old acquaintance, to 
 come to Court, and invited him to make use, for the 
 purpose, of the public post. He bestowed upon him 
 a landed estate near Mitylene, in Lesbos, to which he 
 was forced to retire when the time of persecution 
 returned for him on- Julian's death. He was, how- 
 ever, pursued thence, and finally closed his varied 
 career in an intimate circle of like-minded friends at 
 Constantinople, in the reign of Valens. 
 
 Widely different were the character and fortunes 
 of the great Nicene champion, whom Julian's man- 
 date recalled from his third exile. Athanasius had 
 been violently, even treacherously ejected from Alex- 
 andria in 356, and had since that time kept up from 
 his Egyptian retreat, by secret means, the influence 
 which he had so powerfully exerted over both men 
 and women who had fallen under his personal sway. 
 Meantime, the bishopric was held by George of Cap- 
 padocia, a violent man who showed no tact in con- 
 ciliating parties. While severely prohibiting the 
 worship and usages of the Nicene party, and even, 
 according to Athanasius, persecuting the private 
 members of the party with a refinement of cruelty, 
 
236 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 George enraged the pagans by parading, with cere- 
 monies insulting to their feelings, the purification of 
 the temple of Mithras, and won over the governor 
 of the province to lend the secular arm to the execu- 
 tion of his religious policy, and to allow of certain 
 financial claims which the archbishop asserted over 
 the Alexandrians. 16 This governor, Artemius, who 
 was in Constantinople at the time of Julian's acces- 
 sion, suffered the capital punishment which he seems 
 richly to have deserved. George experienced a yet 
 more cruel fate. He became the object of the sum- 
 mary justice of an infuriated mob, and his mutilated 
 corpse was then burned along with that of the camel 
 on which he had been exposed to the popular ven- 
 geance. On hearing of this event, Julian wrote a 
 letter to the Alexandrians in terms of reproof tem- 
 pered by compliments. He acknowledges the great 
 provocation they had received from the impious man 
 on whom summary justice has been inflicted, but 
 blames them for not ridding themselves of the griev- 
 ance by lawful and regular means. He forbears to 
 punish them, however, in consideration of his respect 
 for their tutelary deities, and also his regard for his 
 uncle who was at one time their ruler. At the same 
 time, he wrote to the Praefect Ecdicius, to cause a 
 careful search for all George's books lest any should 
 be destroyed or lost in the general plunder. Many 
 of them only contain the doctrines of the impious 
 Galilaeans, but there are also works of philosophy and 
 rhetoric, which Julian had previously borrowed in 
 order to have copies made, and he does not wish the 
 good to perish with the evil. 
 
yulians Policy against the Christians. 237 
 
 Meantime, Athanasius returned, resumed his epis- 
 copal functions, and was soon as powerful as ever in 
 the great city itself and in the whole Eastern Church. 
 He took prompt measures to heal old breaches and 
 to secure common action against the danger which 
 threatened all Christians alike. A synod of twenty- 
 one bishops was held at Alexandria in the summer of 
 362, in which rules were passed for facilitating the 
 accession of Semi-Arians to the Nicene party, and 
 for permitting a few differences, that seemed to be 
 merely verbal. But the action of Athanasius was 
 not within the limits assigned by Julian to the prin- 
 ciple of religious liberty. His indignation was deeply 
 stirred by the news that Athanasius had been bap- 
 tising some high-born Greek ladies. Accordingly 
 he wrote a very sharp letter to the Alexandrians, 
 explaining to them that recall from exile did not 
 involve resumption of episcopal functions, still less 
 liberty to pursue a course of action hateful to god- 
 fearing citizens. The offender must again be ban- 
 ished forthwith. The Emperor's desire was complied 
 with, and Athanasius withdrew. " Let us retire for 
 a little while," he said to his friends, " it is but a 
 small cloud, which will soon pass away." While he 
 in Upper Egypt resumed his life of dangerous ad- 
 venture and of underground influence, his friends in 
 Alexandria petitioned for his recall. This request 
 led to another letter from Julian to the Alexandri- 
 ans which displayed, yet more clearly than the pre- 
 vious one, his sentimental regard for the historic 
 greatness of Alexandria, his detestation of the 
 archbishop, and his total incapacity of recognising 
 
2 3 8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 anything of real religion in the attachment of the 
 Christians to their faith and to its champions. He 
 appeals to them by the memory of their pious 
 founder, Alexander ; by the honour ever shown to 
 Sarapis and to Isis in this their chosen city ; by the 
 ancient lordship of Egypt over Israel, which should 
 shame them out of their adhesion to a sect sprung 
 from the Jews ; by the glories of the Eternal Sun, 
 so vastly more to be admired than those of a mortal 
 man ; by the prosperity which the city had enjoyed 
 under the institutions it now would fain destroy ; 
 and his appeals become threats as he insists on his 
 determination never to recede in this matter. He 
 wishes that all the new doctrine were embodied in 
 Athanasius, that it might be crushed at one blow. 
 A letter like this showed the Alexandrians the fu- 
 tility of halting between two opinions. It gives 
 plausibility to the view that if Julian had lived much 
 longer, his reign could never have been held up as 
 one of religious toleration. 
 
 Another of Julian's acts which has met with severe 
 criticism both from friends and foes, seems on nearer 
 view to be logically and necessarily connected with 
 his idea of his own mission and of the corruption of 
 the times, — I refer to his edict prohibiting Chris- 
 tians from giving instruction in the public schools. 
 
 This edict we possess in two forms. In the Theo- 
 dosian Code 17 there is a provision that no man shall 
 be suddenly appointed public lecturer, but that a 
 decree of the members of the Curial Order in each 
 city must be obtained, the final approval being re- 
 served to the Emperor himself. It is not certain, 
 
yulians Policy against the Christians. 239 
 
 however, that this law was designed especially against 
 the Christians. It might still stand under Christian 
 emperors as a guard to public morals. Much more 
 explicit and definite is a document published among 
 his letters. In this he starts from certain undeni- 
 able propositions, as to the importance of good 
 principles and right opinions in those who have to 
 superintend the education of youth, and consistently 
 deduces from them a system of prohibition which 
 everyone would now stigmatise as persecuting, and 
 which even the favourable and sober-thinking Ammi- 
 anus blames as " inclemens." He states clearly that 
 whereas teachers of rhetoric and philosophy have to 
 expound the ancient classics, they cannot do so ade- 
 quately and honestly if they consider these classics 
 to have been utterly misguided even in all those 
 points as to which right belief is most important. 
 Such teachers ought, if they are honest, to give up 
 their emoluments and confine their expositions to 
 Matthew, Luke, and other writers whom they really 
 reverence. They are not to be compelled to attend 
 the temple services, but they must make choice be- 
 tween their educational profession and their Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 What we have observed in preceding chapters on 
 the general character of education at this time and 
 on Julian's way of regarding Greek letters and 
 Greek religion as indissolubly bound in one, fur- 
 nishes abundant comment on this enactment. We 
 may perhaps conclude that Julian w r as here more 
 far-sighted than his critics, that whole-hearted loy- 
 alty to the philosophers and poets of old was impos- 
 
240 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 sible to those who studied their works merely for the 
 form and disparaged all the underlying ideas. Had 
 he been a little more far-sighted still, he might have 
 discovered that by means of a classical education, 
 however maimed and one-sided, elements of old- 
 world culture would gradually filter into the Chris- 
 tian Church, and in time effect a combination of 
 many Hellenic elements with the primitive data 
 from Palestine. He wished, however, for no such 
 combination, and with the hopefulness known only to 
 a religious enthusiast, he trusted by means of sound 
 and appreciative instruction in the great thoughts 
 and the manifold life of the Greeks of old, to undo 
 all the work of the centuries during which more 
 potent influences had been undermining the Hel- 
 lenic. It is possible to disapprove his policy without 
 condemning his generous indignation against that 
 ingratitude which would turn to account the work 
 of philosophers and orators for purposes of Christian 
 apology and pulpit eloquence, while reviling the 
 memory of the great minds and characters whence 
 that work had proceeded. Some feelings of gratitude 
 to the teachers of old are certainly to be found in 
 some of the broader Christian minds of the school 
 of Origen, and even in the works of a few leaders 
 like Augustine, but they are ever mixed with a pity- 
 ing or contemptuous disparagement which might, to 
 their enthusiastic devotees, seem more insulting than 
 hatred. 
 
 It is not easy to say how much practical effect 
 this edict produced. Proaeresius, of whom mention 
 has already been made, and who was personally on 
 
jfulians Policy against the Christians. 241 
 
 friendly terms with the Emperor, resigned his chair 
 at Athens. A certain popular instructor in rhetoric 
 at Rome, Victorinus, 18 who had been slow and 
 reluctant in avowing his faith, but was now staunch 
 in abiding all its consequences, also gave up his 
 profession. A curious countermove was begun by 
 some educated Christians who wished their children 
 to receive a literary education without coming under 
 anti-Christian influences. A certain Apollinarius, 19 
 a Syrian by birth, with his son of the same name, 
 took upon themselves, with the approval and ad- 
 miration of their contemporaries, to compose a 
 Christian literature free from the barbarism of 
 the canonical books. They produced a " grammar 
 consistent with the Christian faith," a version of 
 Bible History in epic and dramatic forms, and a 
 Gospel improved into would-be Platonic dialogues ! 
 It was well that the Christian youth for whom this 
 fare was produced speedily recovered permission to 
 browse in more wholesome pastures. The genius 
 of the vigorous barbarian races might one day be 
 strong enough to cast into new form some part of 
 the sacred matter brought from the East. But it 
 was not a task to be safely attempted by the 
 decrepit intellect of Asia or Greece. 
 
 Apart from the direct action of Julian, by laws 
 and other acts of government, much was done in 
 indirect ways that aroused the discontent of many 
 Christians and challenged the criticism of the indif- 
 ferent. It must have been annoying to see turncoats, 
 like the sophist Hecebolius, who was only too ready 
 to turn again directly after Julian's death, received 
 
 16 
 
242 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 into high favour. It is melancholy to find a man 
 generally enthusiastic for truth and earnestness, 
 admiring the conduct of a pagan who had received 
 and held a bishopric in order to save the temples of 
 his diocese from spoliation. 20 Still worse was it to 
 see an advocate of civilisation and courtesy insult to 
 the face an old bishop who had come to reproach 
 him, even though the old man escaped with im- 
 punity. 21 It was a sad but undeniable fact that 
 city mobs when they inflicted outrages on the pagan 
 side, as we have seen happen at Alexandria and 
 Arethusa, and as was also the case at Gaza and 
 elsewhere, received far less castigation than turbu- 
 lent Christian communities, like those of Caesarea 
 and of Edessa. 22 Whether it be possible for a 
 religious man, in possession of far-reaching authority, 
 to try to serve the cause of religion without ever 
 being guilty of any acts of unfairness or of unrea- 
 sonable violence, it is hard to say. Certainly such 
 a height of impartiality combined with zeal was not 
 attained by the Emperor Julian. 
 
 Coin of Julian. Reverse, vota publica : Isis suckling Horus. 
 
Notes on Chapter X. 243 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER X. 
 
 1 Libanius ; Epitaph ; King's translation, p. 160. 
 
 2 First Invective, 58 ; King's translation. 
 
 3 Ep. 7, I subjoin a list of the principal letters of Julian on mat- 
 
 ters relating to the Christians, as chronogically arranged by 
 
 Schwarz : 
 Ep. 31, Recalling Bishop Aetius, Jan., 362. 
 Ep. 10, To the Alexandrians, on the murder of Abp. George, 
 
 Jan., 362. 
 Ep. 9, To Ecdicius respecting George's books, Jan., 362. 
 Ep. 7, To Artabius on the meaning of toleration, between Feb. 
 
 362 and Jan. 363. 
 Ep. 26, To the Alexandrians, ordering the expulsion of Atha- 
 
 nasius, March, 362. 
 Ep. 11, To the Byzantines, on duties of Christian senators, etc., 
 
 May or June, 362. 
 Ep. 36, To Porphyry (probably treasurer) concerning George's 
 
 books, May or June, 362. 
 Ep. 78, Story of pagan Bishop Pegasius, between Feb. 362 and 
 
 Feb. 363. 
 Ep. 52, To the people of Bostra (in Arabia) Aug., 362. 
 Ep. 42, Edict against Christian schoolmasters, between Aug. 
 
 and Nov., 362. 
 Ep. 6, To Ecdicius, respecting Athanasius, Oct., 362. 
 Ep. 51, To the Alexandrians, reproaching their desire for Atha- 
 nasius, Nov., Dec, 362. 
 
 4 Invective, i, 83. 
 6 By Schiller. 
 
 6 Especially xii., tit. i., 49, 50, and xiii., tit. i., 4. 
 
 7 v., 5 ; Bohn's translation. 
 
 8 xxi., 16. 
 
 9 Soz., v., 5. Socrates (iii., 11), says that the church had been de- 
 stroyed by Euzoi'us, the Arian bishop of Antioch. 
 
 10 Soz., v., 4. 
 
 11 Soc, iii., 15 ; Soz., v., 2. 
 
 lor viov ojjloiov rop Ttarpl uazcc itOLVTa, goS at ctyiai 
 yftacpal \syov6i re nai didadnovdi. 
 
 13 Ammianus, xxii., 5. He attributes Julian's policy, as do the 
 Christian writers, to a wish to increase disaffections, but the explana- 
 tion seems superfluous. 
 
244 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 14 He bears a very bad character in the writings of the orthodox 
 historians, but Philostorgius (iii. , 15, seg.) gives a more favorable and 
 interesting account of his career. 
 
 15 Letter xxxi., (Aetius is styled bishop in the heading to this letter, 
 but he seems not to have had any particular see.) 
 
 16 Besides the ecclesiastical historians, see Ammianus, xxii„, n. 
 
 17 Bk. xiii., tit. iii., 5. 
 
 18 See an interesting account of Victorinus in the Confessions of 
 Augustine, book viii. 
 
 19 Socr., iii., 16; Soz., v., 18. 
 
 20 For the story of the pagan bishop Pegasius, see Jul., Letter 78. 
 
 21 The blind Man of Chalcedon, see Socr., iii., 12 ; Soz., v., 4. 
 
 22 See Ep., 43. 
 
Coin of Helen : Mother of Constantine. 
 Reverse, secvritas reipvblicae. 
 
 Coin of Tarsus : Head 
 of the Tyche of the city 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 LEGISLATIVE LABOURS AND ADMINISTRATIVE 
 REFORMS. 
 
 " "Edri ydp o vojuoZ eyyovoZ rrji SiktjS, iepov dvdBrj/j,a nal 
 Bsiov dXrjQdoi rov jueyidrov Qeov, ov ovdajucoS o ys e/ucppoov 
 dvrjp ite.pl djuiKpov rtoniderai ovde dnjuddei dWd kv dixy 
 Ttdvroc dpaov rovi juev dyaQovS rijirjdEi 7tpoQvjUGD$, rovi 
 jiioxQf/po-bS de e<Z dvvajuiv iddOai KaBdrtEp iarpoS dyaQoS 
 TtpoBvjxrjdErair Jul., Or. II., 89. 
 
 " Princes are like to Heavenly Bodies which cause good or evil 
 times, and which have much veneration but no rest." Bacon. 
 
 HEN we turn from our attempt to 
 
 follow Julian's ideas and course of 
 
 \ action, in religious affairs, to inquire 
 
 \ into his general policy of govern- 
 
 I ment as shown in legislation and 
 
 administration, we have indeed to 
 
 contemplate another side of his 
 
 activity, but we do not find ourselves, as in 
 
 the study of some theorist-politicians, introduced 
 
 245 
 
246 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 to him in a new character. Julian was, as we 
 have seen, a highly-idealistic philosopher, called, as 
 he believed, to effect a reactionary reform in religion 
 and to direct the affairs of a vast empire. Yet he 
 does not appear before us in a three-fold character. 
 His principles of religious reorganisation were, as has 
 been shown, an essential part of his speculative and 
 practical philosophy. And his statesmanship was 
 entirely that of a philosophical reformer. Not that it 
 was visionary and unpractical, but rather it was as a 
 rule based upon general principles which there was 
 no attempt to disguise. These principles are, of 
 course, only such as are compatible with enlightened 
 despotism. Julian's Hellenism was not of the kind to 
 make him long to go back to the republican glories 
 of the Greek states in their golden days. In his letters 
 to great cities of old, notably to Athens, Argos, and 
 Alexandria, he shows, it is true, what we might 
 regard as an exaggerated respect for their ancient 
 prestige, but this respect is not accompanied by any 
 grants of actual power. There may have been po- 
 litical as well as financial objects in Julian's attempts 
 to encourage municipal life and prosperity. There 
 may be something more than mere sentiment in the 
 deference which he paid (as already narrated) to the 
 Roman Senate and to old Roman republican usages. 
 But republicanism in its essential principles was at 
 that time so far beyond the range of practical poli- 
 tics, that no man of sense could dream of restoring 
 it. It is possible that Julian scarcely knew that it 
 had been destroyed, or realised how much the world 
 had changed since the days of Aristotle's Politics, 
 
Labours and Reforms. 247 
 
 just as few people of our day distinguish the dif- 
 ference between our government and that which 
 existed at the passing of the Bill of Rights. As 
 "shepherd of the people" he aimed at the general 
 prosperity, not at the extension of political freedom. 
 Liberty might still furnish themes for rhetorical exer- 
 cises. The politician, whether philosopher or not, had 
 very little concern with it except in the universally 
 undesirable form of rude license in city mobs. 
 
 In one sense, of course, every man who engages 
 in public life and in abstruse speculation at the same 
 time must feel that he is leading two lives. Action 
 and thought must ever call forth different faculties 
 and necessitate the contemplation of life from differ- 
 ent stand-points. This contrast was very strongly felt 
 by Julian himself. 1 But the nature of public affairs 
 in his day was such as to make the contrast less con- 
 spicuous than at most times and places. Firstly, 
 there was little scope in the Empire at that time 
 for anything like state-craft. There were no rival 
 foreign powers to be dealt with by skilful diplomacy, 
 unless we may regard the relations of the border 
 states between the Roman and the Persian Empires 
 as furnishing a field for that art. If they did, the 
 field was not skilfully cultivated by Julian. And 
 in domestic affairs, there were no distinct political 
 parties to be balanced against one another, and 
 dealt with by measures of compromise or of subju- 
 gation. There were, of course, ecclesiastical parties, 
 but Julian would have disdained to steer between 
 them. The favour he showed to the Jews was due, 
 in all probability, to a certain limited sympathy with 
 
248 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 them and a hatred for those that rivalled them, 
 rather than to any scheme of balancing their influ- 
 ence against that of the Christians. Then again 
 the character of all legislation and of administrative 
 orders under the Empire had been imposed on it by 
 juristic theorists who loved order and elegance, and 
 liked to give reasons for every step that was taken. 
 Vested rights and interests and considerations of 
 temporary expediency might be lightly set aside. 
 On the whole the task of legislation might seem to a 
 philosophical prince one well worthy of his best 
 efforts. 
 
 Under the term legislation we must include much 
 that was of the nature of temporary enactment. 
 The commands which were issued by Julian, and 
 against which there was no appeal, have generally 
 come down to us in the form of instructions issued 
 by him to Praetorian Praefects, Governors of pro- 
 vinces, and other officials. Many of these were 
 afterwards admitted into the Code published by 
 Theodosius II. in the year 438, although even among 
 these a large number must before that time have 
 ceased to be operative. Others we find interspersed 
 in the collection of his letters public and private. 
 Of others again we know the general purport from 
 statements made by the historians and orators. 
 Many must have perished, and with regard to many 
 more our indications are slight and indefinite. Yet 
 enough remains to enable us to discern generally the 
 difficulties with which any ruler of the Empire had 
 to contend, and the. ways in which Julian endeav- 
 oured to meet them. 
 
Labours and Reforms. 249 
 
 The two great and cognate evils which seem to 
 have been felt through the length and breadth of 
 the Empire were the uncertain and imperfect ad- 
 ministration of justice and the crushing and unequal 
 weight of the public burdens. These diseases were 
 too deeply seated to be amenable to satisfactory 
 methods of cure. But palliative measures might be 
 devised, and such measures we see in Julian's legisla- 
 tion. The object everywhere seems to be to tighten 
 the control exercised by the central authority over 
 all public officers, judicial, financial, and military. 
 An attempt is made to alleviate undue pressure in 
 some quarters, even at the risk of offending powerful 
 persons ; temporary distress is met by measures of 
 temporary relief, and economy is sought in Imperial 
 and public expenditure. 
 
 The historian Ammianus 2 describes Julian's re- 
 gard for equity and right as being such as to fulfil 
 his aspiration of restoring to mankind the goddess 
 of Justice, who had been banished afar by human 
 vice and iniquity. Ammianus goes on to say that 
 in his legislative policy, at least, there were excep- 
 tional cases in which he was inconsistent with him- 
 self. These were such as concerned his religious 
 measures, in which, from our point of view, not 
 much inconsistency appears, and also those wherein 
 he showed himself indifferent to certain class-privi- 
 leges, as to which the views of Ammianus may seem 
 to us less enlightened and impartial than those of 
 his master. Libanius is less reserved in his lauda- 
 tions, and he states very emphatically that the actual 
 business of jurisdiction was to Julian not only a 
 
2 5° Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 serious duty but a keen pleasure. And when we 
 consider what the law-courts were, and in what di- 
 rection Julian's education and temperament had 
 directed his tastes, we can readily believe that lis- 
 tening to disputations was often to him a refreshing 
 amusement after military and financial business. 
 Libanius says 2 : " Though he had it in his power to 
 leave this fatigue to the most learned and incorrup- 
 tible of judges, he nevertheless offered himself for 
 one of those that try causes, and stripped himself 
 for the combat — unless anyone objects to the word 
 and says that law-cases were no combat for him, 
 but rather a diversion and a rest ; so easily did he 
 repel the deceptions of the advocates and seize upon 
 the right thing in each affair, testing false arguments 
 by true ones with incredible quickness of wit, refut- 
 ing and baffling quibbles by means of laws." 3 He 
 goes on to describe Julian's conduct in a way that 
 would make him guilty on one occasion of something 
 very like a quibble. A plaintiff was using papers 
 which the Emperor strongly suspected of being 
 forgeries. Nevertheless, as the opposite party had 
 not detected or proved the deceit, the Emperor, 
 " as slave to the law " gave his decision in favour of 
 the forger, along with a reprimand for his' crime. 
 " In this way he contrived not to infringe the law 
 and yet to punish the culprit." But the justice to 
 be obtained from the Imperial court was usually of a 
 more substantial and less pedantic kind, or it would 
 hardly have happened that, as the orator subsequently 
 relates, the court was flocked to by suitors of all 
 kinds who sought refuge from oppression and wrong. 
 
Labours and Reforms, 251 
 
 There were three ways in which the judicial action 
 of the Emperor might be applied to the settlement 
 of individual cases. 4 By means of a sapplicatio, one 
 party to a suit could, before the trial, request from 
 the Emperor either a personal hearing, or a letter of 
 instructions to a special or to the ordinary judge. 
 As a rule the rescripts in accordance with the suppli- 
 cationes were drawn up by secretaries, and the deci- 
 sions pronounced by judices without any personal 
 intervention of the Emperor. But Julian, as we 
 have seen, enjoyed the hearing of causes, and prob- 
 ably many more were judged by him in first instance 
 than by his predecessors and followers. 
 
 It is the maintenance of the two other methods 
 of Imperial intervention, however, that is the object 
 of special precaution in Julian's legislation : the ap- 
 pellatio and the relatio. The appellatio was the proc- 
 ess by which recourse was had after the decision of 
 a case by any magistrate under the rank of a Prae- 
 torian Prsefect, to the judgment of the Emperor 
 himself. Such final judgment might be delegated 
 to a special commissioner, or might be pronounced 
 by the Emperor in his consist or inm, which was a kind 
 of State-Council comprising the chief officers of the 
 Imperial household. Or he might settle the matter 
 personally in the Senate of Rome, or in that of Con- 
 stantinople, which received from Julian powers and 
 privileges equal to those of the Roman Senate. In 
 the Theodosian Code, we have laws of Julian's second 
 year, to facilitate and regulate appeals from lower 
 judges to higher, and from the higher to the Em- 
 peror himself. 6 Such appeals must be made within 
 
252 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 thirty days from the passing of the sentence, the 
 necessary written statements must accompany the 
 appeal ; and the arrangement of such cases must be 
 consigned by the provincial Vicar to some specially 
 appointed official. If such appeal has, by means of 
 terrorism, been hindered within the legitimate period, 
 it may, on cause shown, be still held valid. 
 
 The third method was that of the relatio or consul- 
 tatio. In some difficult cases, the judge, after hear- 
 ing statements and evidence, was expected to send 
 the information to the Emperor and await his de- 
 cision. In one of Julian's laws, 6 complaint is made 
 that many Rectores have failed to do their duty in 
 this respect, and such as shall offend again are sen- 
 tenced to a heavy fine. 
 
 Besides hearing and providing for the hearing of 
 difficult cases, both in first instance and on appeal, 
 Julian exerted himself to facilitate the administration 
 of justice generally, to correct anomalies, and to de- 
 liver those seeking redress from the chicanery of the 
 unscrupulous advocates who, if the descriptions of 
 Ammianus are to be trusted, constituted the bane of 
 the whole system. 7 An inscription of his reign has 
 been found at Amorgos, containing provisions for 
 the hearing of petty cases. 8 He made it impossible 
 to claim back money that had been paid for unlaw- 
 ful purposes, especially for that of bribery. 9 He 
 repealed a law of Constantine allowing married wo- 
 men under age to sell their property. 10 He put an 
 end to the system by which litigants postponed the 
 day of trial, while they summoned as parties to the 
 suit men living at great distances. 11 He made it un- 
 
Labours and Reforms. 253 
 
 lawful for a commission to expire with the death of 
 a principal party to a suit. It seems strange that 
 laws should have been needed to assert that in ordi- 
 nary cases long custom should be followed, but two 
 of Julian's laws make this provision against arbitrary 
 innovations." 
 
 More important, perhaps, in his own eyes and in 
 those of his contemporaries, were the measures he 
 adopted for moderating and equalising the public 
 burdens. 13 We have already seen that the population 
 of the whole Empire was heavily taxed, and taxed 
 in a way that seemed to cause the maximum of suf- 
 fering and discouragement with the minimum of 
 substantial advantage. The land, industry, and com- 
 merce, were subject to heavy dues, and in general 
 the responsibility for regular payment, both of Im- 
 perial and of local taxes, rested with the body of 
 leading and well-to-do citizens of every community 
 who constituted the body of Curiales or Decuriones. 
 This system was fatal to enterprise and to local pa- 
 triotism. Those concerned with the assessment of 
 taxes naturally endeavoured to restrict individuals 
 within the hereditary industrial corporations from 
 which payment could be most effectually levied. 
 And the citizens who from wealth and status should 
 naturally have been the leaders and protectors of the 
 people came to have no more eager desire than to 
 escape from a dignity of which the obligations were 
 so much more conspicuous than the privileges. In 
 these circumstances, Julian's objects, as those of any 
 serious financier in like case, were two-fold : to di- 
 minish, by economical government, the amount re- 
 
2 54 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 quired to meet demands, and to prevent, by very 
 strict enactments, the evasion of burdens by those 
 on whom they would naturally fall. He also en- 
 deavoured on some occasions to act directly on the 
 immediate causes of local distress by issuing direc- 
 tions to merchants and tradesmen. In this last ex- 
 pedient, as we shall see when we come to narrate his 
 dealings with the people of Antioch, he was not emi- 
 nently successful. Here we will consider chiefly his 
 broader lines of economic legislation. 
 
 Julian's prompt and decisive measures of palace 
 reform, which have been already described, were 
 probably dictated as much by philosophic aversion 
 to luxury as by maxims of financial policy. Impor- 
 tant as an economic reform, however, was his reg- 
 ulation of the number of Imperial guards. He 
 prescribed the rations to be allowed to those that 
 attended his person, and stopped the distribution of 
 supplies to those who ranked as supernumeraries. 14 
 He issued a decree as to the distance from their 
 quarters at which the pay of the soldiers on march 
 was to begin. 15 But the economy which he seems to 
 have most earnestly and effectually endeavoured to 
 achieve was in connection with the Cursus Publicus 
 or Public Post. 16 
 
 From the early times of the Roman Empire, the 
 maintenance of a good system of communication 
 between the distant provinces and the capital had 
 been a most essential requisite of orderly govern- 
 ment. This necessity had led to the laying down of 
 those magnificent roads which still seem to testify to 
 us more powerfully than anything else which survives, 
 
Labours and Reforms. 255 
 
 of the resolution of the Romans in their undertak- 
 ings, and their persistency in accomplishment. But 
 if our imagination would recall the appearance of 
 these roads in the fourth century, it must people 
 them with parties of travellers, hastening to transact 
 their own business or that of the State, riding or driv- 
 ing the animals most suited to the locality and to the 
 object of the journey : oxen, horses, mules, camels, 
 or asses ; and we must furnish those roads with 
 convenient stages, some being mere halting-places 
 for the change of beasts (mutationes) others accommo- 
 dated with everything that a wearied or a luxurious 
 traveller could desire to lighten the fatigues of his 
 journey and ensure the comfort of his rest {man- 
 siones). Now the maintenance of these halting-places, 
 the constant supply of carriage-animals, of beasts of 
 burden, and of food and drink for man and beast, 
 necessarily involved very heavy expenses, which 
 fell on the heads of the luckless Curiales. In earlier 
 times, some of the stronger and more statesmanlike 
 Emperors (notably Hadrian) had endeavoured to 
 relieve the provinces of so intolerable a burden by 
 ordering that the expenses of the cursus publicus 
 should be defrayed from the Imperial fiscus. Before 
 the time of which we are now treating, however, the 
 burden had been relegated to the provincial authori- 
 ties, and the testimony of historians and orators alike 17 
 shows us how they groaned under it. It was felt to 
 be the more galling in that those who were locally 
 responsible derived little if any benefit from the 
 arrangements they had to keep in working order. 
 The postal system was, in the Roman Empire, not 
 
2 56 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 designed to facilitate the journeys of private persons, 
 or the conveyance of their goods and letters. It 
 was reserved for the use of those who held high posi- 
 tions under the Imperial government and also, 
 especially after the time of Constantine, for the 
 rapid transfer of military bands and of all that apper- 
 tained to the soldiery, including even wives and 
 children. At the same time, the higher officials had 
 the power, extensively used also by the Emperors 
 themselves, of issuing free passes (evectiones) for 
 distances of a certain length, which sometimes (trac- 
 torice) even included free and comfortable accom- 
 modation at the halting-places. When synods of 
 bishops were frequently held, their use of these free 
 passes was an object of bitter complaint. At the 
 same time the Imperial agents who travelled to-and- 
 fro on their journeys of inspection were often hated 
 as spies, whose visits could well be dispensed with 
 on other than economic grounds. And it is evident 
 that under an emperor as easily swayed as Constan- 
 tius, rapacious officials had ample opportunity both 
 of obtaining means of travelling free of expense for 
 themselves and their friends, and of diverting to 
 private uses many of the provisions of animals, 
 carriages, and various necessaries, destined to public 
 purposes. 
 
 This abuse of the public post-system, Julian, ac- 
 cording to the testimony of both friends and foes, 
 set himself energetically to correct. True, he con- 
 tinued to grant free passes to the philosophic and 
 other friends whom he invited to his Court, but this 
 seems a legitimate and not excessive use of the Im- 
 
Labours and Reforms. 257 
 
 perial right. The historian Socrates says : " The 
 mode of public travelling and conveyance of neces- 
 saries he also reformed, abolishing the use of mules, 
 oxen, and asses for this purpose, and permitting 
 horses only to be so employed. These various re- 
 trenchments were highly lauded by some few, but 
 strongly reprobated by all others, as tending to bring 
 the Imperial dignity into contempt, by stripping 
 it of those appendages of pomp and magnificence 
 which exercise so powerful an influence over the 
 mind of the vulgar." 18 Libanius 19 after drawing a 
 hideous picture of the sufferings of overtaxed cities, 
 delayed and angry travellers, and overworked beasts 
 that fell dead when taken out of the yoke, says : 
 "This disorder, also, Julian put a stop to, by pro- 
 hibiting all posting that was not absolutely neces- 
 sary, and by declaring licences of this kind equally 
 dangerous to grant and to receive ; as well as by 
 instructing his officers, some to keep beasts of their 
 own, others to hire them when wanted." He goes 
 on to say that from this time forward those who 
 kept the public animals were obliged occasionally to 
 give them exercise, — a proof of the cessation of over- 
 work. 
 
 But our best evidence of what Julian did to reform 
 the system is to be found in those of his laws which 
 afterwards formed part of the Theodosian Code. 
 One of them, after complaining of the sufferings en- 
 tailed by the frequent grants of evectiones by those 
 who held the position of Vicar or of Prcesesoi a prov- 
 ince, withdraws the power of granting such privi- 
 leges from the lesser officials and restricts it to the 
 17 
 
2 5 8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 Praetorian Prsefects. The minor magistrates may 
 have a limited number of evectiones, signed by the 
 Emperor's own hand, but all use of the public con- 
 veyances shall be strictly in pursuit of necessary 
 business. The way in which provincial magistrates 
 shall arrange for the transport of military stores is 
 provided for, and care is taken that the extent of the 
 license granted in an evectio shall not be widened 
 through ambiguity in terms. The mancipes or con- 
 tractors for public work, may use the cursus with the 
 consent of the proconsul, but any use for private 
 buildings is very strictly prohibited. 20 In Sardinia 21 
 where the use of horses was not generally profitable 
 and convenient, the provincials need no longer keep 
 such in readiness, though vehicles for transport of 
 stores must still be held at command. Those who 
 want to ride must use their own horses. It is per- 
 haps but fair to Julian's predecessors and successors 
 to say that many of their laws seem to have been 
 directed to the same objects. But his were so dras- 
 tic in character, so numerous considering the short 
 period of his rule, and apparently so effectual for a 
 time, that we are justified in noting the reform of the 
 postal system as a specially characteristic part of his 
 domestic policy. 
 
 The construction and maintenance of roads was 
 not regulated on exactly the same principles as the 
 public post. They existed for the benefit of the 
 public, not of the government only. There were 
 no tolls on the Roman roads, and the work of con- 
 struction and repair seems to have been apportioned 
 by lot to certain private persons, probably the land- 
 
Labours and Reforms. 259 
 
 owners of the districts through which the roads 
 passed. A law of Julian's demands such apportion- 
 ment, and pronounces the responsibility to lie with 
 the individuals to whom each part had been respec- 
 tively assigned. 22 
 
 But even when public works constructed on the 
 scale of those of the Roman Empire are managed 
 with a view to securing economy and good order, 
 they must still require vast sums for their mainten- 
 ance, and the demands on some classes are apt to 
 become ruinously heavy. Julian's policy in assign- 
 ing financial duties involved three principles of 
 action : liberal concessions of immunity in case of 
 real poverty : the granting of exemptions only to such 
 persons, or classes of persons, as were most to be 
 encouraged : and the strict insistence that none 
 should escape such duties who could have ful- 
 filled them, but who preferred to shift them off on 
 to the shoulders of their neighbours. 
 
 Among the concessions was one made to the 
 Thracians, in answer to a petition from them. The 
 Emperor in reply 23 explains that it would not be fair 
 to the public that he should grant entire remission, 
 but he promises that part of the tax shall go to 
 maintain the military force which guarantees to the 
 Thracians peace and security, and that for two 
 periods, nothing shall be levied at all. He remits 
 the excessive tribute demanded from the Jews, 24 and 
 promises to try to induce their patriarch to lessen 
 the burdens which his authority imposed upon them. 
 The customary gift of golden crowns is no more to 
 be demanded. The province of Africa is excused 
 
260 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 from the payment of arrears, 25 except such dues as 
 consist of the precious metals. In one document 26 
 the nature of the exemption granted is liberally 
 defined. Those that were excused from the land-tax 
 were also to be free from the payments in kind 
 which went to make up what mediaeval lawyers 
 called purveyance. The mutual claims of separate 
 cities received the Emperor's attention ; thus Corinth 
 was forbidden to gather unauthorised tribute from 
 Argos. 26a 
 
 Among the classes that received special exemption 
 from ordinary payments were the highest, or official, 
 who had long enjoyed it, 27 the physicians, 28 to whom, 
 following here the footsteps of Constantine, he 
 wished to accord special favour, and those government 
 secretaries or clerks who had served in the offices 
 for fifteen years, with the semi-military agentes in 
 rebus who had accomplished a certain length of ser- 
 vice, also citizens who had reared thirteen children, 
 and soldiers who had served in ten campaigns. In 
 general, however, Julian was most anxious to pre- 
 vent the curial duties from becoming confined to an 
 ever-diminishing class. His law forcing the Chris- 
 tian clergy to fulfil their duties in this respect has 
 already been cited. Honorary citizens who had 
 accepted the franchise while still owing curial duties 
 in other cities are not to be excused from the bur- 
 dens of their new citizenship except under special 
 circumstances. Particular care is to be directed to 
 the nomination of substantial persons. It may be 
 that in this way Julian aimed at the improvement of 
 the municipal administration as well as at the regular 
 
Labours and Reforms. 261 
 
 and equitable provision of funds. Libanius says 
 that the desire to escape from municipal duties had 
 made the governing bodies of some cities to resem- 
 ble ragged and decrepit old women. 
 
 A difficulty of another kind attended the appor- 
 tioning and levying of taxes in country districts. 
 Julian had to provide, as many mediaeval and even 
 modern legislators have had to do since, that when 
 land is sold or sublet, the State loses none of its 
 dues. No man is allowed to contract himself out of 
 payment of the land-tax. 29 
 
 We have a good many laws on various matters 
 which do not come strictly under the heads of jus- 
 tice or public finance. We have the appointment 
 of a tester to guarantee the quality of coins, where 
 disputes arise as to buying and selling. There is 
 also a law to give security to land-occupiers who have 
 enjoyed possession for four months, 30 and one regu- 
 lating the force of marriage contracts. 31 A curious 
 law about funerals 32 might be regarded as belonging 
 to his religious legislation. Funeral processions 
 in the daytime, and the disturbance of graves or 
 removal of ornaments therefrom are strictly for- 
 bidden. We have already seen, and we shall have 
 to observe again, the disgust and contempt that 
 Julian felt for the custom of translating the bones 
 of martyrs, and of making their shrines a kind of 
 temple. The edict as to the appointment of profes- 
 sors and schoolmasters, as we have it in the Code, 
 is not specially directed against the Christians, and 
 might be used by the Emperor to ensure the 
 appointment of men of good character. 
 
262 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 In general we may say of Julian's legislation that 
 although, in its main objects, it resembles that of 
 such of his predecessors and successors as aimed at 
 the alleviation of the evils from which the whole 
 Empire was suffering, and to which it was doomed 
 finally to succumb, yet it is notably distinguished by 
 a very vigorous effort in the direction of retrench- 
 ment and reform, an evident desire both to do jus- 
 tice and to let it appear clearly that justice is being 
 done, and a conscientious regard for the people 
 whom he regarded as committed to his care. 
 
 As we have mentioned Julian's measures for allevi- 
 ating the oppressions felt by the Jews, we may here 
 consider his general policy towards that people, with 
 a very curious episode in his life, his attempt to re- 
 store the city and temple of Jerusalem, and its re- 
 markable frustration. Although we have references 
 both to the enterprise and to its failure in the writings 
 of Julian himself and a narrative of the affair in 
 Ammianus, and in the Church historians and ora- 
 tors, 33 yet some points require to be cleared up. 
 According to Ammianus, he undertook the rebuilding 
 of the Temple at great expense, and gave the con- 
 duct of the scheme to his learned and trusted friend 
 Alypius of Antioch, who had formerly superintended 
 the government of Britain. 34 But although Alypius 
 set vigorously to work with the assistance of the 
 Rector of the province, the operations were speedily 
 hindered by alarming globes of fire, which burst out 
 close to the foundations of the building, rendering 
 the prosecution of the work impossible and killing 
 some of the workmen. The attempt was therefore 
 
Coins selected as illustrations /or Chapter V. 
 
 Coin of Constans I. 
 Reverse, Fel ix TEMPorum Reparatio. 
 Constans and Victory on a ship. 
 
 Coin of Antioch. 
 Time of Diocletian. 
 
 Coins selected as illustrations /or Chapter XI. 
 
 Coin of Smyrna. 
 Cybele on her throne. 
 
 Coin of Tarsus. Imperial Times. 
 Obverse, Tyche of city. Reverse, seated Zeus. 
 
 Coins selected as illustrations /or Chapter VII. 
 
 • ,; ■ 
 
 Head of Isis. 
 Pharia. 
 
 , * * 
 
 Coin of Nisibis. 
 Tyche of city. 
 
 Coin of Tarsus. 
 Victory. 
 
Labours and Reforms. 263 
 
 — — ^— — — — ' — ■ ■ »r; 
 
 abandoned. When we compare this meagre account 
 with other references or narratives, we see that very 
 various views may be taken as to Julian's motives in 
 the undertaking, the share of the Jews themselves 
 in the enterprise, and the nature of the final catas- 
 trophe. 
 
 Julian's enemies saw in his attempt a blasphemous 
 endeavour to prove the nullity of certain passages 
 in the Prophets and the Gospels which would seem 
 to imply that the restoration of the Temple was 
 never to be accomplished. It seems, however, that 
 only a very forced interpretation of those passages 
 is consistent with this view, and that any such pre- 
 dictions if drawn from the Old Testament might 
 have condemned the enterprise in the eyes of the 
 Jews as well as in those of Christians. Nor can 
 Julian have been actuated by any great affection for 
 the Jews themselves or any hope of " making them 
 pagans " as one of the Church-historians says. But 
 when we consider the light in which (as already 
 shewn) he regarded the Jews and their religion, we 
 seem to find a clue to our difficulty in the statement 
 of Socrates : that he asked the Jews why they did 
 not offer sacrifices according to the Mosaic ritual, 
 and on being told that this ritual could only lawfully 
 be followed at Jerusalem, he ordered them to set 
 about rebuilding Solomon's Temple, and promised 
 to defray the expenses himself. Now as we have 
 seen, Julian objected to Judaism as a universal reli- 
 gion, but thought it respectable and even admirable 
 as a national cult; it was inferior to Hellenism, of 
 course, as Jews were inferior to Greeks, but if it was 
 
264 J ulian , Ph ilosopher and Emperor, 
 
 suited to the genius of the Jewish people, they were 
 right in maintaining their traditional loyalty to it. 
 Now if Judaism were once again localised and na- 
 tionalised, it would take its proper place among the 
 religions of the world. There need be no more fear 
 of proselytism among the adherents of more civilised 
 and enlightened systems, nor would the religion of 
 Israel figure any longer as the forerunner of the 
 religion of Christ. To restore to it those national 
 and ritual accompaniments of which it had lately 
 been deprived would make it cease to be a rival 
 force against the new and purified Hellenism, while 
 the difference between Jews and Christians would 
 tend thereby to be accentuated. 
 
 If this was Julian's idea, was the first attempt to 
 realise it made by the Jews themselves, or how far 
 did they co-operate ? The answer to this question 
 is differently given in different accounts. It is cer- 
 tain, however, that there had been a good deal of 
 uneasiness and disaffection felt among the Jews. 
 Very severe laws had lately been passed against any 
 attempt at proselytism on their part, and they may 
 well have hoped for some relief from an Emperor 
 whose views differed so widely from those of Con- 
 stantine and his sons. We know, too, from the 
 letter already cited, that Julian had corresponded in 
 a friendly way with the Jewish patriarch, whose 
 name of Hillel he hellenises into IovXoS, and of 
 whom he speaks as " my brother " — probably in 
 reference to his own office of Pontifex Maximus. 
 Most of the authorities tell us that the Jews were 
 eager to help, both with labour and money, and if 
 
Labours and Reforms. 265 
 
 this is so, the statement that the whole undertaking 
 was to be at Julian's own expense needs some modi- 
 fication. In his letter to the Jews, Julian says that 
 he hopes, on his return from the Persian Wars, to 
 see the holy city which will have been restored by 
 his labours, and there, with them, to give thanks 
 to the Most High. Meanwhile, he asks for their 
 prayers. 
 
 With regard to the catastrophe, the most probable 
 hypothesis is that there was an earthquake, similar 
 to many of which we read in not very distant regions 
 about this time, with some kind of conflagration. 
 As to the nature and also the exact place of the fire, 
 our authorities are confused. The narrative of 
 Gregory represents the flames as issuing from a sacred 
 place to which people had fled in alarm at the tem- 
 pest and the earthquake, and this has led to a conjec- 
 ture 35 that in the confusion, a mob of Jews assaulted 
 the Church of St. Helena, and were repelled with 
 burning brands. In any case events and circum- 
 stances were eminently favorable to the growth of 
 an impressive and harrowing tale. Probably Julian 
 was somewhat easily led to believe that the Powers 
 were against his proposal. He referred to the event 
 afterwards as an illustration of the mutability of 
 earthly things. It were idle to speculate as to what 
 might have been the result if he had persevered. 
 But we cannot believe that the alliance between neo- 
 Hellenism and reactionary national Judaism could 
 possibly have been very firm, or of long duration. 
 
 QFor designs of coins selected as illustrations for this chapter, seepage 262.) 
 
266 J uli an, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1 See especially his Letter to Themistius. 
 
 2 xxv, 4. 
 
 3 c «> 583; King's translation, pp. 178-9. 
 
 4 See Willems, Le droit pub lique Roman, pp. 611, 612, and authori- 
 ties there cited. 
 
 5 Cod. Theod., xi., 30. 
 
 6 Cod. Theod., xi., 31. 
 
 7 See his description of these vampires in xxx., 4. 
 
 8 See Haenel, Leg. Imp. 
 
 9 Cod. Theod., ii., 29., cf. Ammian., xxii., 6. 
 
 10 Cod. Theod., iii., 1., 3. 
 
 11 Cod. Theod., ii., 5., 1. 
 
 12 Cod. Theod., v., 12., and xi., 16. 
 
 13 See Schiller, iii., i. Sec. 6. 
 
 14 Cod. Theod., vi., 24. 1. 
 
 15 Cod. Theod., vii., 4. 
 
 16 For the Roman system of Public Post, see Dr. E. E. Hude- 
 raann's excellent little treatise Geschichte des Romischen Postwesens 
 zvahrend der Kaiserzeit. 
 
 17 See especially Ammianus, xix., 11, xxi., 16 ; Libanius, Epitaph. 
 569, etc. 
 
 18 iii., I., Bohn's translation. Hudemann (p. 144) thinks that this 
 regulation tended to limit the use of the cursus veloxas distinct from 
 the cursus clabularis. 
 
 19 viii., 5., 12., ei sea. 
 
 20 This explanation of viii., 5., 15., has been kindly given to me by 
 Dr. J. S. Reid, who considers canalem to mean here a trench from 
 which marble is cut. He suggests that the public contractors were 
 often also engaged on private buildings, so that it would be hard to 
 stop irregularities ; but commentators seem to take canalem as mean- 
 ing a cross-road. 
 
 21 viii., 5, 16. This law is sometimes attributed to Jovian. The 
 change, as Hudemann shows, is to abolish the cursus velox, retain- 
 ing the etirsus clabularis . 
 
 22 xv., 3., 2. But the text is here doubtful and obscure. 
 
 23 Ep. 47- 
 
 24 Ep. 25. 
 
 25 Cod. Theo., xi., 28. 
 
Notes on Chapter XI. 267 
 
 26 xi., 12., 2. 
 
 26a Ep. 35 : but on the authenticity and probable occasion of this 
 letter, see Cumont, p. 21. 
 
 27 xiii., 3., 4. ; vi., 27, 2. 
 
 28 xii., 1., 55., 56. See xii., 1., 50, 56. 
 
 29 xi., 3., 3- 
 
 30 Symmachus 10. 39. (apud Haenel) 
 
 31 Cod. Theod., iii., 13. 2. 
 
 32 ix., 17, 5. 
 
 33 For Julian's dealings with the Jews, and attempt to rebuild the 
 Temple see Ep. 25, Fragm. Ep. 295, Am. Mar. xxiii., I., and all 
 the Church historians, especially Socrates, iii., 20 ; Sozomen, v., 22, 
 and (the marvellous element increasing like a snowball), Theodoret, 
 iii., 20. Also Gregory Nazianzen, Second Invective, 4. 
 
 34 Epp. 29 and 30 are addressed to Alypius. 
 
 35 Of Mr. C. W. King. Julian the Emp. p. 88. Julian's rela- 
 tions with the Jews and his attempt or project to rebuild the Temple 
 are discussed in an able and interesting article by the Rev. Michael 
 Adler in the Jewish Quarterly Review for July 1893. With regard to 
 the general subject, Mr. Adler shows clearly that Julian must have 
 been intimately acquainted with Jewish institutions and with the 
 Hebrew Scripture, though not with the Hebrew language. He 
 also shows, by quotations from the Talmud, that some of the 
 arguments used by Julian against the Jews, formed part of the stock- 
 in-trade of controversial Greek philosophers. As to the Temple : 
 Mr. Adler's conclusion is that the rebuilding was merely contemplated, 
 never actually taken in hand, and that the whole miraculous story 
 (missing from contemporary Jewish writings, and from the Syriac 
 account written in the sixth century) was a fiction of Gregory Nazi- 
 anzen. . The question is certainly a difficult one, but though the 
 passage in Julian's writings is interpreted by Mr. Adler consistently 
 with his hypothesis, it is difficult for us to allow that Ammianus 
 copied from Gregory. The absence not only of any record of the 
 enterprise, but of any grateful recollection of Julian himself from con- 
 temporary Jewish writings is a puzzling fact, and some writers, e.g. 
 (Prof. Gwatkin) have thought they have found such recollections. 
 We might suggest that the same historical conditions which, on Mr. 
 Adler's theory, nipped in the bud the good-will and gratitude felt by 
 the Jews towards Julian may also have silenced their tongues as to 
 the unfortunate issue of his well-meant attempt on their behalf. 
 
Medal of Maximian. 
 
 Obverse, Head of Maximian with attributes of Heracles. Reverse, three female 
 
 figures with cornucopiae, signifying wealth. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LITERARY RECREATIONS. CONTROVERSY WITH 
 THE CYNICS. 
 
 didaodir 6 GeoS itai^Eiv. 
 
 Convivium, 306, A. 
 
 mu 
 
 " Or let my lamp at midnight hour 
 
 Be seen in some high lonely tower, 
 
 Where I may oft out-watch the Bear, 
 
 With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphere 
 
 The spirit of Plato." Milton, II Penseroso. 
 
 j|N studying Julian's relations to the 
 philosophical and religious parties of 
 his time and his labours in the camp 
 and council - chamber, we become 
 impressed with three facts as to his 
 enterprises in the world of literature : 
 first, that all through his life, and not 
 ch more at one period than at any other, he is to 
 
 268 
 
Literary Recreations. 269 
 
 be regarded as a most industrious and prolific man 
 of letters ; second, that all his literary labours were 
 closely associated with the projects and the accom- 
 plishments of his active life ; and third, that from the 
 day on which he left Athens for Milan, literature 
 was regarded by him as a recreation, noble and ele- 
 vating it is true, and even worthy of great sacrifices 
 of time and ease, but still as subordinate to the main 
 business of his life. His delight in books and in lit- 
 erary controversies seems to have been gratified 
 chiefly during the hours that he stole from sleep. 
 This fact, though creditable to him as a conscientious 
 ruler, is not without some undesirable effects on his 
 literary works. To most readers, they may smell of 
 the lamp, and they certainly bear marks of haste. 
 When we read that the Oration in Honour of 
 Helios was composed in three nights, that the 
 Oration against the Cynics was the work of two 
 days, and that the Oration in Honour of the Mother 
 of the Gods and that Against Heraclius the Cynic, 
 were each finished in one night, we are aston- 
 ished at the swiftness of his powers of thought 
 and utterance. A calm and thorough treatment of 
 his subject we cannot, under such circumstances 
 expect to find. Perhaps we may console ourselves 
 for the hastiness of the composition by reflecting 
 that more time might have given scope for a more 
 elaborately artificial style. Orations composed as a 
 labour of love, and amid the stress of serious occupa- 
 tions, bear at least the trace of not having been pro- 
 duced by a mere orator. 
 
 Considering the rapidity with which Julian wrote 
 
2 jo Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 or dictated, we can easily believe that many of his 
 writings have not come down to us. Besides those 
 that we possess, there are said to have been, along 
 with other treatises, a narrative of his wars in 
 Gaul, 1 and a Cronica* which some would identify 
 with The Ccesars. Those which we have cannot 
 all be precisely assigned to accurate dates. 3 There 
 is little doubt, however, that it is to the period of 
 his life with which we are now concerned, that we 
 may attribute the most finished and elaborate of his 
 works : The Ccesars, the Oration in Honour of the 
 Mother, and most likely one at least of the ora- 
 tions against the Cynics. 4 It was probably dur- 
 ing the next year, at Antioch, that he wrote the 
 other oration against the Cynics, as well as the anti- 
 Christian writings already considered, and" the Mis- 
 opogon, which we shall naturally consider in treating 
 of his relations with the Antiochenes. His Oration 
 in Honour of Helios may belong to either year. 
 As we have already examined Julian's religious and 
 philosophical opinions as indicated in his theological 
 writings, we may now look at some of his writings on 
 their literary side, though, as we shall see, morals and 
 religion figure largely in all that we have from his 
 hand. 
 
 Besides his prose writings, we have a few little 
 pieces of verse generally attributed to Julian, of 
 which two only are of some interest. These two 
 represent the Greek mind contemplating for the first 
 time two institutions destined to become important 
 in western civilisation, beer and the manual organ. 
 Julian seems to have made the acquaintance of the 
 
Literary Recreations. 271 
 
 favourite barbarian beverage during his residence in 
 Gaul. He dislikes the smell of it, regards it as a poor 
 substitute for the noble gift of vine-growing lands, 
 and is inclined to attribute it to Demeter rather than 
 to Dionysus. The wonder which he feels on behold- 
 ing a musical instrument the pipes of which are 
 metallic and the wind of which is supplied from 
 leather bags instead of coming from a human chest, 
 is significant and has afforded some light to the his- 
 torians of the musical art. 5 
 
 The Ccesars is a satire in prose written for the Sat- 
 urnalia of the year 362. Its object is professedly 
 playful, though to the modern taste the jesting may 
 seem a little heavy, and the interest lies chiefly in 
 the dramatic way in which the scenes and the persons 
 are brought before us, and in the light thrown on 
 Julian's views as to history, and his judgment on his 
 predecessors on the Imperial throne. 
 
 He imagines that Romulus or (to call him by his 
 name after deification) Quirinus, when celebrating 
 the Cronia, summons all the Gods to a banquet, and 
 likewise all the Emperors of Rome. The Gods seat 
 themselves on their resplendent thrones on Mount 
 Olympus. The Caesars have their feast prepared in 
 the regions about the moon. The Gods sit and ob- 
 serve the Caesars as they enter. Silenus places him- 
 self next to Dionysus, to whom he acts as a peda- 
 gogue, and makes jocular remarks throughout. In 
 fact he is represented as a kind of court-jester to the 
 Gods, and his fooling constitutes the comic element 
 of the piece. 
 
 The Caesars approach one by one. First comes 
 
272 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 Julius, whom Silenus taunts with an ambition that 
 would fain dethrone Zeus himself, and with a bold- 
 ness equal to the jester's own. Next Octavian, 
 changing colour and demeanour like a chameleon, 
 and trying to captivate Aphrodite and the Graces, 
 till Apollo turns him over to the typical Stoic phi- 
 losopher Zeno, to be made into a sensible man. 
 Then Tiberius, fierce and foul, before whom Silenus 
 brings up some of his evil deeds. Caligula wears 
 the aspect of a wild beast, and is seized by Dike and 
 given over to the Furies for punishment. Claudius 
 is twitted by Silenus as being a nobody without his 
 freedmen and his wife. Nero comes in imitating 
 Apollo with cithara and laurel, but is speedily dis- 
 graced by that indignant god. Vindex, Otho, Galba, 
 and Vitellius rush in amid wild confusion, thickening 
 the air with the smoke of burning temples and cities, 
 till Zeus and Sarapis order Vespasian to go and 
 quench the conflagration. Of Vespasian's two sons, 
 Titus is allowed to sport with Aphrodite ; Domitian 
 is chained with a collar as a dog. Against Nerva, 
 Silenus has no objections to make, but he grumbles 
 at the Gods for allowing to so good a ruler such a 
 short reign. Zeus, however, promises a succession 
 of better emperors. Trajan enters, carrying his tro- 
 phies. Then Hadrian playing the lyre and busying 
 himself with many things. Antoninus Pius is ral- 
 lied by Silenus on his stinginess. Marcus Aurelius 
 and Lucius Verus enter in fraternal harmony. Even 
 Silenus is moved with respect, though he has a word 
 of criticism for the indulgence shown by Marcus to 
 his wife and his son. Commodus stumbles and 
 
PRIMITIVE ORGAN. 
 
Literary Recreations. 273 
 
 falls, unable to follow the path of the heroes. Per- 
 tinax enters bewailing his sad fate. Dike bestows 
 her pity on him, but blames his share in the con- 
 spiracy against the son of Marcus. It is noteworthy 
 that the next Emperor, Didius Julianus, receives no 
 mention. His name was one that the present Em- 
 peror had no wish to preserve from oblivion. Sev- 
 erus comes in looking so fierce and stern as to crush 
 all the mirth out of Silenus. His sons are sum- 
 moned to justice by Minos. Geta is admitted, but 
 Caracalla sent away to punishment. The blood- 
 stained Macrinus and the effeminate Heliogabalus 
 are forced to fly. Alexander Severus seats himself 
 apart and laments his misfortune, while Silenus ral- 
 lies him on his leaving everything in his mother's 
 hands. Valerian enters with his prison-chains about 
 him, Gallienus luxurious in apparel and effeminate 
 in countenance. Both of these are prohibited by 
 ZeUs from coming to partake of the banquet. Claud- 
 ius (who, as we have seen, was Julian's ancestor) is 
 received with acclamations, and the throne is prom- 
 ised to his posterity after him. Aurelian appears 
 flying from those who would have him tried for his 
 severities before the tribunal of Minos, but Helios 
 (who had been a special object of his veneration) in- 
 terposes, declaring that he has sufficiently expiated 
 his violent deeds. Probus receives honour as a 
 builder of many cities, but Silenus reads him a 
 little lecture against over-harshness. Carus and 
 his sons are driven away by Dike. Diocletian 
 comes in attended by Maxim ian and his son, and 
 
 by the older Constantius, who treats him with a 
 18 
 
2 74 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 reverence which he declines to accept. He gives all 
 his baggage, however, into their hands, that he may 
 walk unencumbered. The Gods approve the harmo- 
 nious union of the company, but Maximian is 
 chased away on account of his impurity. Licinius 
 is turned out by Minos, Constantine seats himself 
 and keeps his throne for a long time, and his sons 
 come in after him. Magentius is rejected because 
 what good he has effected has not been done from 
 good motives. 6 
 
 On the completion of the company, Hermes pro- 
 poses, and Zeus approves, a trial of strength among 
 the Caesars. Romulus is anxious to have one of 
 them selected to receive divine honours. At the 
 request of Heracles, Alexander the Great is ad- 
 mitted to the competition. As no one makes way 
 for him, he takes the vacant seat of Caracalla. A 
 discussion thereupon arises between Silenus and 
 Romulus as to the relative merits of this one Greek 
 and of all the Romans. Romulus asserts that his 
 descendants honour Alexander above all other stran- 
 gers, but not above all their own heroes. 
 
 The method of the trial is next discussed, and it is 
 decided that, as in ordinary Greek sports, the prize 
 shall be adjudged to the victor of those who have in 
 their turn vanquished the others, so that not all need 
 contend in one heat. Accordingly chosen cham- 
 pions are called out. Alexander has been already 
 summoned to the contest. Hermes calls up three 
 other great conquerors, Julius Augustus, and Tra- 
 jan. At the request of Cronos, Marcus Aurelius is 
 added, to represent philosophy. He obeys the call, 
 
Literary Recreations, 275 
 
 approaching with dignified mien, his personal beauty 
 undiminished by the traces of his heavy labours or 
 by the simplicity of his attire. Dionysus would also 
 admit a man of pleasure. Zeus will not allow such 
 an one to enter the sacred precincts, but Constantine 
 is allowed to come to the entrance. These cham- 
 pions are now called upon each to make a speech in 
 his own behalf, after which the Gods, who love truth 
 above persuasiveness, are to submit them to a more 
 searching examination. A water-clock is to limit 
 the time allowed to each one's oration. Finally 
 Hermes utters a metrical summons to the lovers of 
 glory, of wisdom, and of pleasure, the lots are cast, 
 and Julius Caesar begins the day. Caesar seems to 
 regard Alexander as his special rival. Accordingly 
 he boasts the superiority of his conquests, showing 
 especially how much more formidable a rival was 
 Pompeius than Darius. He compares his lesser wars 
 with the great ones of Alexander, and contrasts his 
 own forbearance with Alexander's violence. Alex- 
 ander retorts angrily that though Caesar disparages 
 him, it was from him that example had been taken 
 in Caesar's career. He speaks slightingly of Pom- 
 peius, shows how he had not, like Caesar, taken up 
 arms without cause against his country ; proves the 
 superiority of Greeks to Romans by pointing to the 
 embarrassment caused to Rome by ^Etolia ; taunts 
 the Romans with not having conquered the Per- 
 sians ; claims for himself the honours of a follower of 
 Heracles ; and justifies his severities in the camp ex- 
 cept in a few cases of violence where the deeds had 
 been followed by " the saving goddess " Repentance. 
 
2 j6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 Augustus, against whom Poseidon bears a grudge, 
 and who is consequently stinted of water for his time- 
 measure, extols, when his turn comes, his conclusion 
 of the Civil Wars, his friendship for philosophers, 
 his restorative measures in the State, and his mod- 
 eration in keeping the Empire within its due limits, 
 and in withstanding temptations both to ambition 
 and to self-indulgence. Trajan, blustering in speech 
 (since he had been accustomed to leave oratorical 
 displays to others), points to his Getic and Parthian 
 Wars, the latter of which time had not permitted 
 him to finish. Silenus reminds him of the length 
 of his reign in comparison with that of Alexander. 
 Stung by his jest, Trajan makes a fresh start, and 
 appeals to the fact that his most vigorous actions 
 have always been tempered by clemency. This is 
 allowed to be in his favour by the opinion of the 
 Gods. When Marcus begins to speak, Silenus pre- 
 pares to hear some sophistical quibbles, but in this 
 he is disappointed. The philosophic Emperor makes 
 no speech, but commends himself to the judgment 
 of the Gods, as to those who are already entirely 
 acquainted with all his actions. Constantine, know- 
 ing himself to have preferred, in life, the allurements 
 of ease and pleasure to the claims of justice, is for a 
 while afraid to compare his deeds with those that 
 have just been recited. On being obliged to speak, 
 however, he boasts the superiority of his achieve- 
 ments over those of Alexander, in that he has fought 
 against nobler races of men, over those of Octavian 
 because of the more pernicious character of the 
 tyrants he has destroyed, and over those of Trajan 
 
Literary Recreations, 277 
 
 since he has again subdued the lands that Trajan 
 had conquered. The silence of Marcus he interprets 
 as giving consent to those claims. Silenus puts him 
 to the blush by comparing his accomplishments with 
 the artificial basket-gardens that were carried in pro- 
 cession at the festival of Adonis, but had no per- 
 manent root or vitality. 
 
 In order to eliminate the effects of fortune from 
 the achievements of the Caesars, the Gods institute 
 an inquiry into the ruling principles of the lives of 
 each. Alexander confesses that his object has been to 
 conquer all, but Silenus accuses him of having fallen 
 a slave to wine and to his own passions. The hero 
 vainly tries to save his reputation by logical quibbles. 
 Caesar's object was in all things to be first. But he 
 failed, Silenus says, in gaining the love of the people. 
 That of Augustus was to rule well, which he ex- 
 plains, on being pressed, as meaning to rule for- 
 tunately. Silenus taunts him with being a great idol 
 manufacturer, in that he had begun the apotheosis of 
 the emperors. Trajan's aim in life had been the 
 same as that of Alexander ; but he had suffered him- 
 self to be overcome by pleasures. That of Marcus 
 was to imitate the Gods ; not, as he is made to ex- 
 plain, by living on nectar and ambrosia, but by fol- 
 lowing the divine reason, by contenting himself with 
 little, and by doing good to as many as possible. 
 When Silenus brings up his unwise treatment of his 
 wife and son, he appeals to the authority of Homer 
 as to the kindness due to a wife and the indulgence 
 shown by Zeus to his son Ares ; he adds that he 
 could not tell what an evil disposition Commodus 
 
2 yS Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 would develop, and that the honours conferred on 
 him and on Faustina were merely customary. The 
 object of Constantine had been to obtain for him- 
 self and his friends as much enjoyment as possible. 
 Silenus accuses him of wishing to become a money- 
 changer and ending in the trade of a cook and barber, 
 and he is again put to a shameful silence. 
 
 After deliberation, the Gods award the palm to 
 Marcus, but all the Caesars are to be honourably dis- 
 missed, and each may choose a tutelary deity as 
 his special protector. On hearing this, Alexander 
 chooses Heracles, and Trajan runs after him ; Oc- 
 tavian turns to Apollo, Marcus to Zeus and Cronos. 
 Csesar, vacillating, is chosen and patronised by Ares 
 and Aphrodite. Constantine fails to find in any of 
 the Gods the image of the life he desires. He fol- 
 lows after Wantonness, who leads him to Intemper- 
 ance, and, followed by his sons, he seeks from the 
 Founder of the new religion the purification which 
 the older and sterner Gods would deny. The Gods 
 would persecute him, but Zeus spares him, in con- 
 sideration of his ancestors Claudius and Constantius, 
 and grants to Julian himself the perpetual protection 
 of Mithras. 
 
 A sketch like the foregoing gives an inadequate 
 notion of the character of this little piece, which 
 shows considerable dramatic power, besides spirit in 
 conception and facility in expression. The bitter- 
 ness against Constantine, as well as the somewhat 
 unkind treatment of some previous emperors, is an 
 indulgence allowed under the satiric form of the 
 composition, yet it cannot be regarded as creditable 
 
Controversy with the Cynics. 2 79 
 
 to Julian's fairness, especially as Constantine does 
 not figure in history as a mere votary of self-interest 
 and pleasure. There can be no doubt, however, 
 that Julian regarded the recognition of Christianity 
 as the opening of a door to all manner of licentious- 
 ness, and his severity towards the memory of his 
 uncle is due to this opinion. The idea of the whole 
 and the way in which it is executed shows a re- 
 markably vivid realisation of history on the part of 
 Julian, who always felt, so to speak, on close and 
 familiar terms with great men of bygone days. An- 
 other characteristic feature is the modern, almost 
 Christian standard of virtue acknowledged in the 
 stress laid on the clemency of Trajan, the philan- 
 thropy of Marcus, and the penitence of Alexander. 
 The point which naturally surprises us, in relation to 
 the known views of Julian on such subjects, is the 
 liberty taken with the names and even the person- 
 alities of the Gods. That Silenus should be made 
 to act as a buffoon, and that Dionysus should not 
 always appear dignified, is no matter for wonder, but 
 though certain of the Gods, especially Zeus and 
 Cronos, are treated with some respect, yet at least 
 one jest is levelled at the " father of gods and men." 
 This attitude of men towards the pagan pantheon is, 
 of course, familiar to us in satiric and comic writers 
 of the best classical period, but it is not in accord- 
 ance with Julian's views as expressed elsewhere. We 
 must not, however, regard the power of jesting with 
 sacred symbols as inconsistent with respect for their 
 authority. There was much fooling with the con- 
 ceptions of sacred lore in the mediaeval " ages of 
 
280 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 faith." Of all the faculties and proclivities of the 
 human mind, none vary so much from age to age in 
 their quality and mode of expression as do the sense 
 of reverence and the sense of humour. If some of 
 Julian's jests seem to us ponderous, it does not fol- 
 low that he entirely lacked Attic salt. And if his 
 treatment of divine beings would seem to us irrev- 
 erent, we may not conclude that he had not a pro- 
 found respect for the objects of his worship. 
 
 As to the source whence Julian derived the plot 
 of his little play, Dr. Miicke would regard the first 
 part as suggested by the wall-scene of the Third 
 Book of the Iliad, and the second part by the com- 
 petition between ^Eschylus and Euripides in The 
 Frogs of Aristophanes. But the plan of introducing 
 historical personages into rhetorical compositions 
 and moralising under cover of their names, was, as 
 we have seen, a favourite one among the literary 
 men of that age, and one to which Julian was likely 
 to feel attracted. 
 
 The two orations against the Cynics, while bear- 
 ing marks of hasty composition, and of some bitter 
 feeling against opponents whose influence seemed 
 detrimental to the interests of religion and philoso- 
 phy, are full of interest, both in showing us Julian's 
 attitude of mind towards various philosophical sects 
 and practical questions of his day, and in throwing 
 some light on a curious and little-studied school of 
 thinkers and moralists. 
 
 Julian's seventh oration Against the Cynic Hera- 
 cliiis, deals with the question " Is it consistent with 
 Cynicism to make use of allegories or myths ? " 
 
Controversy with the Cynics, 281 
 
 From his own account, Julian had felt his indigna- 
 tion aroused in listening to a discourse from a wan- 
 dering Cynic teacher, who was telling stories of a 
 kind that tended to diminish the reverence in which 
 the names and persons of the Gods were held among 
 men. He consequently examines into the uses and 
 abuses of the parabolic or allegoric method of treat- 
 ing religious and moral subjects, showing how such 
 a concession to human weakness is contrary to the 
 original idea of so stern a system as that of the 
 Cynics, and how, when it is used, it should always 
 be as a means of religious education. Some of the 
 principles he lays down are hardly in accordance, at 
 first sight, with his own practice in the composition 
 of The Ccesars. But, as we have said, it is difficult 
 for us to judge of the feelings towards the Divinity 
 expressed in that piece. It is evident that what 
 Julian most dreaded and disliked was the represen- 
 tation of the Gods under a purely human form, or 
 the assumption on behalf of actual known men of 
 the attributes and names of divine beings. And in 
 The Ccesars the all-seeing, superhuman powers of the 
 Gods are exhibited, as far as is possible, in the form 
 of a tale. The oration against Heraclius contains a 
 model-story by Julian himself, setting forth his own 
 mission as he conceived it, a story that is written in 
 pleasing and tasteful style, and that one may imagine 
 to have been produced earlier, for a private circle of 
 friends, and brought in here by way of illustration. 
 He describes the estate of a rich, avaricious, and 
 careless land-owner, on whose death there had been 
 a general scramble for his possessions, disgraced by 
 
282 ^Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 bloodshed, marriage of near relatives, and spoliation 
 of temples. In this grievous state of things, which 
 represents, of course, the Empire after the death of 
 Constantine, Zeus appeals to Helios, and they call 
 the Fates to take counsel with them. It may be 
 noticed that Julian here makes the Fates subservient 
 to Zeus, while Helios is almost equal to him, and 
 acts as a ready executor of his decrees. The decision 
 is reached that a little neglected nephew of the rich 
 man shall be rescued from the general destruction, 
 and placed under the special charge of Helios and 
 Athene. But when this child is grown to early 
 manhood, he is overpowered by the sense of the 
 family miseries and longs to hide himself in Tar- 
 tarus. Now, however, Athene and Helios cause a 
 deep sleep to fall upon him, and in a vision Hermes 
 conducts him by a rugged path into a fair flowing 
 plain, and thence to a high mountain where dwells 
 the Father of the Gods. Hermes then vanishes, 
 and the boy beseeches Zeus, — whether that name or 
 any other is best pleasing to him, — to show him the 
 way to himself. Helios then appears, and the youth, 
 in an ecstasy of joy and devotion, vows that he will 
 ever follow the service of that deity. He is found 
 to be but imperfectly armed, yet Helios and Athene 
 tell him that he must return to earth, to accomplish 
 the task assigned to him. He is prepared for the 
 task by initiation, and by a vision of his kinsman 
 indulging in ease while his possessions are being 
 wasted by knavish herdsmen. Helios prepares to 
 set the boy in his kinsman's place. At first he en- 
 treats to be spared the labours of such a position, 
 
Controversy with the Cynics, 28 
 
 o 
 
 but on being threatened with divine displeasure, he 
 promises loyal obedience. Hermes returns to act as 
 his homeward guide. Athene gives him three part- 
 ing counsels : never to prefer a flatterer to a friend ; 
 to be watchful against hypocrites ; and to honour 
 the Gods and godlike men. Then Helios comes 
 forward with a final exhortation. He enjoins the 
 boy to use his friends as friends, not as mere ser- 
 vants ; to love his subjects as the Gods love him ; to 
 trust in the divine power always working with him ; 
 and never to minister to his own fleshly desires or to 
 those of other people. He is to receive a torch 
 from Helios, so that the divine light may keep him 
 from desiring the things of earth ; a helmet and 
 aegis from Athene, and a golden staff from Hermes. 
 After a last injunction to be faithful, Helios dis- 
 misses him with the promise that if he is true to his 
 purpose, and uses his body as an instrument to that 
 end, respecting his soul as immortal, he shall at last 
 become as a god, and be admitted to the vision of 
 the Father. 
 
 The last part of the oration, which is very rambling 
 in style, is devoted to the same object as the sixth 
 oration To the Unmannerly Dogs, wherein he tries 
 to convict the Cynics of his own day of a falling 
 off from the moral greatness of the founders of the 
 sect. 
 
 The philosophers whom Julian attacks might be 
 called Neo-Cynics, as others of the day are Neo- 
 Platonists and Neo-Pythagoreans, for Cynicism, like 
 other philosophical systems, had taken a new lease 
 of life, and tried to adapt itself to changed condi- 
 
284 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 tions, when Greek thought and life had interpene- 
 trated the moral and intellectual organisation of the 
 Roman Empire. 7 Originally, the sect was Pre- 
 Socratic, but though the founder of the School, 
 Antisthenes, had struck out his particular line of 
 thought before he became acquainted with the great 
 Athenian, yet he seems to have discerned in the 
 teachings of Socrates all that he had taught and 
 more besides, and to have been ready to merge his 
 pupils and his doctrine in those of a nobler and 
 wider teacher. But the phase of Socratism which 
 he represented was distinct enough to form the 
 nucleus of a special school, and the remarkable per- 
 sonality of Diogenes emphasised yet more strongly 
 its peculiar practical characteristics. Of these two 
 and of Crates, the third among the leaders of the 
 early Cynics, Julian speaks with great respect, and 
 in order to understand his relations to them and to 
 their degenerate successors, we may trace very 
 briefly the character of their doctrine in its origin 
 and its decline. 
 
 Unlike other schools of Greek philosophers, the 
 Cynics had no theory of nature or of human life, 
 and they despised all thought that did not bear 
 fruit in action. Their root-idea may be summed up 
 in one word : self-sufficiency (avrapHEia). In Greek 
 history we are constantly familiarised with the polit- 
 ical principle that each state should be able to pro- 
 vide its own necessaries, luxuries, and means of 
 defence. This idea of self-dependence, transported 
 from the sphere of politics to that of individual life, 
 becomes the corner-stone of Cynic morality. If 
 
Controversy with the Cynics. 285 
 
 analysed, it is found to involve several far-reaching 
 consequences. It reduces to a minimum the goods 
 to be considered necessary for life and happiness. 
 The Cynic can dispense with a comfortable home 
 and warm clothing, and all but the simplest food 
 and drink. He must be free from all the vices that 
 tend to weaken mind and body. Again, Cynicism 
 involves independence of the ties of nationality and 
 of social conventions. Diogenes, who first adopted 
 the designation uo(j^07T6kir?]$, said boldly that the 
 wise man was not bound by the laws of the state 
 but by those of virtue. His motto, many times 
 cited by Julian, napaxocpa^ov to vojdKTjua (" forge " 
 or probably " countermark money "), is a pregnant 
 one, and it is natural to suppose that these words, 
 imperfectly understood, may have given rise to 
 the whole story of the forgery and punishment of 
 Diogenes in his early days. 8 It has been conjec- 
 tured 9 that they may refer to the practice of striking 
 afresh with the proper die of a State the coins 
 brought into it from abroad, in order to proclaim 
 their legal value. This signification would agree 
 excellently with the interpretation given by Julian, 10 
 but whether the literal application is to the coining, 
 the forgery, or the countermarking of money, the 
 meaning evidently is that no established usages, 
 however high their traditional authority, are to be 
 accepted as binding on the philosopher until they 
 have obtained his individual assent and received the 
 stamp of his approving reason and conscience. 
 
 As might be naturally expected, the Cynics cared 
 little for art and literature and still less for meta- 
 
286 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 physical speculations. Books were worthless to 
 them in comparison with the principles stored in the 
 mind ; difficult questions were best solved by prac- 
 tice ; abstruse terms had no significance to those 
 who cared only for practical life. Their contempt 
 for tradition and authority extended to matters of 
 religious belief and observance. The early Cynics 
 were not atheists, but they ridiculed the popular 
 mythology, held aloof from national rites, and de- 
 nounced prophets and soothsayers as contemptible 
 charlatans, while they received with a scornful scep- 
 ticism all suggestions of a world after death. Thus 
 Diogenes, in words quoted with approval by so re- 
 ligious a Hellenist as Julian, asked a youth who de- 
 sired initiation into the mysteries : " Thinkest thou 
 that in Hades the initiated publicans will enjoy 
 bliss, while Epaminondas and Agesilaus are wallow- 
 ing in the mire?" The idea that righteousness of 
 life is necessary in a man who would enjoy the Di- 
 vine favour is strongly maintained by the leading 
 Cynics, and it may have disposed many noble-minded 
 men to regard them with indulgence while feeling 
 both repugnance and fear at their general destruc- 
 tive tendencies. Their chief merit is their respect 
 for reality and hatred of cant in every form. Antis- 
 thenes, like Socrates, insisted on definitions of terms 
 in common use, and ridiculed some of the extrava- 
 gances of popular democracy. In their dealings 
 with their neighbours, the influence of the Cynics 
 tended to sweep away unmeaning distinctions and 
 to clear up the mists of prejudice. They despised, 
 or affected to despise, the verdict of the vulgar, yet 
 
A POET, OR PHILOSOPHER. 
 
 IVORY DIPTYCH. 
 
Controversy with the Cynics. 287 
 
 respected human nature as capable of achieving the 
 highest excellence. Diogenes declared that virtuous 
 men are the best likenesses of the Deity. 
 
 The third of the Cynics, Crates, though by no 
 means an attractive character as depicted by Dio- 
 genes Laertius, seems to have been a man of singu- 
 larly noble and upright life, if we may judge by 
 some details given by Julian " as well as from some 
 verses of his, cited both by Julian and by Clement 
 of Alexandria. 12 His prayer was that he might have 
 enough of the necessaries of life to be free from ser- 
 vile anxiety, that he might be useful, not merely 
 agreeable, to his friends ; and that his treasure 
 might not be of material things, like that of a beetle 
 or an ant, but of righteousness, from which he might 
 offer sacrifices to Hermes and the Muses. He had 
 given up all his property, and passed his time in 
 trying to reconcile enmities and feuds among his 
 friends. 
 
 Few, however, of the Cynics of the succeeding 
 generation approached within a measurable distance 
 of the moral elevation of Crates. For a considera- 
 ble space of time, there seems to have been no men 
 of note belonging to the school, and meantime what 
 was most admirable in their teaching had become 
 the possession of another sect, that of the Stoics. 
 The doctrine of the Porch strongly resembles that 
 of the Cynosarges, but toned down, and made more 
 compatible with social order and intellectual culture. 
 Not that the Stoics confined their efforts to a miti- 
 gation of Cynic doctrine by the negative process of 
 eliminating its harsher elements. Rather may they 
 
288 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 be said to have penetrated to its central idea and to 
 have given it a wider and grander significance. The 
 aim of both sects was the same : " to live according 
 to Nature " ; but while the Cynic referred all things 
 to his own individual nature, his wants, preferences, 
 and idiosyncrasies, the Stoic rose to the conception 
 of a universal nature embraced by one undeviating 
 law, to the authority of which all individuals, whether 
 Gods or men, must be subservient, save only the 
 supreme law-giver Zeus. And while cosmopolitanism 
 in the Cynic sense probably meant little more than 
 a capacity for living under very diverse conditions 
 and for regarding men in general apart from their 
 nationality, the genuine Stoic felt his citizenship 
 with all men on earth who were with himself mutu- 
 ally dependent on the kind offices one of another, 
 and bound with him in obedience to the common 
 law of Nature. 
 
 Accordingly when Cynicism again lifts its head in 
 the first century of our era, it appears as a kind of 
 left wing of Stoicism. The raison-d } etre of Neo- 
 Cynicism is to be found in the need of a practical 
 protest against the novelties and the follies of a 
 superficial and highly conventionalised society. The 
 best representative of the school (who, however, is 
 not mentioned by Julian), Demonax the Cypriote, 13 
 was a friend of Epictetus, and the Cynic Deme- 
 trius was friendly with Seneca. One of the disserta- 
 tions of Epictetus 14 shows the very respectful 
 attitude towards Cynicism taken by the best of the 
 later Stoics. The philosopher is here arguing with 
 a youth who, in his enthusiasm for the Cynics, thinks 
 
Controversy with the Cynics. 289 
 
 of adopting their mode of life. The tone of Epic- 
 tetus is like that of a pious Catholic towards an eager 
 aspirant after the monastic life. He tries to show the 
 young man how great is the honour at which he is 
 aiming, and induces him to think well before com- 
 mitting himself to a course which may prove beyond 
 his moral strength to attain. For a Cynic who has 
 no dark corners in his life should be as pure as sun- 
 light in all his thoughts and ways, and his function 
 towards his fellow-men is to act as a messenger sent 
 from Zeus to guide them into the paths of virtue. 
 
 Now between the time of Epictetus and that of 
 Julian, Cynicism had had about two and a half cen- 
 turies in which to degenerate. The whole system 
 lent itself with peculiar ease to caricature, and it was 
 ever likely to attract followers from among those 
 who regarded it chiefly as a means of emancipation 
 from social restraint and who developed to a high 
 degree its most repugnant features. And these cer- 
 tainly were very unamiable. As Julian well says, 16 
 Cynicism is like a noble city, abounding in sacred 
 temples and stately houses, whence everything that 
 might excite disgust or suggest meanness and squalor 
 had been ejected without the gates, so as to greet 
 the traveller on his approach. And apart from the 
 essential ugliness of their system, Julian had some 
 special grounds of dislike against the Cynics of his 
 day. Heraclius, against whom he wrote Oration VII., 
 seems to have shown a servile deference to Constan- 
 tius and an absence of regard for Julian himself. 
 He had also, following the fashion of the Cynic 
 QEnomaus, controverted the religious beliefs of 
 
290 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 those who adhered to the Hellenic worships, and 
 used scurrilous language on subjects that lay very 
 near to Julian's heart. He regards the Cynics as 
 playing into the hands of the Christians, and as fol- 
 lowing the fashion of those Christian ascetics who had 
 won glory for themselves and support from their co- 
 religionists by affecting a mode of life superior in 
 sanctity to that of the vulgar. At the same time, he 
 regards this assumption as a mere pretext to hide 
 luxurious and unrestrained habits indulged in private. 
 And finally, as a Neo-Platonist, Julian felt no sympa- 
 thy with the Cynic tendency to depreciate all culture 
 and to set aside all traditions of the past. But 
 since his own morality was, as we have seen, entirely 
 of the Stoic type, he shows the same reverence as 
 does Epictetus for the pure and uncorrupted princi- 
 ples of the original Cynic code, and for the charac- 
 ters of the three great Cynics. The special function 
 of Cynicism is, he says, to teach by deeds, as other 
 philosophers did by words, how it is possible to 
 scorn convention and live according to the simple 
 dictates of Nature. But the Cynics of his day are 
 false to their mission. They keep the outward garb 
 of the sect, yet they indulge their lowest appetites, 
 truckle to those in power, use smooth words to cap- 
 tivate the vulgar, instead of giving the warning bark 
 of the watch-dog, and, worst of all, they speak with 
 impious license against the Gods. In vigorous and 
 earnest language, Julian exhorts them to examine 
 and see whether they have sufficiently overcome the 
 " many-headed monster " within to be able safely to 
 set all human conventions at defiance. If they have 
 
Controversy with the Cynics, 291 
 
 a hankering desire after the good things of this life, 
 they should avoid touching them even with the 
 finger-tips. Let no one be so bold as to neglect 
 outward decency, as Diogenes did, till he has shown 
 himself equal to Diogenes in all his nobler qualities. 
 For it is not the coarse cloak, the wallet, and the 
 staff that make the Cynic, but rational discourse 
 and a well regulated life. 
 
 In the course of his discussion, Julian dwells on 
 certain principles which have been already shown to 
 lie at the basis of his whole system of thought and 
 morals — the essential unity of all philosophy ; its 
 practical aim ; the obligation to live above-board 
 and to have no secret corners in the soul wherein 
 unworthy desires and thoughts may lie concealed 16 ; 
 and beyond all, the need of an infinite aspiration 
 after a Divine life to enable men to live purely and 
 bravely on this earth. 
 
 Although Julian regards the Cynics as leagued 
 against him with the Christians, we find, in the 
 Christian Fathers the almost unanimous expression 
 of a sentiment closely corresponding to that of the 
 Emperor, as to the disgusting boldness and con- 
 temptible charlatanry of the wandering Cynic teach- 
 ers. True, the Fathers themselves many of them 
 forged weapons against pagan superstitions from 
 the material provided by the destructive works of 
 CEnomaus and others. Yet Justin, 17 Chrysostom, 18 
 and Augustine 19 cite the Cynics as examples of 
 shamelessness and hypocrisy. In times a little later, 
 we find them associated, in the minds of a few 
 writers, with some early Christian communities of 
 
292 yuliarii Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 ascetics, nor is it impossible that there may have 
 been some intercourse between such Christian com- 
 munities. But to trace the subsequent history of 
 Cynicism, and the relation of Pagan to Christian 
 asceticism lies far beyond our present task. The 
 controversy between Julian and the Cynics illustrates 
 the many varieties of schools and intellectual ten- 
 dencies with which the Emperor was at various 
 times brought in contact, and also his worthy ambi- 
 tion, in the case of all non-Christian sects, except 
 perhaps the Epicurean, to do justice to the elements 
 of truth contained in their teaching, while guarding 
 against all dangers of extravagance and one-sidedness 
 in thought and action. 
 
 Reverse to medal of Constantine. 
 Seated figure receiving a trophy 
 and gifts. 
 
 Constantine the Great. 
 Bronze medallion. 
 
Notes on Chapter XIL 293 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1 Zosimus, iii., 2. 
 
 2 Or. iv., 157, C. 
 
 3 For the chronology of Julian's writings, see the pamphlet of 
 Schwarz which I have frequently cited, pp. 6-15. 
 
 4 See Libanius, Epit,, 574. Schwarz thinks that Or. vi. must have 
 been composed at midsummer, and so before he left Constantinople, 
 from a reference to the solstice in p. 181. But the proof does not seem 
 to me conclusive. 
 
 5 Version of Julian's epigram on the Organ (given by E. A. G.) : 
 
 Strange reeds are these ; surely it is a crop 
 Wild-springing from another " brazen field." 
 No human breath that shakes them, but the blast. 
 Springing from leathern cave, is led along 
 Beneath the roots of various pierced reeds. 
 And a skilled player, nimble of his hands, 
 Touches the rods that commune with the pipes 
 And lightly dance and so press out the tune. 
 (Cf. Hopkin and Rimbault, History of the Organ, p. 15.) 
 
 6 It seems rather strange that there should be no mention of Ga- 
 lerius, and that Magnentius should be placed among the lawful 
 Emperors. 
 
 7 See an interesting monograph by Bernays, Lucian und die Cyni- 
 ker, published as an Introduction to his translation into German of 
 the Death of Peregrinus. 
 
 8 See his biography, by Diogenes Laertius. 
 
 9 For this suggestion I am indebted to Prof. P. Gardner, who was 
 led to the supposition from his studies of numismatics. 
 
 10 Especially in Or. vi., 188 ; and Or. vii., 211. 
 
 11 Especially in Or. vi., 201. 
 
 12 Stromata, ii., 492. Jul., Or. vi., 199. 
 
 13 See the very charming life of Demonax, attributed to Lucian, but 
 probably not from the same pen that wrote the Death of Peregrinus. 
 
 14 III., 22. 
 
 15 Or. vi., 186, 187. 
 
 16 For the idea as to the absence of all need for secrecy in a well 
 
294 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 regulated life, compare the first of the new letters in the Mavpo- 
 yop8dreio$ /3tj3A.ioQ^H?/. 
 
 17 See his Second Apology . He calls the Cynic Crescens, qnAoipcxpo's, 
 qn\6yio}iito < s i and (piXodot-oS. 
 
 18 Homily xvii. 
 
 19 De Civ. Dei, (lib., xiv.). 
 
Coins of Antioch. 
 A Goddess in her Temple. Tyche of the City. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 JULIAN AND THE ANTIOCHENES. 1 
 
 362-3. 
 
 firjitoTE ovv, go <piA.e, vo/uid^S sivai ZhsvOspoS, cx-XP 1 ^ ov 
 ya6rr}p <xpx El 6° v • . . o'i te tov rcapadxsiv rd itpoS 
 rjdorfjv uai ravra ditoHooXvdai uvpioi, nai si tovtoov Se 
 ysvozo HpsiTTGov, egoS olv dovXsvyS rai&TGOv itoXXaoy So^cciZ, 
 ovitoo zrji EAsvQEpicti sQiysS, ovds sysvdoo tov rsKrapoS. 
 
 Julian, Or. vi., 196, C. 
 
 How happy is he born and taught 
 That serveth not another's will — 
 
 Whose passions not his masters are, 
 
 Whose soul is still prepared for death 
 
 Untied unto the worldly care 
 
 Of public fame or private breath. — Wotton. 
 
 |HILE planning and executing the vari- 
 ous administrative reforms and the 
 f literary works, controversial and play- 
 ful, which we have just been consider- 
 ing, Julian was engaged, throughout 
 the year 362, in preparations for a re- 
 newal of the Persian War. He must 
 indeed have regarded the prosecution of that war as 
 
 295 
 
296 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 
 
 one of the duties involved in the acceptance of the 
 Imperial dignity. Nor, considering the ruined state 
 of the frontier provinces, and the constant danger of 
 a serious invasion, can we regard that view as in any 
 sense unreasonable. Whether, as some of the Church- 
 historians say, the death of Constantius encouraged 
 the Persians to attempt more daring enterprises, or, 
 as seems more probable, the accession of a prince 
 who had already won great military fame in the 
 West, led Sapor at once to desire negotiations, 
 Julian must have felt sure that he could only win a 
 secure and honourable peace by forcing the Great 
 King to feel more respect for the Roman arms. It 
 seems, therefore, hardly reasonable to charge him 
 with rushing needlessly into war, 2 still less are we to 
 regard his Eastern campaign as part of a great plan 
 for crushing the Christians everywhere. Doubtless, 
 a successful war would have done much to increase 
 his authority, and so would have facilitated many of 
 his projects of reform. But apart from any such 
 consideration, the continuation of the Persian War 
 was inevitable. And Julian determined that, if he 
 led an expedition at all, it should be on a grand 
 scale. 
 
 The length of time which elapsed before the 
 campaign was actually begun, and which is rather 
 remarkable, considering the usual celerity of all 
 Julian's enterprises, is to be accounted for partly by 
 the Emperor's anxiety to set on foot the reforms 
 we have been considering, and partly by the extent 
 of the preparations required. These preparations 
 were carried on first at Constantinople and then at 
 
ANTIOCH AND THE ORONTES. 
 
 STATUE IN THE VATICAN. 
 
363] Julian and the Antiochenes. 297 
 
 Antioch. Early in the year 362 he received ambas- 
 sadors from many Oriental states, including Ar- 
 menia, 8 and probably discussed terms of co-operation 
 in the war. It was most likely in the early summer 4 
 that he left Constantinople for Antioch. He had 
 named as officers of the army Victor and Hormisdas, 
 the Persian fugitive whom we have already seen in 
 the company of Constantius. They probably had 
 to direct the muster of troops and the gradual trans- 
 ference of the various companies from Europe into 
 Asia. 
 
 Julian and his immediate attendants did not pur- 
 sue the most direct route into Syria. He seems to 
 have chosen to visit those cities which most required 
 his presence or which were most interesting to him 
 from considerations of religion or of old acquaint- 
 ance. He stayed on his way at Nicomedia, a city 
 familiar to him in his younger days, which had lately 
 suffered from a terrible calamity : a great portion of 
 it had been shaken down by an earthquake. Julian 
 explored the ruins, exchanged greetings with those 
 of his old acquaintances who remained in the re- 
 duced and impoverished city, and contributed a 
 considerable sum of money towards the work of resto- 
 ration. After proceeding to Nicaea, he turned south- 
 wards to visit Pessinus in Galatia, in order to do 
 honour to the famous abode of the Great Mother. 
 He then went on to Ancyra, the inhabitants of 
 which seem to have been of litigious nature, for 
 they overwhelmed him with complaints and difficult 
 questions, of a public and of a private character. 
 Here, as elsewhere, Julian sought to show the dif- 
 
298 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 
 
 ference in his disposition from that of his predeces- 
 sor, by treating with scorn all accusations based on 
 an interested sycophancy. On hearing that a rich 
 citizen had ordered a purple robe, he ordered that 
 his accuser should convey to him a pair of purple 
 shoes. In examining into claims of exemption from 
 public duty, he showed that stern determination to 
 let no man off too easily, of which we have seen 
 abundant traces in his legislation. 
 
 On his way from Phrygia to Cilicia, through Cap- 
 padocia, Julian wrote a pleasing letter 6 to a certain 
 philosopher named Aristoxenus, whom he did not 
 know personally, bidding him come to him at Tyana, 
 and show that there was at least one pure-blooded 
 Greek dwelling in those lands. He is not to hesitate 
 to place himself among the Emperor's friends. All 
 are naturally friends to one another that have the 
 same aspirations towards what is best. Similarly at 
 Pylse, on the Cilician frontier, Julian welcomed an 
 old philosopher-friend, Celsus by name, now acting 
 as Rector of the province, and took him up into his 
 chariot. Wherever Julian went, he was likely to 
 pick up philosophers by the way and add them to 
 his cortege, as Frederick William of Prussia picked 
 up giants for his guards. He passed on through 
 Tarsus, and arrived at Antioch just as the inhabi- 
 tants were celebrating the festival of Adonis. The 
 sounds of mourning which accompanied the doleful 
 ceremonies seemed to betoken an unhappy issue to 
 the sojourn thus inauspiciously begun. 
 
 It needed, however, neither omens nor prophet to 
 predict that Julian's relations with the Antiochenes 
 
ifr', % 
 
 «m,, 
 
 llli. 
 
 wmmmmsi. 
 
 mmimmsme... 
 
 w&mmSmm, 
 
 msAi^m^migfy::^ 
 
 
 slisilllllll 
 
 vmmm mvmsmm 
 
 THE CILICIAN GATES. 
 
363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 299 
 
 were not likely to continue easy and cordial. The 
 physical and moral atmosphere of the voluptuous 
 city which Ammianus calls " Orientis apicem pul- 
 chrum " was almost as dangerous to Julian as it had 
 proved to his brother Gallus. He might be proof 
 against its enervating influences, but the contentious 
 spirit which ran riot among the people was not so 
 easy for him to withstand. The great drawback to 
 his achieving any measure of success was that while 
 the city was divided into numerous factions, not 
 one of them seemed to the Emperor deserving of 
 sympathy, and his conduct ended in setting them 
 all against him and in wellnigh uniting the seldom 
 unanimous city in a common aversion to himself. 
 The Christian majority was divided into three par- 
 ties, to all of which he desired to do justice as he 
 considered it, without feeling the slightest interest 
 in the points at issue. At Antioch, while Arianism 
 or Semi-Arianism had of late been dominant, the 
 section which held the Nicene creed was again di- 
 vided, on what seems to have been a purely personal 
 question, into two factions that could never worship 
 together. The Pagan minority, while not very 
 zealous for their religion, loved dearly everything 
 of the nature of games and shows. The contempt 
 of amusements and the ascetic mode of life always 
 exhibited by the Emperor were not likely to com- 
 mend his creed to those whose chief associations with 
 the Pagan deities were of luxurious and indecent 
 oriental rites practised in the temples and groves of 
 Daphne. The sober and moral element among the 
 people to which, in the next generation, John 
 
300 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 
 
 Chrysostom could appeal, was equally incapable of 
 appreciating his anti-Christian zeal and enthusiasm 
 for sacrifices. The sect of Pagan-Puritans with 
 whom he might have expected to feel some sym- 
 pathy, the Cynics, were not unrepresented here, but, 
 as we have seen, he disliked them as depreciators of 
 culture and as unfaithful to their original principles. 
 He felt no sympathy with the cry of the lazy mob 
 for bread and games, still less if possible with the 
 covetous eagerness of the rich to profit by the 
 necessities of the poor. He was anxious to reduce 
 public expenditure, but had no toleration for the 
 lazy longing to escape all public burdens. And a 
 series of events occurred which speedily brought 
 into play all the latent causes of mutual disaffection. 
 There was, however, one man in Antioch who 
 enjoyed the esteem both of Julian and of the Anti- 
 ochenes, and who seems to have tried, with some 
 measure of success, to mediate between them. What 
 Libanius tells us in his autobiography 6 and his ora- 
 tions is certainly to be taken with a grain of salt, 
 and it is by no means always consistent with itself, 
 but his account of his relations with the Emperor 
 at this time seems in the main fairly in accordance 
 with what we know of the characters of both. Li- 
 banius thought it beneath his dignity to wait on the 
 Emperor before he was specially summoned. He 
 desired that the Emperor should miss his presence 
 and inquire after him. Julian did so, at a sacrifice 
 made in the temple of Zeus Philios, and sent him a 
 message on a tablet which gave the sophist an oppor- 
 tunity for repartee. Libanius continued to absent 
 
363] Julian and the Antiochenes, 301 
 
 himself, considering, apparently, that the Emperor 
 had not been sufficiently cordial in his advances. 
 But by waiting he obtained his reward. Julian sent 
 for him, made what Libanius interpreted as an 
 apology, and invited him to the mid-day meal. 
 When Libanius replied that he could only eat late 
 in the day, Julian asked him to come in the even- 
 ing. Even the excuse of chronic headaches did 
 not make the Emperor impatient. Libanius finally 
 promised to come when invited, and from that time 
 forth the two had many " feasts of reason " together. 
 Libanius refused, he says, all offers of offices and 
 emolument, and the Emperor was delighted to find 
 a man who cared more for his friendship than for 
 his power of rewarding his friends. Consequently, 
 when Julian had quarrelled with the Senators, Li- 
 banius spoke on their behalf without incurring the 
 Imperial displeasure. He was chosen to make an 
 oration when, at the beginning of the year 363, 
 Julian entered on the consulship in company with 
 Sallust. The Emperor seems to have bestowed on 
 the sophist compliments to his heart's content. He 
 corresponded with him after leaving Antioch for 
 Persia. He promised, Libanius says, to receive 
 favourably communications from the offending citi- 
 zens if uttered by their illustrious representative. If 
 all the Antiochenes had been of the mind of Li- 
 banius, the months which Julian passed among 
 them would have been pleasanter and more peaceful 
 for both parties. 
 
 At first Julian won favourable opinions from the 
 common people by his assiduous and strict adminis- 
 
302 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, [362- 
 
 tration of justice, though they probably felt more 
 puzzled than pleased when he prevented them from 
 wreaking their wrath against Thalassius, a former 
 opponent of Gallus, by saying that the quarrel be- 
 longed primarily to himself, and by settling it without 
 delay. In a similar spirit he accorded full pardon 
 to one Theodotus of Hierapolis, who grovelled be- 
 fore him as he went to sacrifice on Mt. Casius, and 
 confessed, what Julian had already heard, that he 
 had petitioned Constantius, on his last march east- 
 wards, to send Julian's head for exhibition in his 
 native town. Such men were scarcely worth pun- 
 ishing. Others of more formidable character re- 
 ceived harsher measure. 
 
 But the favour he might win in the law-courts 
 was lost again in the temples and the senate-house. 
 The extravagance of Julian's sacrifices might consti- 
 tute a real grievance in a time of scarcity, and sen- 
 sible men were provoked by spectacles of gorging 
 and drunkenness resulting from the festivals among 
 the soldiery, especially the Petulantes and Celtae, 
 who often had to be carried home incapable to 
 their quarters. Julian boasted of his barbarian 
 fighters that the mimes and other amusements of 
 the refined Antiochenes seemed to them utter mad- 
 ness. Yet he felt obliged to indulge some of their 
 grosser proclivities if he would retain their allegiance 
 and keep them well affected to the Gods of Greece. 
 Some of his measures, however, were of a kind not 
 only to arouse disgust among the right-minded, but 
 to stir up a fiery fanaticism among the vulgar. 
 
 Antioch stood almost above all other cities of the 
 
363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 303 
 
 time 7 in the magnificence of her buildings, — the 
 palace of kings and emperors, the baths, race-course, 
 theatre, and aqueducts, with the shady porticoes 
 running along the evenly laid streets, delightful to 
 the ease-loving citizens, and the temple and statues 
 of the Gods. Here, as elsewhere, the honours paid 
 to royalty, to the people, and to the Divinity were 
 closely associated in thought and deed, for some of 
 the emperors who had been benefactors of the city 
 received in it Divine honours, and the races which 
 delighted the citizens were run in honour of the 
 Gods. In fact, Daphne, a beautiful suburb some 
 miles from Antioch, had been made bv the succes- 
 sive benefactions of Seleucid princes and Roman 
 emperors, into a little Elis, where stood a noble 
 temple of Apollo, built by Seleucus, and one of 
 Zeus, the foundation of Antiochus Epiphanes, each 
 containing a colossal statue of the God. Here at 
 the traditional seasons were celebrated races and 
 other contests modelled on those of Olympia, and a 
 temple dedicated to Nemesis was supposed to indi- 
 cate the severity of the contests and the justice of 
 the awards. There were other sacred places in the 
 neighbourhood, to say nothing of numerous temples 
 in Antioch itself. There was a celebrated temple to 
 Zeus on Mt. Casius, where a sacrifice by the Em- 
 peror Hadrian (a great benefactor of the city) had 
 been miraculously consumed. But the choicest 
 abode of the tutelary gods of Antioch was Daphne, 
 where they declared their will by means of sacred 
 streams. One of the most famous of these Castalian 
 wells had long ago been closed, it was said, by the 
 
304 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 
 
 prudence or the superstition of the Emperor 
 Hadrian. This Julian determined to reopen, and 
 accordingly he issued orders for its purification, by 
 the removal of all bodies that had been buried in 
 the vicinity. Now during the rule of Gallus, a pro- 
 test had been made against the Pagan orgies which 
 at times defiled the Daphnic groves, in the shape of 
 a transference to that spot of the bones of the mar- 
 tyr Babylas. Julian naturally resented this, and he 
 also felt disgusted at the neglect into which some of 
 the sacred rites had fallen. In the late summer, on 
 the occasion of a great festival, he went to celebrate 
 it in the temple, and was met — not, as he expected, 
 by jubilant crowds with incense and victims, but by 
 a priest with one goose provided at his own expense. 
 This led the Emperor to address a strong remon- 
 strance to the Senate. He upbraided the Antiochenes 
 with being more chary in their gifts on public occa- 
 sions than any petty Pontic village, though he finds 
 them profuse enough in their private festivities and 
 in letting their wives bestow gifts on Galilaeans pro- 
 fessing poverty. Through their fault, he said, the 
 God had forsaken his temple. But unfortunately 
 for Julian, both the zeal and the numerous con- 
 course of people which the festival of Apollo failed 
 to call forth were ready enough to appear in honour 
 of St. Babylas, as his remains were conveyed back 
 from Daphne to the place in the city which thence- 
 forth became their shrine. Men, women, and chil- 
 dren helped in the sacred task, singing as they 
 marched the words of the psalm : " Confounded are 
 all who worship graven images, who boast them- 
 
363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 305 
 
 selves in idols/' This ebullition of enthusiasm for 
 the popular martyr and of spite against the unpopu- 
 lar Emperor gave colour to the suspicion that icono- 
 clastic zeal was the cause of the subsequent catas- 
 trophe. On the 22d of October, the temple in 
 Daphne, the joy and pride of the city, was de- 
 stroyed by fire. It was but natural that suspicion 
 should fall on the Christian zealots, especially as 
 some had expressed dissatisfaction at recent addi- 
 tions to the temple. Inquiry was made, perhaps 
 aided by torture, yet no satisfactory solution was 
 obtained. It was asserted that a devout philoso- 
 pher, Asclepiades by name, had been burning wax 
 candles before a silver statuette of Cybele, which he 
 had placed at the feet of the colossal Apollo of 
 Daphne, and that an accidental conflagration had 
 occurred therefrom in the night, when there was no 
 help at hand to extinguish the flames. If this story 
 were accepted, the Antiochenes might be convicted 
 of gross negligence, but of no wanton destructive- 
 ness, and the retaliatory measure taken by Julian, 
 the prohibition of services in their principal church, 
 would appear somewhat harsh and unjust. 
 
 But the purses of the Antiochenes were probably 
 at least as dear to them as their religious principles, 
 and in this region also they were subject to Julian's 
 attacks. We have observed his determination to 
 allow no qualified person to escape the pecuniary 
 and other burdens attached to membership in the 
 Senate. The illegal and corrupt way in which the 
 senators recruited their members was one of his 
 grievances against them, and he set his face against 
 
306 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 
 
 what he regarded as insufficient claims of exemp- 
 tion, on the ground of clerical profession, half-birth, 
 or recent domicile. But more serious than even 
 these regulations was his attempt to regulate the 
 price of corn, — a rock on which his brother Gallus 
 had made shipwreck many years before. 
 
 The autumn of 362 was marked by great physical 
 calamities. So great was the drought that many 
 springs were dried up. The city of Nicaea and the 
 remains of the unhappy Nicomedia suffered severely 
 from another earthquake. A general scarcity of 
 provisions set in, and, as usually happens in such 
 cases, the rich were accused by the poor of hoarding 
 their supplies in order to obtain a harvest for them- 
 selves from the general disaster. The people of 
 Antioch, assembled in the circus, besieged the Em- 
 peror's ears with the cry : '• Plenty of everything ; 
 everything dear." As to the course taken by Julian 
 in this emergency, some of his bitterest foes give 
 him credit for good intentions, while some of his 
 staunchest supporters acknowledge his want of dis- 
 cretion. Yet, according to his own account, he did 
 not proceed hastily. He summoned a meeting of 
 the chief people, and ordered them to find a remedy 
 for the prevalent distress. During three months, 
 however, their deliberations led to no effect. At the 
 end of that time, Julian took the matter into his 
 own hands, and drew up a list of prices, by which 
 corn was to be sold at a moderate rate. This step 
 naturally led the dealers to restrict their sales still 
 further, and when the Emperor procured for the 
 people quantities of corn from Chalcis, Hierapolis, 
 
363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 307 
 
 and afterwards from Egypt, the proprietors naturally 
 felt the cheapness as a grievance. As the hoarding 
 continued, and in all probability the wealthy citizens 
 set themselves to buy up the stores so liberally pro- 
 vided, in order to sell again at the most profitable 
 time and place, Julian had another and a stormy 
 meeting with the Antiochenes, which ended in the 
 whole body of senators, over two hundred in num- 
 ber, being ordered into custody. True, they were 
 liberated before supper-time, and an orator like 
 Libanius might descant on the mildness of the ven- 
 geance taken by the autocrat whose benevolent 
 intentions were ever thus perversely opposed. But 
 in later days it seemed to Libanius that the senators 
 had not been much to blame after all, and he took 
 pride in the thought that he had defended them in 
 the Emperor's presence. It was not, however, the 
 wealthy only that felt dissatisfaction with Julian's 
 tariff. To some of the people it seemed desirable 
 that the price of some of the minor luxuries, as well 
 as the necessaries of life, should be reduced. But on 
 this point Julian felt no obligations. He considered 
 himself bound to provide the poor with bread, but 
 not with superfluities, so that here again he failed to 
 obtain the approval and gratitude of any of the con- 
 flicting classes and interests. When, in order to 
 render the relief permanent, he made a grant to the 
 town of three thousand lots of waste land, he found 
 that they were not being distributed to the most 
 needy and deserving, and felt it necessary to burden 
 them with obligations towards the State in order 
 that private individuals of the wealthier classes 
 
308 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 
 
 should not be able to appropriate the whole advan- 
 tage. Class privileges, the commercial advantages 
 of the wealthy, the love of the common people for 
 races and shows, the attachment of the many to the 
 martyrs who were ousting the prestige of the ancient 
 Gods, — all these things he not only discountenanced, 
 but attacked with a virulence that led those who 
 were deprived of more potent means of resistance to 
 have recourse to the last resort of the weak, — a sar- 
 castic and spiteful tongue, and to calumniate his 
 name with reproaches, while they ridiculed his ap- 
 pearance and habits in biting comic verse. 
 
 It would certainly have been better for Julian's 
 reputation if he could have shown himself as clement 
 and humane towards those who laughed at his beard 
 as he did towards those who desired his head. If he 
 had already shown that a controversialist on the 
 throne must needs descend from the sphere of digni- 
 fied impartiality which best becomes a far-rulingsover- 
 eign, he was now to prove that a satirist on the throne 
 loses yet more of that personal dignity which should 
 strike respect into his subjects of all degrees. Per- 
 haps Julian's reputation has suffered more from the 
 Misopogon among later generations than among his 
 contemporaries, seeing that many commentators, 
 wanting in sense of humour, have taken an serieux 
 many of the unpleasant statements he ironically 
 makes against himself, and so presented us with a 
 representation of his person and manners disgusting 
 in itself and inconsistent with what we read in other 
 authors. The object of the satire is to ridicule the 
 Antiochenes under cover of ridiculing himself from 
 
363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 309 
 
 the Antiochian point of view. In the character of 
 an Antiochian " beard-hater," he ridicules his own 
 personal appearance, especially his ragged, unkempt 
 beard, his excessive plainness of living, and his want 
 of taste to appreciate games, dances, and all spec- 
 tacles. From the same point of view he ridicules as 
 boorish and inhuman the GGocppoGvv??, which the 
 Emperor puts first of all things, and which the An- 
 tiochenes entirely fail to comprehend. It seems to 
 them to consist in such a slavery to the Gods and 
 the laws, with rigid rules of abstinence and self- 
 control, as must lead to the destruction of the city, 
 with its love of liberty in all things. Then there are 
 his tiresome habits of always going to the temples, 
 and his harshness in reproving the people who would 
 applaud him in the sacred places where he insists on 
 reverent silence. 8 The Antiochenes, faithful to the 
 memory of their founder, Seleucus, are self-indulgent 
 in love and in diet, but Julian inherits all the rough- 
 ness of his Thracian ancestors. His justification lies 
 in his early education, especially in the narrowing 
 influence of his paedagogue Mardonius, and in the 
 stern moral maxims from the philosophers which 
 have been impressed on his mind. The Antiochenes 
 allow much license to their women. They care only 
 for the K and the X {Kc*)v6ravrio$ and Xpiaro^), 
 from whom the city has never suffered such annoyance 
 as from Julian. But he has made himself obnoxious to 
 the people because of his adhesion to the religion of 
 his fathers and his little care for the theatre and for 
 pleasures. They had shown their mood in old times 
 by preparing a splendid reception for Demetrius, 
 
310 yuliaUy Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 
 
 the wealthy freedman of Pompeius, which, by a 
 ludicrous mistake, was given to Cato the Stoic, a 
 man by no means delightful to them. Julian's life 
 among the Gauls, who have no taste for Antiochian 
 entertainments and refinement, and whose barbar- 
 ous ways has made them feel loyal to him as to a 
 congenial spirit, has further removed him from all 
 sympathy with civilised people. He goes on to ex- 
 press the difference between himself and the citizens 
 in their ideas as to the relative scale to be observed 
 in private and in religious festivities, and the impos- 
 sibility of co-operation against the disastrous results 
 of the famine. He acknowledges that he has failed 
 with them and that he had better go. If he tried 
 to reform his manners, he would but be as the kite 
 that tried to copy the neighing of a horse, and so 
 lost his own voice without acquiring the other. His 
 benefits have aroused no gratitude, and he has only 
 brought trouble to himself and to them. 
 
 The tone of the whole piece is very bitter, espe- 
 cially towards the end, and it concludes with some- 
 thing very like an imprecation. True, what Julian 
 denounces is only what deserves the strongest de- 
 nunciation : the wanton, frivolous, covetous tone of 
 a luxurious and unprincipled community. Before 
 long, the Antiochenes were to receive more lashes 
 for the same offences, at the hand of one of the 
 noblest of eastern Bishops. 9 Julian's governmental 
 system would hardly have afforded scope for a 
 censor in the position of Chrysostom, yet moral 
 denunciations may seem to us more becoming in 
 
363] jfulian and the Antiochenes. 311 
 
 the mouth of a spiritual than in that of a temporal 
 ruler. 
 
 While at Antioch Julian lost one of his nearest 
 and strongest supporters, his uncle Julian. Church 
 writers see in his painful end a judgment on his co- 
 operation in the anti-Christian measures of his 
 nephew. The elder Julian seems to have been popu- 
 lar among some of the Oriental communities over 
 which he had ruled, and his death must have been 
 greatly regretted by the Emperor on public as well 
 as on personal grounds. 
 
 When he left Antioch, Julian declared his inten- 
 tion, on his return, of staying at Tarsus rather than 
 at Antioch. These words must have seemed after- 
 wards a melancholy forecast as to the place which 
 should afford him quarters for more than one winter. 
 Meantime, he appointed to the government of Syria 
 a Hierapolitan named Alexander, known to be of a 
 severe and violent disposition. If this appointment 
 was made chiefly with a view to harass the Anti- 
 ochenes, as Ammianus seems to imply, Julian must 
 indeed have allowed personal feeling to move him 
 from the path of rectitude. A letter of Libanius, 10 
 however, will show that Alexander, though unpopu- 
 lar, was able to maintain his authority and keep 
 order, and thus his policy may have been more suc- 
 cessful than that of Julian himself. The Emperor 
 was certainly right in discerning a mutual incom- 
 patibility of temperament between himself and the 
 people of the great Syrian city. According to his 
 principles of morality, he was justified in making no 
 
312 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362-363 
 
 secret of his feelings. What, if he had reigned 
 longer, the ultimate result might have been of this 
 abandonment of self-control, so different from the 
 dissimulation in which he had passed his youth, 
 must remain a matter of conjecture. 
 
 Coin of Antioch. 
 Obverse, Head of Tyche of city. Reverse, a spray of laurel. (?) 
 
Notes on Chapter XIII. 3 1 3 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1 The chief authorities for this chapter are : Ammianus, xxii., g ff. ; 
 Julian's own account in the Misopogon, Zosimus, iii., II ; the Orations 
 and Autobiography of Libanius ; and the Church historians, espe- 
 cially Socrates, iii., 17, 19, and Theodoret, iii., 21 ff. See also 
 Miicke, ch. 6, 7. Schwarz is always useful for chronological data. 
 
 2 As Schiller would seem to do, iii., 3, 26. 
 
 3 Ammianus, xxii., 7. 
 
 4 Zosimus says that he spent ten months in Constantinople, but 
 this is probably an error. See Schwarz, p. 18. 
 
 5 Ep. 4. 
 
 6 Autobiography, 82 ff. 
 
 7 See two papers, De Antiquitaiibus Antiochenis , by K. O. Miiller, 
 published with his lesser works in German. 
 
 8 It is interesting to compare what Julian says of the irreverent 
 behaviour of the Antiochenes in the Temple services, with the very 
 similar reproaches made by St. Chrysostom in his sermon to them on 
 Christmas day. See W. R. W. Stephens' Life and Times of 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 9 See a bright little sketch called St. Chrysostom 's Picture of his 
 Age, published in 1876 by the Society for the Propagation of Christian 
 Knowledge. 
 
 10 Libanius, Ep., 722. 
 
Coin of Sapor II. of Persia. 
 Reverse, Fire Altar with worshippers. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 JULIAN'S PERSIAN CAMPAIGN. HIS DEATH. 1 
 
 363. 
 
 " The end of life is the same as if a praetor who has employed an 
 actor dismisses him from the stage. ' But I have not finished the five 
 acts, but only three of them.' Thou sayest well, but in life the three 
 acts are the whole drama. For what shall be a completed drama is 
 determined by Him who was once the cause of its composition, and 
 now of its dissolution ; but thou art the cause of neither. Depart 
 then satisfied, for He also who releases thee is satisfied." 
 
 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, xii., 36. 
 (Long's translation). 
 
 Y the 5th of March, 363 (the year of 
 Julian's fourth consulship, in which 
 he was associated with Sallust, Pre- 
 fect of the Gauls), the Emperor's 
 preparations were sufficiently ad. 
 vanced for him to be able to begin 
 his Eastern campaign. He probably 
 felt much relieved in departing from the city in 
 which he had experienced so much of disappoint- 
 ment and failure. The fickle people of Antioch 
 
 314 
 
363] Julians Persian Campaign, 315 
 
 were profuse in their demonstrations of good wishes, 
 and the senators accompanied him on the first stage 
 of his journey, after which they were dismissed with 
 a hortatory and not very condescending address. 
 
 It is not certain whether at this moment Julian 
 had either arranged a detailed plan for the campaign, 
 or decided as to his ultimate course with regard to 
 Persia in case he should prove successful. He cer- 
 tainly meant to strike at the heart of the kingdom, 
 but was as yet unaware at what points he might ex- 
 pect to encounter resistance from the enemy. The 
 comparative ease with which, in the great days of 
 Greece, armies from the West had penetrated to the 
 neighbourhood of Babylon, may have rendered him 
 insufficiently regardful of the vastness of his enter- 
 prise. The thought of Alexander was ever with him, 
 and many ages seemed to witness his deeds, as forty 
 centuries looked down from the Pyramids on the 
 armies of Napoleon. At the same time, he did not 
 neglect the less encouraging memories, — those of 
 Caesar, of the younger Crordian, of Valerian. Critics 
 have remarked that he relied too much on the kind 
 of experience he had gained in the Gallic wars, 
 whereas that which he was now undertaking required 
 greater forces and more circumspection. Even at 
 that time, warning voices were heard. The Greek 
 oracles which he consulted (of Delphi, Delos, and 
 Dodona) 2 seem to have given favourable responses. 
 But the Sibylline Books, and various omens, as well 
 as some purely human warnings, such as those of 
 Libanius and of Sallust, Prsefect of the Gauls, were 
 strong on the other side. However, Julian's piety 
 
3 1 6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 
 
 never prevented him from interpreting oracles and 
 omens in his own sense, nor did his loyalty to his 
 friends ever lead him to subject his judgment to 
 theirs. 
 
 It is probable that from the first, Julian had con- 
 ceived a plan for avoiding future dangers on the side 
 of Persia. 3 This was to dethrone Sapor, and to re- 
 place him by the fugitive prince Hormisdas, whom 
 we have already seen in the company first of Con- 
 stantius and later of Julian. The parentage and his- 
 tory of this man is not related alike by the different 
 historians, but, according to a not improbable ac- 
 count, 4 he was an elder brother of Sapor, who had 
 been excluded from the kingdom in consequence of 
 a quarrel with the Persian grandees. In any case, 
 he had incurred the enmity of the existing govern- 
 ment and fled, first to the Armenian and then to the 
 Imperial Court. The conspicuous position which he 
 holds in Julian's army, the frequency with which he 
 is employed in negotiations ; and the enmity which 
 is shown towards him by his fellow-countrymen, are 
 in favour of the supposition that the prospect of 
 greatness had been held out to him. 
 
 We have already seen that Julian had received 
 embassies with a view to alliance. Some of these he 
 declined, probably because he did not wish to be 
 burdened with the task of supplying provisions to 
 an unwieldy host. He built some hopes, however, 
 on Arsaces, King of Armenia, who had been, as just 
 stated, the protector and friend of Hormisdas. This 
 king had received in marriage, at the hand of Con- 
 stantius, a lady of high birth, and he and his people 
 
[*' IN HIS EASTERN CAMPAIGN. 
 '& + + + + 
 
MAP SHOWING JULIAN'S LINE OF' MARCH IN HIS EASTERN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Julian's route ++ + -f -f + + 
 
 / 
 
363] Julians Persian Campaign. 317 
 
 regarded themselves as hereditary allies of the 
 Romans. 5 Some Saracen tribes were inclined to 
 support the Emperor if he would pay them suf- 
 ficiently high subsidies. As he deemed such a course 
 derogatory to the dignity of Rome, certain of them 
 stood aloof or took the part of his adversaries, 
 though, on his demand, some joined him before he 
 had gone very far. 6 Some Goths also joined him 
 after a few days' march. 
 
 A fleet was meantime prepared on the Euphrates, 
 to join the army on its march down that river. The 
 number of the vessels, as of the entire army, is differ- 
 ently given us by our different authorities. If, ac- 
 cording to Zosimus, 7 Julian had with him a force of 
 83,000 horsemen and foot together, it was a power- 
 ful army for attack, but not sufficient to garrison all 
 the strong places that he must capture on his way. 
 
 On the 10th of March, Julian arrived at Hiera- 
 polis, a city about twenty miles to the west of the 
 Euphrates. Thence he sent an interesting and char- 
 acteristic letter to Libanius, describing the journeys 
 of the last five days and his present occupations. 
 His style is terse and vigorous. He knew that the 
 recipient of the letter would supply ample adornment 
 to the material given, before it should be published 
 to the world. The places at which he had lodged 
 were Litarbae, Bercea, and Batnae. At Bercea, he 
 had held a meeting of the senators, and tried in vain 
 to impress on them the duty of piety towards the 
 Gods. He had found the Berceans more ready to 
 applaud him than to follow his exhortations, except 
 such as were already of his way of thinking. From 
 
3 1 8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 
 
 another source, 8 we hear of his endeavouring, while 
 in this city, to mediate between a father and his son 
 whom he had disinherited for going over to the 
 Hellenic worship. After vainly trying to move the 
 old man by setting forth the injustice of using com- 
 pulsion in matters of faith, Julian turned to the 
 younger, and offered to bestow on him the care 
 which his parent had denied him. From Bercea, he 
 had proceeded to Batnae, a charming place which 
 reminded him of Daphne. It was Hellenic in charac- 
 ter, though barbaric in name. But the worship of 
 the Gods was practised in too sensational a style, 
 and without sufficient reverence. In Hierapolis, 
 Julian had been delighted to find a son-in-law of 
 Jamblichus, a staunch Hellene, whom neither Con- 
 stantius nor Gallus had been able to induce to for- 
 sake his religious principles. Julian was now actively 
 occupied in conducting trials in the camp, superin- 
 tending sacrifices, negotiating with the Saracens, or- 
 ganising a system of scouts, and collecting provi- 
 sions for the army, so that we may thank the fulness 
 of his hands for the business-like character of his 
 communication. 
 
 After a three days' stay at Hierapolis, the army 
 marched on eastward, crossed the Euphrates by a 
 bridge of boats, halted for a day at another Batnae 
 (in Osrocene), and proceeded to Carrhse, 9 a place 
 memorable as the scene of the disastrous defeat of 
 the Crassi. Here Julian held a great review of his 
 troops. Thence two courses were open to him by 
 which to reach upper Asia. He might strike across 
 Mesopotamia eastwards, past Nisibis to the Tigris, 
 
363] yulians Persian Campaign. 319 
 
 or he might march southwards to Callinicus on the 
 Euphrates, and then down that river to Circesium 
 and so onwards. The former was the route once 
 followed by Alexander, the latter that of Xenophon 
 and the Ten Thousand. While he was deliberating, 
 news came that the Persians were making raids on 
 the peoples subject to the Romans, apparently in 
 the neighbourhood of Nisibis. This decided him to 
 adopt a plan to which he was already inclined, and 
 to despatch a considerable force eastwards, that 
 might hold the brigand bands in check, effect a junc- 
 tion with Arsaces, ravage the provinces on the As- 
 syrio-Armenian frontier, and subsequently join the 
 main body in Assyria. This detachment was placed 
 under the command of Sebastian, formerly Dux of 
 Egypt, and Procopius, a relative of the Emperor, 
 and in the eyes of some his probable heir. 10 With 
 the main host, after a feigned movement towards 
 the Tigris, Julian proceeded south, and reached Cal- 
 linicus on the 27th of March. Here he celebrated 
 the festival of the Mother of the Gods, and was re- 
 joined " by his fleet. He then proceeded, in hopeful 
 spirits, down the Euphrates to Circesium. This 
 town possessed a considerable garrison, which Julian 
 is said 12 to have strengthened. He seems not yet 
 to have abandoned the plan of keeping a line of 
 communications behind him. Or it may be that the 
 last important place on Roman soil seemed specially 
 worthy of defence. A few days' march, past 
 Zaitha, near which lay the tomb of the Emperor 
 Gordian, and Dura, brought the army into the re- 
 gions called by the vague name of Assyria, which 
 
320 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. \Z6Z 
 
 owned the Persian supremacy. The first hostile 
 demonstration to be made was against an island fort 
 variously called Anatho and Phathusa. The com- 
 mandant, however, capitulated and was received 
 into Roman employ, the lives of the defenders were 
 spared, and the army had the satisfaction of restor- 
 ing liberty to a number of prisoners, including an 
 old man who had been captured in the expedition 
 of Galerius, more than thirty-six years before, but 
 had always kept up a hope of being buried in Ro- 
 man soil. The fortress was burned down, and the 
 country that the army passed through was ravaged. 
 Some fortresses were left untaken, on a promise of 
 adopting the side of the Romans should their expe- 
 dition prove successful. The army marched so as to 
 cover a large space, the baggage in the centre, while 
 the Emperor rode actively from company to com- 
 pany to avoid disorder and straggling. A large 
 number were told off to act as scouts, — a necessary 
 precaution, seeing that small detachments of Per- 
 sians were hovering in the neighbourhood, from one 
 of which Hormisdas had once a narrow escape. 
 They had further difficulties to encounter, as they 
 proceeded southward, from the canals and marshes 
 which the dwellers by the lower Euphrates, like the 
 Dutch in later times, could render useful allies 
 against an invading army. When the waters had 
 been crossed by swimming, or on improvised 
 bridges, a serious resistance was encountered from 
 the strongly fortified town of Pirisabora. His first 
 assault having failed, Julian ordered a wooden turret 
 to be applied, — the helepolis, first famous in the 
 
3631 Julians Persian Campaign. 321 
 
 sieges of Demetrius Poliorcetes. This led the com- 
 mandant to propose a capitulation. Quarter was 
 given to the inhabitants, but the town was utterly 
 destroyed. The stores of arms and provisions were 
 gladly appropriated by the Romans. 
 
 The discipline maintained in the Roman camp 
 was strict, not to say harsh. When three squadrons 
 were overcome by a body of Persians under com- 
 mand of the Surena y and a standard taken, the Em- 
 peror, by a daring and swift attack, recovered flag 
 and honour, and inflicted death (" according to the 
 ancient laws," as Ammianus says) on ten of those 
 that had been guilty of cowardice in flight. The 
 donatives given to the soldiers after the capture of 
 a town did not satisfy their expectations, and Julian 
 could only restrain the tendency to mutiny by as- 
 suring them, in a vigorous speech, that more could 
 not be spared for them at present, though abundant 
 wealth lay before them if they were only courageous, 
 and trusted in God and in himself. He meant to 
 carry on this enterprise as long as he lived and 
 reigned, and he appealed to their loyalty to support 
 him. His exhortation was well received, and his 
 spirit communicated to the whole host, which knew 
 his readiness to take his full share in all labours and 
 privations. 
 
 The abundant produce of the land through which 
 they now had to march, especially the dates and 
 vines, afforded some compensation to the soldiers 
 for the annoyance of having to cross more sluices 
 and canals on palmwood planks, swollen skins, or 
 whatever else could serve the purpose. They had 
 
322 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 
 
 now left the main stream of the Euphrates, and 
 were approaching the Tigris. Another important 
 siege had to be undertaken, that of Maogamalcha, 
 while the trusted commander Victor, with a body of 
 reconnoitrers, went on towards Ctesiphon to see if 
 any enemy were to be encountered. While surveying 
 the fortifications of Maogamalcha, Julian was per- 
 sonally attacked by some Persians who had observed 
 him, and only escaped after a hand-to-hand conflict 
 with his foe. The city did not yield to the first 
 assaults. Recourse was had to mining, and a simul- 
 taneous attack from without and from below led to 
 surprise, confusion, and a ghastly massacre. Women 
 and children seem never to have been spared in 
 these assaults. Libanius says that Julian would 
 have preferred to take prisoners rather than to slay, 
 but he could not restrain his excited soldiery. He 
 specially ordered, however, that the King's guards 
 should be spared with their leader, who was, never- 
 theless, put to death soon after for insulting Hor- 
 misdas. 13 For his personal share in the abundant 
 spoils, he took only three pieces of gold and a deaf- 
 and-dumb child, whose pantomimic gifts had struck 
 his fancy. Some Persians who had taken refuge in 
 a subterranean passage were suffocated by a fire 
 made at the entrance. The terror spread by the 
 Roman successes was so great that a Persian prince 
 who had lately sallied forth from Ctesiphon to 
 oppose Victor and his forces, thought it best to 
 desist from his attempt and beat a retreat. 
 
 Not far from Maogamalcha, the army arrived at a 
 magnificent park and hunting-ground belonging to 
 
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3631 Julians Persian Campaign. 323 
 
 the King, with a palace built in Roman style. Julian 
 ordered the enclosure to be destroyed, and the men 
 enjoyed some sport of an exciting character, since 
 lions and wild boars were among the game preserved 
 for the royal amusement. The palace he ordered to 
 be spared, but if Libanius is right, it was fired by 
 the soldiers. The army was allowed a halt for re- 
 pose, but difficulties and the need for watchfulness 
 by no means diminished as it proceeded. On one 
 occasion, the Persians made a successful assault on 
 the Roman baggage. On another, a sudden sortie 
 from a fort led to the flight and seizure of several 
 Romans, though this was followed by the disgrace 
 of some cowardly horsemen, and the subsequent 
 capture of the place. Meanwhile, the fleet had to 
 be brought from the Euphrates to the Tigris. From 
 books, and from the testimony of the natives, Julian 
 had learned of a canal, called the " Royal River " 
 (Naargamalcha), which formerly flowed from the one 
 to the other, but was now choked up with rubbish. 14 
 He ordered it to be cleared, and the ships were safely 
 conveyed into the waters of the Tigris. Before pro- 
 ceeding he roused the spirits of the men with games 
 and races, in preparation for the next step on which 
 he had decided. This was to transfer his forces to the 
 other side of the great river. It seemed a hazard- 
 ous proceeding, as a Persian host was already mus- 
 tered on the opposite side, strong in missile weapons, 
 in horse, and in elephants. Several of the generals 
 to whom Julian made known his design remon- 
 strated. But the Emperor was quite determined on 
 the matter. The heavier transport ships were un- 
 
324 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 
 
 laden and filled with men, and five of them were 
 entrusted to Victor, with orders to effect a crossing 
 under cover of the night. But the enemy on the 
 high bank opposite perceived them, and hurled burn- 
 ing brands which set the ships on fire. The Roman 
 host felt alarmed, but Julian had the presence of 
 mind to resort to a pious fraud, such as he had 
 probably learned to use in interpreting oracles. He 
 declared that the flames which the soldiers saw were 
 the prearranged signal of the successful landing of 
 their comrades. All were now eager to embark, and 
 the night together with the day following were 
 occupied in the crossing and in desperate fighting on 
 the eastern bank. In the end, thanks in great meas- 
 ure to the personal activity of the Emperor, the 
 troops were transferred, the half-burned ships re- 
 covered, and the enemy driven back with great loss. 
 The way now seemed open to Ctesiphon, and but 
 for the opposition of Victor, who had been wounded, 
 and felt unequal to any further enterprise, an at- 
 tempt would have been made on that city, into 
 which the Persian generals with the fugitives effected 
 a retreat. 16 
 
 The army had now penetrated into the neighbour- 
 hood of those ancient cities, the centres of several 
 civilisations and capitals of successive empires, which 
 had from of old dominated the great river-basins 
 north of the Persian Gulf. Julian was within about 
 fifty miles of Babylon, on the Euphrates, now no 
 longer a place of importance. Close at hand on the 
 Tigris was Seleucia, great in the days of Alexander's 
 successors, long since reduced to almost nothing by 
 
363] yuliaris Persian Campaign, 325 
 
 the arms of Verus, and now commonly known as 
 the village of Coche. Opposite to it was Ctesiphon, 
 the capital of the Parthian empire, now occupied by 
 the Persian forces. Great as had been the success 
 of the army hitherto, its position was still critical. 
 The force which had harassed it on the Euphrates 
 was by no means annihilated. A strongly fortified 
 city dominated the river by which the fleet must 
 pass if it were decided to advance in a north-east- 
 erly direction to meet the force sent on before and 
 the Armenian allies. To the East lay a comparatively 
 unknown region, with a terrible possibility of en- 
 countering the Great King and all his host. To the 
 West, along the route by which it had come, was 
 a devastated land through which retreat was im- 
 possible. 
 
 Julian halted, awarded prizes for valour to the sol- 
 diers who had distinguished themselves, offered sac- 
 rifices, the victims of which gave unfavourable signs, 
 and held a council of war as to the step to be taken 
 next. The most natural thing to do, it seemed, 
 would be to lay siege to Ctesiphon. To leave so 
 strong a place in one's rear was against all the rules 
 of prudent warfare. Yet, strange to say, the opin- 
 ion of the officers, to which the Emperor acceded, 
 was that, under present circumstances, and consider- 
 ing the probable nearness of the King, the siege had 
 better not be undertaken. Ctesiphon had not proved 
 impregnable in by-gone days, but probably Sapor or 
 his predecessors had lately strengthened its fortifica- 
 tions. In any case, the idea was abandoned. An- 
 other course, which some of Julian's modern critics 
 
326 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 
 
 would have advised, was to wait for Arsaces and the 
 forces sent by way of the Tigris to join him. Julian 
 was anxiously looking out for these troops, and 
 different causes are assigned for their non-appear- 
 ance. But whether the generals had quarrelled 
 among themselves, or turned aside to make war 
 on the natives, or whether Arsaces had found it 
 inconsistent with his Christianity to support an 
 apostate emperor, the forces did not appear. It 
 would, perhaps, be unfair to reproach Arsaces with 
 treachery. He suffered in after times for his fidelity 
 to the Roman cause. And it seems, after all, not 
 improbable that, if sufficient time had been allowed, 
 he would not have missed his appointment. 16 
 
 Again, it might have been possible to accept the 
 overtures of Sapor and enter into negotiations with 
 a view to an honourable peace. According to some 
 accounts, 17 Hormisdas was himself desirous of such 
 a course. But Julian was anxious lest the news of 
 any such suggestions might damp the ardour of the 
 soldiers, and ordered the messengers to be sent 
 away secretly. What he personally intended to do 
 was to follow in the footsteps of Alexander and to 
 strike out eastwards. 
 
 The rashness of this course is evident to us. Ju- 
 lian can only have hoped to justify it by some bril- 
 liant success. It is not easy, however, to form a 
 clear notion as to his plans at this moment. He 
 cannot have been unaware of the difficulties in the 
 way, from the enemy, the climate, and his own igno- 
 rance of the country. The Persian guides whom he 
 had with him soon proved themselves utterly un- 
 
363] yulians Persian Campaign. 327 
 
 trustworthy. It was now the middle of June, and the 
 burning sun, with mosquitoes and other pests, were 
 peculiarly trying to men accustomed to the snows 
 and the winds of the far West And if he had had 
 Alexander's army, and Alexander's genius, the ex- 
 ample of his hero could hardly have been appealed 
 to here. For when he advanced towards India, 
 Alexander did not leave Susa or Persepolis untaken 
 in his rear, nor was Darius then at large with a great 
 army. Julian might also have remembered that 
 Alexander's career was at last checked by the refusal 
 of his soldiers to go further. Such an event might 
 soon be looked for in his own camp. 
 
 The determination on an eastward march involved 
 a most momentous step — the destruction of the 
 fleet. It was of no use to leave it there to fall into 
 the hands of the enemy ; the army could not be 
 thinned so as to leave an adequate guard ; and the 
 ships, even if sufficiently manned, could not force 
 their way up the Tigris, in the teeth of the garrison 
 of Ctesiphon. Even if they did so, they would be 
 of no service to the army in its farther progress or 
 on its return. It was decided to set fire to all the 
 ships, except a few small vessels, suitable for bridge- 
 making, that could be conveyed inland on waggons. 
 These were before long captured in an attack of the 
 enemy. The loss of the fleet was felt bitterly after- 
 wards. Even before the conflagration was com- 
 pleted, Julian is said, on discovering the treachery of 
 his spies, to have revoked his decision. But it was 
 too late to extinguish the flames. 
 
 Now began a time of greater sufferings and disasters 
 
6 
 
 28 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 
 
 for the Romans than they had as yet experienced. 
 The Persians had destroyed all the provisions in the 
 country through which their road lay, so that famine 
 was added to the other terrors of the midsummer 
 march. Julian did what he could to encourage the 
 men. On one occasion, remembering probably the 
 example of Agesilaus, he displayed before them the 
 puny forms of their oriental captives, and asked 
 what they could dread from such men. It was not, 
 however, so much the Persian army as Julian's patron 
 King Helios above and the trench-divided land be- 
 low that hindered progress and made the men insist, 
 tumultuously at last, on a retreat homewards. Most 
 reluctantly, Julian was obliged to consent. The 
 question now was whether to march westward 
 through Assyria or to go in a northerly direction, 
 and occupy Corduene, the frontier province between 
 Armenia and Media. Sacrifices were made. The 
 victims gave no decided response, and it was resolved 
 to proceed towards Armenia. In that direction, an 
 unravaged country might be hoped for ; there was a 
 chance, too, of hearing of Arsaces. And might not 
 Julian also have had in mind the retreat of the Ten 
 Thousand ? 
 
 Before long an ominous cloud of dust suggested 
 anxious questions in the army. Was it a flock of 
 wild asses, or a body of Saracens, such as were now 
 proving very formidable to the retreating host, or 
 might it be the great host of Sapor himself ? After 
 an anxious, sleepless night, the most serious alterna- 
 tive proved the true one. The Persians were seen, 
 clad in well-fitting armour, and backed by their for- 
 
363] Julians Persian Campaign. 329 
 
 midable elephants, the sight and odour of which 
 terrified both man and horse. Nor was there a 
 chance that, as in many battles of old, the great 
 beasts might be driven back so as to prove more 
 fatal to friends than to foes. For we are told that 
 each driver carried a short knife with which to stab 
 in a mortal place the elephant on which he rode as 
 soon as it should show dangerous symptoms. 
 
 Formidable as the aspect of the army was, how- 
 ever, the Romans greeted it with joy. Fighting was 
 more to their mind than painful marching. But 
 Julian was unwilling to bring on a general engage- 
 ment without due preparation. A stream separated 
 the hosts, and for a time there were but skirmishes 
 and partial encounters in which some deeds of daring 
 were performed. 18 The Romans were even able to 
 halt and rest for two days at a place called Hucum- 
 bra. During the succeeding days, we have the old 
 stories of attacks on the baggage, of alarms, of 
 degradations for cowardice, of distressing efforts to 
 secure the burning harvests. At a place called 
 Maranga, the Romans found the foe drawn up in 
 battle array, and a more serious engagement was 
 fought. The battle seems not to have been decisive, 
 but the loss was much greater on the Persian side. 
 In fact, the Persians proved themselves far less for- 
 midable in hand-to-hand fighting than in sudden 
 charges and flights with missiles, and this discovery 
 was an encouragement to the Romans. 
 
 A three days' truce followed, for the recovery of 
 the wounded and the repose of the exhausted. But 
 the want of provisions prevented the men from de- 
 
33° Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 
 
 riving much benefit from the rest. Julian himself 
 could live on thin broth, and was ready to give to 
 the most needy any extra portion supplied for him. 
 But his men were not all accustomed to Stoic train- 
 ing, nor admirers of the life of Diogenes. 
 
 Even at this time, Julian used to spend most of 
 his time at night in writing and meditating. On 
 one occasion, according to a story which his friends 
 said they had received from himself, he saw, perhaps 
 in a vision induced by weariness and anxiety, the 
 Genius of the Roman People, moving sadly away, 
 with head and cornucopia hidden in his robe. Long- 
 ing to see a more favourable sign, Julian came out to 
 look at the starry heavens. A brilliant meteor met 
 his glance. Next morning, he asked the Etruscan 
 haruspices who accompanied his army how they 
 would interpret the sign. They answered that no 
 military operation should be attempted at present. 
 But Julian, whose pious regard for omens was rather 
 that of Hector than that of Nicias, gave orders that 
 the camp should be broken up at daybreak. 
 
 The Persians had returned to their old tactics. 
 Avoiding any direct encounter with the infantry, 
 they remained on the high ground at a little dis- 
 tance, watching the Romans, in readiness for any 
 opportunity of a sudden and partial attack. Julian 
 tried to keep the flanks firm and the squares solid, 
 but the nature of the ground was such that occa- 
 sional gaps were inevitable. Always foremost in 
 making surveys, the Emperor, without shield or 
 breastplate, was occupied in the van, when tidings 
 were brought to him that the enemy had attacked 
 
363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 331 
 
 the rear. Seizing a shield, and without waiting for 
 other accoutrements, he hastened towards the point 
 in danger, but was speedily recalled by the news that 
 the van was now experiencing a like assault. He 
 returned to find that it was indeed so, but, heedless 
 of showers of missiles, of elephants, of terror all 
 around, he restored the spirit of his men and the for- 
 tune of the field. The enemy fled, and Julian was 
 foremost in pursuit. He might have remembered, 
 even now, the old device of the foe, to hurl missiles 
 backward while in full flight. As he pursued the 
 fugitives, the javelin of a flying Persian pierced his 
 unprotected side, and being double-edged, cut his 
 fingers, and thus rendered vain his manful efforts 
 to draw it out with his hand. 19 He fell from his 
 horse, and was at once carried from the field. A tent 
 was immediately pitched to receive him, since the 
 Romans had not been able to make an entrenched 
 camp this harassing day. There surgical aid was at 
 once applied. 
 
 For a while Julian did not realise that he had 
 received his death-wound. When clear conscious- 
 ness returned, he asked for horse and armour, that 
 he might return to the field and encourage the sol- 
 diers whom his disaster was already stimulating to a 
 desperate valour. But loss of blood had weakened 
 him. When he asked the name of the place where 
 he lay, and they told him " Phrygia," his hopes 
 waned yet more. For he had been told that 
 Phrygia should be the place of his death, and, like 
 Henry IV. in. Jerusalem Chamber, he heard his 
 death-warrant in that word. He had doubtless 
 
332 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 
 
 thought to die near the sacred precincts of the 
 Mother of the Gods. 
 
 When he realised that the end could not be far off, 
 he ceased from further effort to continue his active 
 course, and endeavoured, while physical and mental 
 strength remained, to comfort and encourage his 
 friends and himself by falling back on those main 
 principles of life which no press of active duties or 
 of manifold cares and considerations had ever ob- 
 scured in his mind. 20 He had always believed, he 
 said, that the soul was nobler than the body, and 
 that death was not an evil, but rather a special favour 
 from the Gods. Nor had there been anything in his 
 life which, at this moment, could fill him with 
 anxious thought. He had been faithful in his task 
 as ruler. As to success, that was not within the 
 power of man to achieve ; the event must ever be 
 determined by the Supreme Powers. He was thank- 
 ful that death came to him in fair fight, not by 
 treachery, nor by lingering disease. He forbore to 
 express any wish as to his successor. His choice 
 might not be the best, or it might bring trouble on 
 the man chosen. He could only hope, for the sake 
 of the whole State, that a worthy man might be 
 appointed to rule over the people. 
 
 Thus calmly, without remorse and without sense 
 of failure, he set about the arrangement of his private 
 affairs. Not that he was indifferent to the fate of 
 the Empire, but that he had too much confidence in 
 his cause to believe that it must perish with him. 
 Nor did his clear conscience imply that he acknowl- 
 edged no higher standard than that to which he had 
 
363] His Death. 333 
 
 always conformed. But to a man of his habits of 
 thought it seemed that all human imperfection was 
 due to the connection of the soul with that fleshly 
 envelope, from which he was presently to escape. 
 
 One little touch of nature, however, affected the 
 by-standers more than all this expression of lofty 
 sentiment. He asked for his friend Anatolius, the 
 Master of the Oflfices, probably in order to give him 
 a last token of esteem. The Prsefect Sallust, who 
 had himself narrowly escaped the sword of the 
 enemy, replied that Anatolius was "beatus," — in 
 plain words, that he had been killed. On hearing 
 this, Julian showed bitter grief. The sight of a dying 
 man lamenting one who had preceded him but a few 
 hours, in its pathetic inconsistency, brought tears to 
 the eyes of those who had known them both. The 
 Emperor reproved them. It was weakness, he said, 
 to grieve for their prince as he was being taken up 
 to the starry heavens. He then turned to the phi- 
 losophers Maximus and Priscus, who stood by his 
 bed, ready to confirm his faith and strengthen his 
 parting spirit. Breathing became difficult. He 
 asked for a draught of water, and quietly expired 
 at about midnight. 
 
 Christian legend 21 soon began to busy itself in 
 weaving strange tales around the Emperor's death- 
 bed, for which we have no foundation in any trust- 
 worthy authorities. They need no disproof. But 
 perhaps more importance should be attached to the 
 notion which early gained ground, that the hand 
 whence the weapon came by which Julian died was 
 that of a Christian traitor in his own camp. 
 
334 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, [363 
 
 The story as told by Ammianus, whom we have 
 followed in our account, is consistent, probable, and 
 apparently based on first-hand knowledge. The 
 notion that things might have been otherwise would 
 doubtless be suggested by the known fact that there 
 were Christians who desired his death, and by the 
 equally patent and very disgraceful fact, that grave 
 writers were afterwards found who applauded such 
 a supposed deed of murderous treachery. Coun- 
 tenance was certainly given to the opinion by a 
 writer who loved not the Christians, and deplored 
 the Emperor from the depth of his heart, — the 
 orator Libanius. He is not quite self-consistent in 
 his accounts, but argues that Julian must have fallen 
 by treachery, since no Persian claimed the price 
 which Sapor had placed on the Emperor's head. 
 Even if Libanius were well informed on this point, 
 the argument is inconclusive, for how, after the con- 
 fusion of the battle, could any soldier present proofs 
 as to the effect of his own special missile ? Or, if 
 the slayer of Julian were a Christian, why should he 
 not still claim reward from the King? Some said 
 that it was a Saracen that did the deed. The char- 
 acter of the weapon would have been the only 
 evidence, and of that nothing conclusive is related. 
 In any case, however Julian had died, men would 
 have seen something portentous and supernatural in 
 his end. Hermits and saints would have seen visions 
 at a distance, and men would have tried to find in 
 the last words of him they hated and feared an 
 acknowledgment that the Galilsean had conquered, 
 that Helios had rejected his devotee, and that the 
 
363] His Death. 335 
 
 Carpenter's Son had prepared a coffin for the 
 scorner. 
 
 Julian may be said to have slain many in his 
 death as in his life. The immediate result of his 
 removal from the field was not a panic, but a more 
 determined attack on the enemy. Fifty distinguished 
 men among the Persians are said to have fallen 
 in the field. But the Roman loss also — apart from 
 the greatest loss of all — was considerable. Some 
 bands of the soldiers took to flight. One gained 
 possession of a fort in the neighbourhood, and held 
 it till, after three days, it was enabled to rejoin the 
 main body of the army. 
 
 But, after all, the death of Julian was a far greater 
 calamity to the Romans than would have been the 
 loss of many battles. For long, no tidings of him 
 had reached the frontier. Libanius, in Antioch, was 
 hoping to hear of fresh victories, when the disastrous 
 news arrived. The earthquakes which were again 
 working havoc in Asia Minor seemed a fitting pre- 
 sage of the dire event. Superstition might express 
 in fantastic forms the sense men had of a far-reach- 
 ing occurrence. It could hardly exaggerate the 
 importance of what had actually happened. 
 
 Coin of Jovian. 
 
2,^6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 NOTES ON CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1 Besides the already-mentioned authorities, I have found two 
 treatises very useful as to the subject of this chapter : Sievers' Studien 
 zur Geschichte der Romischen Kaiser : Julian's Perser-Krieg, and 
 Reinhardt's Der Tod des Kaisers Julian, 
 
 2 Theodoret, iii., 22. 
 
 3 See Lib., Ep. 1457. 
 
 4 Zosimus, ii., 27. 
 
 5 Sozomen tells us of a peremptory and offensive letter written by 
 Julian to Arsaces, contrasting his own rule and character with those of 
 his predecessor, and a letter (furnished from these indications ?) in all 
 probability spurious, has found its way into the collection of Julian's 
 letters. He can hardly have been so impolitic as to write in a fashion 
 certain to repel a useful ally. 
 
 6 Cf. Am., xxiii., 3, and xxv., 6, and Jul., Ep., 27. 
 
 7 iii., 12, 13. 65,000 at Carrhse — 18,000 already sent off to the 
 Tigris under Sebastian and Procopius. 
 
 8 Theodoret, iii., 22. The anecdotes about Julian told by Church 
 historians are not generally very worthy of credit, but this one seems 
 not uncharacteristic or improbable. 
 
 9 According to Zosimus, he turned aside to visit Edessa, but Sozo- 
 men (vi., i.) denies this, and it is inconsistent with the account of 
 Ammianus. 
 
 10 A relative on the mother's side (?). Shortly before this, Julian 
 is said (as Ammianus reports) to have given Procopius a purple robe 
 and named him his successor. But as the ceremony is said to have 
 been without witnesses, we cannot regard it as a proved or even 
 probable event. 
 
 11 Or joined. It is not clear whether he had met the fleet before. 
 
 12 Not by Ammianus nor by Zosimus, but by Malalas. 
 
 13 Mucke understands that all the eighty guards with Nabdates were 
 burned to death, but the words of Ammianus do not seem to bear out 
 this hideous suggestion. 
 
 14 Bunbury {Ancient Geography, chap, xxx.) has some remarks on 
 the topographical difficulties connected with our narrative. There is 
 still a trench bearing a name of similar import, but it does not oc- 
 cupy the line one would expect. The water-system of the lower 
 Euphrates and Tigris has probably changed in the lapse of centuries. 
 
 15 The account of Zosimus is here strangely different from that of 
 
Notes on Chapter XIV. 337 
 
 Ammianus, since he represents Julian as crossing two days after the 
 battle. We can only suppose (a) that Julian was not present at the 
 battle, though Ammianus, apparently an eye-witness here, says he 
 was most active in it ; (/?) that he returned and crossed again next 
 day ; or {y) that the crossing, in the account of Zosimus, is not of 
 the Tigris at all, but of the canal, which, according to Ammianus, 
 had been crossed already. 
 
 16 On this point see the pamphlet of Reinhardt referred to above. 
 
 17 Of Libanius and Socrates. Ammianus and Zosimus do not men- 
 tion another special embassy at this juncture. 
 
 18 By the brothers Maurus and Machamaeus (Am., xxv., i., and 
 Zos., iii., 26), who had perhaps been left at Circesium, and rejoined 
 the army. 
 
 19 Zosimus says it was a dagger. But Ammianus is to be preferred 
 here. 
 
 20 We cannot, of course, suppose that he delivered the harangue 
 which Ammianus puts into his mouth, but it probably represents the 
 main drift of his last sayings. 
 
 21 See Milcke, Reinhardt, etc. The TakiXaie reriurfKaS ap- 
 pears first in Theodoret. 
 
Coin of Valentinian the Elder. 
 Reverse, Restitvtor Reipvblicae. Emperor holding Standard and Victory^ 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 OUTCOME OF JULIAN'S ENTERPRISES. HIS POSITION 
 
 IN HISTORY. 
 
 And not by eastern windows only 
 
 When daylight comes comes in the light. 
 
 In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly, 
 But westward, look, the land is bright. 
 
 A. H. Clough. 
 
 ]-F this had been the biography of a 
 great hero of progress, an initiator 
 of a successful movement, or a 
 founder of permanent institutions, 
 our task, after narrating his death, 
 would have been to trace the lines 
 along which his work was carried on 
 by those who succeeded to his ideas and authority. 
 But Julian, as we have seen, was not a successful 
 initiator; rather he was one who endeavoured to 
 hold back the chief movement of his day and to 
 prevent the disappearance of what was old and 
 vanishing ; he founded no new institutions, though 
 
 338 
 
Outcome of * Julian s Enterprises, 339 
 
 he tried bravely to infuse new energy into those 
 that remained ; and he had, properly speaking, no 
 successor. Yet it seems necessary, in order to com- 
 plete even a slight sketch of the man and his 
 thoughts and efforts in relation to the life of his 
 times, to consider briefly the continuation or the 
 abandonment of some of the tasks to which his 
 short life was devoted, whether as soldier, as poli- 
 tician, or as would-be religious reformer. 
 
 We naturally begin with the military enterprises 
 in the East, in the execution of which he had been 
 suddenly struck down. Of course the immediate 
 necessity laid upon the army that had lost its leader 
 was to choose a successor. It was not merely a gen- 
 eral for themselves, but a head of the Roman world 
 that they had to appoint, for, in the absence of any- 
 thing like either a constitutional rule or any definite 
 principle of succession, there was little likelihood 
 that the choice of the army, if fairly unanimous, 
 would be disputed by any civic authorities. But the 
 army was not united. The party that had formerly 
 been attached to Constantius, led by the dashing 
 Victor and the handsome, attractive Arinthaeus, 
 wished for one of their own number. The semi- 
 barbarians who had been devoted to the person and 
 fortunes of Julian, prominent among whom were 
 Dagalaif and Nevitta, desired one of themselves. A 
 compromise, however, might have been made by 
 the appointment of the brave and highly respected 
 Sallust, the Praefect now with the army. But he 
 declined the honour, and suggested that the throne 
 should remain vacant till they arrived in Mesopo- 
 
34-0 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 tamia, — a suggestion which points towards Procopius, 
 whom they hoped to meet in that province. The 
 general feeling however was for an immediate choice, 
 and, as commonly happens under such circumstances, 
 the result was the unexpected and tumultuous elec- 
 tion of a man without remarkable qualifications of 
 any kind, Jovian, a Chief of the Guards (domesticorum 
 ordinis primus). The new Emperor was the son of 
 an illustrious soldier, Varronian, and was a man tall 
 of stature, dignified in demeanour, a pleasant com- 
 panion, of no great capacity in the field, and too fond 
 of a good dinner. To complete the contrast between 
 him and his predecessor, he was favourably inclined 
 to Christianity, though the stories which would 
 represent him as a persecuted confessor are to be 
 taken with caution, and he certainly allowed an in- 
 spection of sacrificial victims to decide on his next 
 course, and also showed more obedience to their in- 
 dications than Julian had sometimes done. The march 
 was resumed. Sapor — overjoyed at the news of the 
 Emperor's death and at the description he received 
 of the character of his successor, continued to harass 
 the army, and, according to some accounts, actually 
 defeated it in battle. The soldiers who, for a brief 
 moment, had been led by the similarity of the names 
 Jovian and Julian to believe that the report of their 
 beloved leader's death was false after all, were soon 
 undeceived. The sufferings of famine and other 
 privations became worse than ever. The soldiers 
 begged to be allowed to recross the Tigris. Some 
 bands were allowed to make the attempt, but they 
 were not successful, and the army continued to 
 
Outcome of Julian s Enterprises. 341 
 
 march along the left bank. The Persian king took 
 this opportunity of offering peace on terms favourable 
 to himself, and Jovian was not ashamed to consent 
 to conditions that could never have been suggested 
 to his predecessor. Sallust and Arinthaeus tried 
 vainly to come to a more satisfactory arrangement. 
 But Jovian was anxious to have something settled 
 before they met with Procopius. Accordingly a 
 truce was made for thirty years, on condition that 
 the Romans gave up five provinces on or just beyond 
 the Tigris (Arzanena, Moxoene, Zabdicena, Rehi- 
 mema, and Corduene), with the strong towns of 
 Nisibis and Singara, and many other places. The 
 Romans further promised not to help Arsaces of 
 Armenia against Persia. Nor did Jovian stipulate 
 any immediate relief for the suffering army. Rather, 
 as it ceased now to follow the course of the river, the 
 pangs of thirst were added to those of hunger. At 
 Thilsaphata, they joined forces with Sebastian and 
 Procopius, who showed as yet no sign of disloyalty. 
 It was with feelings of great relief that the soldiers 
 approached the city of Nisibis, which was ready to 
 receive the Emperor with all hospitality. He had 
 not, however, the face to show himself to those whom 
 he had betrayed. Very soon, a Persian officer 
 arrived to insist on the execution of the treaty, and 
 the evacuation of the city by its Roman inhabitants. 
 Now ensued heartrending scenes. The Persian flag 
 was hoisted. The people, of high and of low rank, 
 begged in vain for permission to defend themselves 
 unaided rather than to leave their native place. 
 They reproached the Emperor with abandoning the 
 
34 2 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 key to the province; they contrasted. his conduct 
 with that of Constantius (did they not know or care 
 for Julian ?) ; when an orator presented him with the 
 customary crown, he ironically expressed the wish 
 " May you be thus crowned, Emperor, by the cities 
 that remain ! " The citizens were obliged to depart, 
 with such goods as they could convey with them, 
 casting regretful looks on their old homes and the 
 tombs of their fathers. It is some consolation to 
 know that many of them found a new home in the 
 still Roman city df Amida. Leaving an officer be- 
 hind to accomplish the execution of his ignominious 
 treaty, Jovian hurried on, eager to secure the chief 
 seats of the empire, towards Constantinople. He 
 gave his men but a scanty rest at Antioch, and 
 thence moved on to Tarsus, whither Procopius had 
 preceded him with the bones of Julian. We hear 
 from Gregory of Nazianzen of undignified games, 
 and of buffoonery in which the habits and demeanour 
 of the late Emperor were caricatured by those who 
 saw the procession pass. The Antiochenes were cer- 
 tainly not incapable of such conduct, but Julian's body 
 did not rest among them, and probably did not pass 
 through their city. Possibly Gregory is himself 
 caricaturing the Pagan ritual and games which Pro- 
 copius would probably celebrate on the way. Thus 
 for a time the body of the last Hellenic Emperor 
 rested in the birthplace of the Apostle to the Gen- 
 tiles. A tomb was erected with an epitaph in hex- 
 ameters, simply stating: " Here lies Julian, who fell 
 by the strong-flowing Tigris. He was both a good king 
 and a mighty warrior." Subsequently we hear that 
 
Outcome of Julian s Enterprises. 343 
 
 the corpse was removed to Constantinople, and laid 
 by the side of the Empress Helen. To Ammianus 
 it seemed that Rome would have been for Julian a 
 fitter resting-place, among the temples of the national 
 Gods and the monuments of ancient heroes. 
 
 Jovian never attained his desired goal. He was 
 at Ancyra for the first day of the new year (364 A.D.), 
 and showed yet again his want of regard for the 
 dignity of the Empire by associating his baby son 
 with himself in the consulship. When he reached 
 Dadastana, on the confines of Bithynia and Galatia, 
 he was one night found dead in his bed. Some 
 attributed his end to a fit of indigestion ; others to 
 the fumes of a coal fire, such as had once almost 
 suffocated Julian in Paris ; others seem to have sus- 
 pected foul play. In any case, little was said, and 
 the army proceeded to the choice of a new Emperor. 
 Sallust again received the offer of the purple and 
 again declined it. The choice then fell upon Valen- 
 tinian, a soldier of approved merit, who speedily 
 requested and obtained permission to associate his 
 brother Valens with him in the Imperial dignity. A 
 return was now made to the arrangement of Dio- 
 cletian, and though the unity of the Empire was still 
 unimpaired, we have again two Emperors, to whom 
 the care of the East and of the West were respec- 
 tively assigned. Valens fixed his residence at 
 Antioch, and it was thenceforth his care to meet the 
 difficulties that arose on the side of Persia. Though 
 the Romans had abandoned the alliance of Arsaces 
 of Armenia, yet when Sapor invaded that country 
 and loaded the king with chains, it was not unnatural 
 
344 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 that the Armenians should appeal to the Romans. 
 At the same time the Persians had interfered in the 
 affairs of Iberia, still a vassal state of Rome. Valens 
 received hospitably the son of the king of Armenia 
 (Arsaces had died in captivity), and an army was 
 sent to place Roman candidates on the Iberian and 
 Armenian thrones. But difficulties arose which in- 
 duced the Romans to consent to a partition of 
 Iberia, to which Sapor, however, would not consent 
 till after another rather futile campaign. Meantime 
 he and Valens were rivals for the adherence of the 
 somewhat shifty Para, son of Arsaces, who finally 
 met a treacherous death at the hands of a Roman 
 emissary. If the Persian kingdom had been stronger, 
 or if Sapor had had successors of his own calibre, 
 the Persians might have taken further advantage of 
 Roman preoccupation in the West. The final solu- 
 tion, however, was a separation between Roman and 
 Persian Armenia, which subsisted for long, and left 
 permanent traces in the ecclesiastical divisions of the 
 East. 
 
 If Julian had lived, and if he had persevered in 
 the enterprises he had undertaken in the East, it is 
 difficult to say whether the relation of Rome and 
 Persia might have been finally settled on a footing 
 more satisfactory to the dignity of Rome. It would 
 have cost Julian much treasure and probably many 
 legions, to establish a vassal prince on the Persian 
 throne, and even in that case, we cannot feel certain 
 that Hormisdas and his dynasty would always have 
 been faithful to their patrons. But we may feel 
 sure that strong efforts would have been made to 
 
Outcome of Julians Enterprises. 345 
 
 preserve Roman supremacy in Mesopotamia, and 
 Roman ascendancy in Armenia as well as in Iberia. 
 Yet the neglect of Julian to maintain his communi- 
 cations and to provide against the great difficulties 
 of eastern campaigns prevent us from regarding him 
 as potentially what he ever desired to become, a 
 later Alexander, spreading in eastern lands the 
 religion, culture, and the civic life of the Helleno- 
 Roman world. 
 
 In the West, meantime, events were proving that 
 Julian's campaigns and administrative reforms had 
 not been thrown away. True, the Allemanni took 
 advantage of the occasion offered by Julian's death 
 to take up arms again, and if Jovian had had his 
 will, the changes he projected in the military officers 
 would have caused great danger to the Roman 
 dominion in Western Europe. He sent from Asia 
 to order that the post of Master of the Cavalry and 
 of the Infantry should be given to his father-in-law 
 Lucillian, and he instructed this new general to 
 move the command in Gaul from the brave and capa- 
 ble Jovinus. But the only result of this mission 
 was that the army mutinied, Lucillian was killed, 
 and Jovinus was retained in his office, to the great 
 advantage of the provincials. Valentinian, in his 
 military and provincial arrangements and conduct, 
 proved a worthy successor to Julian. He fixed his 
 residence for a time at Paris, and laboured as Julian 
 had done for the relief of the burdens and difficulties 
 of the Gauls. His great achievement was to 
 strengthen the frontier by means of strong fortifica- 
 tions at important points on the border rivers. He 
 
346 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 undertook also some active operations into the ene- 
 mies' country, and made Roman arms respected on 
 the Mosel and the Neckar. But the task of Imperial 
 defence was becoming harder, as in the course of the 
 great migrations other barbarian hosts forced their 
 way on to the scene, especially when the Burgun- 
 dians began to appear on the Upper Rhine, and the 
 Goths on the Danube. The plan was tried of set- 
 ting one tribe against another, but this policy could 
 not permanently lead to the maintenance of peace. 
 When, just after the death of Valentinian, his less 
 warlike brother arranged for the settlement of a large 
 body of Goths within the territory of the Empire, 
 they gained a foothold of which even the successful 
 campaigns of Theodosius could not deprive them. 
 Meantime, the great increase of the barbarian ele- 
 ment in the Roman army, which Julian had felt it 
 necessary to retain throughout his wars, continued 
 to influence for evil and for good the fortunes of the 
 Roman world. Perhaps the wisest of rulers and the 
 best-governed of states could not for long have pre- 
 vented the irruption of the barbarians into the land 
 of the South. Yet, in estimating the worth of what 
 was accomplished by Julian and by those that fol- 
 lowed in his steps, we must remember that here 
 every delay was a clear gain. For the longer the 
 barbarians were kept at bay on the borders of the 
 Empire, while their ablest men, in military employ- 
 ment in the Roman armies or in private intercourse 
 with the officials of the Imperial Court, were learning 
 something of organised enterprise and civilised life, 
 the more likely were they to respect and to spare 
 

 
Outcome of yuliaris Enterprises. 347 
 
 some relics of the ancient civilisation when the 
 power over it all should fall to their share. 
 
 In the civil Government and the arrangements of 
 the Court no violent reaction followed the death of 
 Julian. It would seem indeed that the brother-em- 
 perors, who, by the embellishment of his tomb, 
 showed some respect for his memory, desired in 
 many respects to follow his policy. Both were ac- 
 customed to plain living and averse to the oriental- 
 ising tendencies which had been conspicuous in the 
 palace since the days of Diocletian. Of course there 
 were sowers of discord eager to incriminate and sup- 
 plant many of the persons who had stood highest in 
 Julian's favour, and Valens at least was not deaf to 
 suggestions of treachery. The dissatisfaction felt 
 by those whose day was over found its champion in 
 Procopius, who, after performing the last offices to 
 Julian's body at Tarsus, had been obliged to lead 
 an obscure and afterwards a wandering life to avoid 
 the hostile efforts of the eastern Emperor. After a 
 time, he appeared at Constantinople, during the ab- 
 sence of Valens in Asia, and by bribery or persua- 
 sion obtained from a portion of the soldiery recog- 
 nition as his cousin's successor on the Imperial 
 throne. Yet he seems to have had no large follow- 
 ing. The best of the military officers, including Sal- 
 lust, were loyal to Valens. The action of Procopius, 
 in attracting to his cause the Goths and other bar- 
 barians, seems hardly worthy of one on whom Julian 
 had cast his mantle ; and the support of the widow 
 of Constantius, whose little daughter was made a 
 figure-head in the wild enterprise, cannot have lent 
 
348 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 much strength to his cause. It is even uncertain 
 how far we may take Procopius to represent the old 
 Hellenic principles in religious matters. He achieved 
 some successes, but was finally captured in Phrygia 
 and put to death with great cruelty. He was a silent 
 man, whose intentions were not widely divulged, 
 but we cannot suppose that he ever had much 
 chance of showing himself the heir of Julian's ideas. 
 Little Constantia was married to Valentinian's son 
 Gratian, and thus some semblance of relationship 
 between the late and the present dynasty was 
 maintained. 
 
 But apart from personal changes, the general 
 objects of Julian's Government were still kept in 
 view, and the legislation of his successors shows the 
 same desire to keep the Curiales to their duty and 
 to check the abuses of officials, especially in regard 
 to the post-system. But it also exposes the diffi- 
 culty of achieving any sound and lasting reforms. 
 Certainly within fifty years of the death of Constan- 
 tine, under the weak sons of Theodosius, the com- 
 plaints made of Court extravagance and official greed 
 and oppression furnish a proof of the insufficiency 
 of legislation alone to check a corruption which has 
 eaten its way into the heart of the administration 
 and of society generally. At the same time the im- 
 pulse which Julian had given towards the encourage- 
 ment of the arts and sciences did not cease to act, 
 but showed itself in the liberal provisions for higher 
 teaching in the University of Constantinople, and in 
 the privileges which were continued to the medical 
 profession. 
 
Outcome of yulians Enterprises. 349 
 
 Even in religious affairs there was not at once a 
 total change of policy, certainly no return to the 
 lines followed by Constantius. Jovian, Valentinian, 
 and their successors were known to be Christians, 
 though we have no ground for ranking them among 
 the sufferers from the Pagan reaction. The fact that 
 their religious belief did not materially hinder their 
 recognition by the army and the subjects generally 
 (except in the doubtful case of those who adopted 
 the cause of Procopius), points to a want of power 
 or of zeal among the worshippers of the ancient 
 Gods. Nevertheless, prudence dictated a policy of 
 comparative toleration. Jovian restored the Chris- 
 tian symbols in the army and issued a decree for 
 protecting women who had devoted themselves to a 
 religious profession. But he, as we have seen, did 
 not scruple to allow sacrifices and the prophecies of 
 the haruspices. Under Valentinian and Valens, 
 the clergy gradually recovered their former privi- 
 leges, and Christian teachers again received the 
 right of educating the young. Sunday and Easter 
 were again recognised as holidays, temple property 
 was resumed — not, however, for the use of the 
 Church but for that of the State — and sacrifices 
 which involved bloodshed as well as nocturnal meet- 
 ings were prohibited. Yet even here concessions 
 were made to local popular feeling ; thus the Eleu- 
 sinian Mysteries were excepted from the prohibi- 
 tion, and for a time the State professed the inten- 
 tion of protecting the liberty and security of men of 
 all religions. Where popular fanaticism raged high, 
 this was of course often impossible. Many ancient 
 
35° Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 
 
 buildings and statues fell a prey to iconoclastic zeal, 
 and many devotees suffered, on the charge of sor- 
 cery, the penalty of their constancy to ancient and 
 occult rites. It was naturally the Neo-Platonists 
 whom the latter kind of persecution chiefly affected, 
 and the jealous suspicions of the Emperor Valens 
 rendered it more active, and brought Maximus and 
 perhaps a few others of his stamp to a martyr's 
 grave. But in general Hellenism was not capable of 
 inspiring a desire of martyrdom. Old superstitions 
 might linger long among the pagani of outlying dis- 
 tricts, and old associations might, in the great cities, 
 retard the disuse of ceremonies which had been fol- 
 lowed from time immemorial. Yet, when Gratian 
 and after him Theodosius, took a more decided line, 
 shutting the temples and forbidding heathen rites, 
 no very serious opposition seems to have been en- 
 countered, nor any large dissatisfied minority left 
 with a grievance. In all probability, the stringency 
 of the acts was often eluded, unless, as in Egypt, 
 excited monks and a superstitious rabble joined in 
 the hue-and-cry. A stage was marked when, under 
 Gratian, the Altar of Victory was a second time 
 removed from the Senate House of Rome, a pro- 
 ceeding which led to a controversy in which were 
 heard, perhaps for the first time, and originally on 
 the side of Catholic orthodoxy, arguments for the 
 complete separation of secular politics and religious 
 observance. 
 
 Meantime, Julian's policy of non-intervention in 
 the conflict of parties within the Church, was for 
 the most part adhered to, till the civil arm inter- 
 
His Position in History. 351 
 
 vened to give the final determination to what had 
 been already practically decided by other means 
 than those of mere terrorism. Jovian, while fav- 
 ouring Athanasius, who returned to Alexandria and 
 died there in peace, was unwilling to attend to the 
 demands of the bishops of the Nicene party, who 
 wished for a definite declaration in their favour. 
 Thus he answered their demands by general expres- 
 sions of good-will towards all who sought the peace 
 of the Church. Valentinian likewise, though con- 
 fessing the Homoousian belief, preferred to leave 
 ecclesiastical affairs to ecclesiastical management. 
 " I am but one of the laity," he said, when asked to 
 meet a synod of bishops for deliberation on doc- 
 trinal matters ; " let the bishops, to whom such mat- 
 ters appertain, assemble where they please." He was 
 not, however, always consistent in maintaining an 
 indifferent attitude, and his brother is sometimes 
 represented as an active persecutor. But though 
 Valens was baptised by an Arian bishop, and pur- 
 sued a policy which incurred great unpopularity 
 among Nicenes and semi-Nicenes alike, it is uncertain 
 how far we are to regard his measures as aimed 
 againstany religious party as such, and how far as dic- 
 tated by a desire to check the growth of such an ascetic 
 withdrawal from the world, and consequent loss to 
 the State of the services of its citizens, as was closely 
 associated with opinions of the leading Homoousians. 
 Meantime, those who could accept in some form the 
 creed of Nicaea drew together. The schism at Antioch 
 was healed. Of factions we still hear much, but 
 except among the barbarian Goths, Arianism seems 
 
352 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 not to have had much vitality, and leaders in Church 
 and State could reasonably hope for the achievement 
 of ecclesiastical unity. The efforts of some leading 
 minds among churchmen, notably of Ambrose of 
 Milan, whose influence with Gratian and Theodosius 
 was very considerable, tended in the same direction. 
 Finally, after his victories over the Goths, Theodo- 
 sius, with a soldier's love of order and regularity, 
 issued edicts ordering all men to accept the Nicene 
 faith and forbidding heretical assemblies in the 
 towns. Julian's policy of toleration was over, but 
 possibly, while it lasted, it had given scope to the 
 principle of the survival of the fittest. 
 
 It is not, however, by what he accomplished, but 
 by what he tried to do and by what he was, that 
 Julian raised himself to a position among those who 
 must ever rivet the eyes of mankind. As, in this 
 sketch of his life and doings, our chief object had 
 been to portray his character and the relation in 
 which he stood to the movements of his time, a fur- 
 ther examination of his mind and principles would 
 be superfluous. The reader has, it is hoped, material 
 for forming a final judgment, such as to men of an 
 earlier generation was well-nigh impossible. Julian 
 has been hated by those whose religious enthusiasm 
 was near akin to his own. He has been admired by 
 those whose scepticism would have aroused in him 
 the deepest abhorrence. He has been represented as 
 an unpractical " Romantiker," and as a first-class 
 general and statesman. If we look at him impar- 
 tially and yet with the sympathetic understanding 
 that we can only obtain after trying in imagination 
 
His Position in History. 353 
 
 to realise his point of view, we see in him, not a 
 genius of the first rank in statesmanship, strategy, 
 literature, or religious philosophy, not a character 
 unequalled in virtue and strength, but a man who 
 did something, because of his earnest devotion to 
 his ideals, and who would have done more if he had 
 been gifted with a surer insight and had moved at 
 a less feverish pace. He was a good king and a strong 
 warrior, as his epitaph said. Yet his conduct at 
 Antioch showed him unable to meet all the require- 
 ments of a disordered state, and his neglect of pre- 
 cautions, especially in the Persian War, prevents wz 
 from ranking him among the great generals of the 
 world. He wrote in what, for his age, may be re- 
 garded as a pure style, but he wrote too rapidly to 
 produce any great work. He was a thinker, and 
 often throws a ray of clear light on matters obscured 
 by convention and prejudice, but his mind was not 
 calm and collected enough for us to rank him among 
 great philosophers. His personal character is most 
 attractive. He had warm affections, a strong desire 
 to do justice, an abiding sense of moral responsi- 
 bility. He was, moreover, of a singularly trans- 
 parent nature, living (when the evil days of forced 
 dissimulation were over) always above-board, hating 
 secrets, proclaiming in season and out of season the 
 aspirations of his heart and the principles of his life. 
 Yet, with all his love of truth and goodness, there 
 were some potent types which he was quite incapa- 
 ble of recognising. With all his desire for equity 
 he could not always be fair to those whom he could 
 not understand. In spite of his realisation of the 
 
354 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 
 
 littleness of human effort in the universal system of 
 nature and man, he could not see how powerless 
 were his own endeavours to oppose a barrier to the 
 incoming tide. 
 
 Yet Julian is one to whom much may be forgiven 
 because he loved much. If, turning aside from the 
 events of his short and chequered career, we look to 
 the main principle by which he was throughout 
 guided, we see that it was an entire devotion to the 
 Greek idea of thought and life, a settled determina- 
 tion to prevent, so far as in him lay, the destruction, 
 by what he regarded as barbarous and degrading 
 forces, of that fair fabric of ancient civilisation under 
 which men had learned to venerate beauty and 
 order, to aim at a reasonable, self-contained life, and 
 to live in orderly society under intelligible laws and 
 humane institutions. And who shall say that this 
 principle is an unworthy one, or that a life lived in 
 obedience to its dictates could fail to achieve some 
 good results besides those that may appear on the 
 surface ? 
 
 And after all, that cause has ultimately triumphed, 
 not by the suppression of Christian institutions, as 
 Julian vainly hoped, still less by the extinction of 
 the Christian spirit as a motive power in the world, 
 but by the permeation of society, speculation, and 
 practical life with the most permanent elements of 
 Greek culture. If Julian was mistaken in thinking 
 that the religious ideas lately come from Palestine 
 would soon pale before the revived glories of Greece, 
 no less short-sighted were those who thought that 
 Hellenism was buried in the Emperor's grave. Some- 
 
His Position in History. 
 
 355 
 
 times for better, sometimes for worse, the two streams 
 have blended, till it is now hard to conceive what 
 either might have been apart from the other. We 
 cannot feel that the triumphal cry of Julian's enemies, 
 which has seemed ever to echo round his death-bed, 
 has been fully justified at the bar of history. It is 
 the Christ, not the Galilaean, that has conquered. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 Coin of Valens. 
 Reverse, Spes R.P. Valens and Valentinian seated : between them a shield, in- 
 scribed Vot. V. Mvl. X. which rests on the head of a smaller figure. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adler, Rev. Michael, on Julian 
 
 and the Jews, 267 
 ^Edesius, the Sophist, lectures at 
 
 Pergamum, 60 
 Aetius, Bishop, 233 et seq. 
 Agenaric or Serapis, Alleman 
 
 chief, 107 
 Agrippina, see Cologne. 
 Alexander of Hierapolis, made 
 
 Governor of Syria, 311 
 Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, 
 
 his part in Arian controversy, 
 
 17 
 
 Alexandria, supplied with corn 
 by Emperor, 10 ; mental tone 
 of, 17 ; philosophy of, 183 ; 
 synod in, 237 
 
 Alexandrians, letter to, 237, 238 
 
 Allemanni, the, Consta'ntius 
 against, 81 ; their encroach- 
 ments, 98 ; attack Julian on 
 the march, 100 ; are defeated, 
 ib. ; make a great invasion, 
 106 ; defeated at Strasburg, 
 107, 108 ; agree to truce, 109 
 
 Alypius of Antioch, 269 
 
 Amida, taken by Persians, 130 ; 
 receives people of Nisibis, 342 
 
 Ammianus Marcellinus, his ac- 
 quaintance with Julian and 
 Gallus, 39 ; with Ursicinus in 
 Antioch, etc., 43, 75, 84 ; re- 
 marks on Julian, 139, 249, 
 
 311 
 
 228 
 
 on journeys of Bishops, 
 
 Anicii, the, related to Julian, 26 
 Annibalianus, inheritance, 28 ; 
 
 murder, 29 ; title, 47 
 Antioch, character, troubles of, 
 
 under Gallus, 41 et seq. ; 
 
 Julian's stay in, 299 et seq. ; 
 
 Jovian in, 342 ; Valens resides 
 
 at, 345 
 Antoninus, his desertion and 
 
 flight, 128 et seq. 
 Arbetio, Consul for, 355, his 
 
 craftiness, 75 ; in Allemannic 
 
 War, 82 ; on judicial commis- 
 sion, 165 
 Arelatum, see Aries. 
 Argentoratum, see Strasburg. 
 Arianism, unlike modern Unitari- 
 
 anism, 23 (see under Arius). 
 Arius, his doctrine, 18 ; con- 
 demned and banished, 19; his 
 
 death, 20 
 Aries, Constantius at, 42, 81 
 Arsaces, King of Armenia, won 
 
 over by Constantius, 148 ; 
 
 Julian's hopes from, 316, 319 ; 
 
 does not send troops, 326 ; his 
 
 captivity and death, 343, 344 
 Arsacius, high-priest of Galatia, 
 
 Julian's letter to, 202 
 Artemius, Governor of Egypt, 
 
 236 et seq. 
 Athanasius, his belief, character, 
 
 and opposition to Arius, 17 et 
 
 357 
 
353 
 
 Index. 
 
 seq. ; withstands the Emperor, 
 20 ; banishment and restora- 
 tion, 21 ; so-called creed of, 
 23 ; his fortunes under Julian, 
 235 et seq. ; his return to Alex- 
 andria, 351 
 
 Athenians, letter to the, 87, 152 
 
 Athens, philosophical chairs at, 
 52 ; university life in, 67 ; 
 Julian sent thither, 77 ; his 
 feeling for, 153 
 
 Attuarian, see Franks. 
 
 Atys, worship of, 176, 187 
 
 Augustodunum, see Autun. 
 
 Aurelian, Emperor, inaugurator 
 of changes, 2 ; defeats Alle- 
 manni, 81 
 
 Autun, insurrection at, 31 ; at- 
 tacked by barbarians, Julian 
 in, 99 
 
 B 
 
 Barbatio, magister peditum sent 
 against Laeti, 105 ; thwarts 
 Julian, 106 ; returns to Court, 
 107 ; his death, 129 
 
 Basil, fellow-student of Julian at 
 Athens, 66 ; protected by Gre- 
 gory, 68 
 
 Basilina, Julian's mother, her 
 family, education, and death, 
 24, 27 
 
 Bercea, Julian in, 317 
 
 Besancon, Julian in, 150 
 
 Bezabda (Phcenice), besieged, 
 147,148 
 
 Bithynia, Julian's estate in, 26, 37 
 
 Bostra, letter to the people of, 
 224, 227 
 
 Brumath (Brucomagus), taken by 
 Julian, from the Allemanni, 
 100 
 
 Byzantines, letter to the, 227 
 
 Cabillona, see Chalons-sur-Saone. 
 Caesar, meaning of the title, 11, 
 12 
 
 Caesarea in Cappadocia, outbreak 
 in, 229 
 
 " Caesars," the, of Julian, 213, 
 271 et seq. 
 
 Callixena, priestess of Demeter, 
 Julian's letter to, 195 
 
 Caracalla, his act conferring 
 franchise, 10 
 
 Carrhae, abandoned to the Per- 
 sians, 130 ; Julian's review in, 
 3l8 
 
 Carthage, disputed election to 
 the bishopric of, 16 
 
 Cassianus, dux of Mesopotamia, 
 ambassador to Sapor, 126 
 
 Celsus, friend of Julian, 298 
 
 Chalons-sur-Saone, meeting at, 81 
 
 Chamavi, see Franks. 
 
 Charietto, enters Roman service, 
 112 
 
 Chionites, helping Sapor, 126, 127 
 
 Chnodomar, King of the Alle- 
 manni, 107 ; surrenders, 108 
 
 Chrysanthius, pupil of yEdesius, 
 61 
 
 Chrysostom, his opinion of the 
 Antiochenes, 310, 313 
 
 Circesium, Julian in, 319 
 
 Claudius II., his government, 6 
 
 Clergy, persecuted by Diocletian, 
 13 ; letters of Constantine to, 
 15 ; their privileges, 16 
 
 Cologne, Silvanus in, 83 ; taken 
 by Barbarians, 90 
 
 Comites, their position, 9 
 
 Como, Julian sent to, 77 
 
 Constance, Lake, fightingnear, 82 
 
 Constans, Emperor, 28 ; defeats 
 brother Constantine and seizes 
 dominions, 30 
 
 Constantina, daughter of Con- 
 stantine the Great, married to 
 Gallus, her character and in- 
 fluence, 40 et seq.; her death, 43 
 
 Constantine the Great, his gen- 
 eral policy, 2, 8, 9 et seq., 219 ; 
 at Nicaea, 19 ; fluctuates be- 
 tween parties, 19 et seq. ; his 
 death, 28 ; Julian on, 278 
 
Inch 
 
 ex. 
 
 359 
 
 Constantine the Younger, succes- 
 sion, 28 ; death, 29 
 
 Constantinople, importance of its 
 foundation, 10 ; Arius in, 20 ; 
 Julian brought up in, 33 ; Gal- 
 lusin, 43; beautified by Julian, 
 167 ; learning encouraged in, 
 
 34 8 
 Constantius Chlorus, his religion, 
 
 13 
 
 Constantius (Julius), father of 
 Julian, 25, 26 
 
 Constantius II., Emperor, 28, 
 29 ; his first Persian War, 30 
 et seq. ; makes Gallus Ccesar, 
 33 ; his measures against Gal- 
 lus, 42 et seq. ; his character, 
 74 ; his campaign against the 
 Allemanni, 81 ; he makes Julian 
 Ccesar, 85 et seq.; his charge to 
 Julian, 96 ; against Allemanni 
 again, 105 ; visits Rome, 105, 
 119 et seq.; takes credit for 
 battle of Strasburg, 109 ; ap- 
 pealed to by Florentius, 111 ; 
 fights against Sarmatians, 123 ; 
 recalls some of Julian's troops, 
 131 et seq. ; correspondence 
 with Julian, 138 et seq. ; his 
 campaign of 360, 146 et seq. ; 
 marries Faustina, 148 ; last ill- 
 ness, death, character, 160 et 
 seq.- 
 
 Crates the Cynic, 287 
 
 Ctesiphon, Sapor receives mes- 
 sengers in, 128 ; Julian ap- 
 proaches and leaves, 324 etseq. 
 
 Curiales, see Decuriones. 
 
 Cursus publictis, 254 et seq. 
 
 Cybele, worship of, 176, 187. 
 
 Cynics, their character and his- 
 tory, 283 et seq. 
 
 Cyril of Alexandria, his confuta- 
 tion of Julian, 207 
 
 D 
 
 Dagalaif , set over Julian's guards, 
 156 ; surprises Lucillianus in 
 Sirmium, 157 ; in the East, 339 
 
 Dalmatius, half-brother to Con- 
 stantine, 28 
 
 Dalmatian, son of the above, his 
 share in the Imperial domin- 
 ions, 28 ; murdered, 29 
 
 Daphne, temple at, destroyed by 
 fire, 305 
 
 Decentius, tribune, sent to with- 
 draw troops, 132, 135 ; his 
 escape, 137 
 
 Decuriones, their duties, 227, 
 
 255, 348 
 
 Dioceses, administrative areas, 9 
 
 Diocletian, character of his policy, 
 2, 7 et seq., 94 
 
 Diogenes, 285 
 
 Domitian, sent to recall Gallus, 
 murdered, 42 
 
 Donatists, appeal to secular au- 
 thority, 16 
 
 Duces, their authority, 9 
 
 Dynamius, an underling of Ar- 
 betio, 83 
 
 E 
 
 Ecdicius, Prsefect of the East, 
 236 et seq. 
 
 Eleusinian Mysteries, Julian ini- 
 tiated into, 61 
 
 Eleusius, Bishop, 229 
 
 Ephesus, Gallus said to have 
 studied at, 37 ; Julian in, 52 
 
 Epicureans, unfairly treated by 
 fourth-century philosophers, 
 58, 200, 292 
 
 Epictetus, 288 
 
 Epictetus, Bishop, mediating be- 
 tween Constantius and Julian, 
 142 
 
 Eunapius, his Lives of Philos- 
 ophers, 61-67 ; kindness of 
 Proseresius to, 68 
 
 Eusebia, Empress, her kindness 
 to Julian and general influence, 
 74, 75, 87, 104 ; her conduct 
 towards Helen, 92, 93 ; her 
 death, 141 
 
 Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia 
 and afterwards of Constanti- 
 
,6o 
 
 Index. 
 
 nople, his part in Arian con- 
 troversy, 19 et seq. ; his share 
 in Julian's education. 
 
 Eusebius, pupil of ^Edesius, 61 
 
 Eustathius the philosopher, sent 
 on embasssy to Sapor, 127 
 
 Eutherius, sent by Julian to Im- 
 perial Court. 
 
 Euzoius, Bishop of Antioch, bap- 
 tises Constantius, 160 
 
 Faustina, married to Constantius, 
 148 ; helps in rebellion of Pro- 
 copius, 347 
 
 Florentius, Praetorian Praefect, 
 at Strasburg, 107 ; opposes 
 Julian's reforms, no ; advises 
 withdrawal of troops, 131 ; es- 
 capes to Court, 134 ; Consul, 
 164 ; his escape, 165 
 
 Franks, the, early history of, 98 ; 
 give up Cologne and sign a 
 treaty, 100 ; a company of, be- 
 sieged and captured, 109 ; 
 Saliaus and Chamavi defeated, 
 in ; Attuarians defeated, 150 
 
 Galerius, against the Christians, 
 
 13 
 
 Galla, first wife of Constantius, 
 her death, 74 
 
 Gallus, Julian's brother, 29; made 
 Ccesar, 40 ; his troubles, mis- 
 government and death, 41-44 
 
 Gaudentius sent to Africa, 159 
 
 Gauls, the, defined, 96 et seq. 
 
 George of Cappadocia, 235 et seq. 
 
 Gibbon, character of his work, 3, 
 23 ; his definition of the gov- 
 ernment of Augustus, 6 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen, his state- 
 ments about Julian, 51, 79 ; 
 with Julian at Athens, 66, 67 ; 
 his friendship with Themistius, 
 66 ; protects Basil, 68 ; his 
 
 attitude towards philosophers, 
 173 ; his account of Julian's 
 projects, 204 ; of persecutions, 
 226, 230 ; an attempt to re- 
 build Temple at Jerusalem, 
 265 ; remarks on Julian's 
 funeral rites, 342 
 Gundobadus, King of the Alle- 
 manni, 81 
 
 H 
 
 Hecebolius, the Sophist, 241 
 Helen the Elder, a Christian, 14 
 Helen the Younger, her marriage 
 to Julian, 89, 90 ; her death, 
 
 I5i 
 
 Helios, see under Mithras. 
 
 Heraclius the Cynic, Julian's 
 controversy with, 280 et seq. 
 
 Hierapolis in Syria, Constantius 
 in, 149 ; Julian in, 318 
 
 Himerius the Sophist, his dis- 
 courses, 54-58 ; his address to 
 unpunctual students, 68, 69 ; 
 comes to Julian, 166 
 
 Homceans, 231 et seq. 
 
 Homoousion, adopted as symbol 
 at Nicsea, 19 
 
 Hormisdas the Persian, in Rome 
 with Constantius, 122 ; in 
 Julian's army, 297 ; Julian's 
 schemes for him, 316 ; his 
 narrow escape, 320 
 
 Hortar, barbarian chief surren- 
 ders, 112 
 
 Italy, obliged to pay land-tax, 10 
 
 J 
 
 Jamblichus of Chalcis, influence 
 
 of his works on Julian, 174, 
 
 181, 191 
 Jews, Julian's arguments against, 
 
 209 et seq. ; policy towards, 
 
 262 et seq. 
 
Index. 
 
 ;6i 
 
 Jovianus, Praefector Domesticus, 
 brings home body of Constan- 
 tius, 162 ; made Emperor, 340 ; 
 his march west and death, 340- 
 
 343 
 
 Jovinus, leads forces through 
 North Italy, 157 ; measures of 
 Jovian against him, 345 
 Jovius, in Julian's army, 157 
 Julian, his relation to his times, 
 4 et seq. ; birth, name, and 
 parentage, 25; early education, 
 2 7» 33 et seq.; intercourse with 
 Gallus, 45, 49, 77 ; his dis- 
 simulation, 50 ; religious atti- 
 tude in 350, 50 et seq. ; his 
 university life, 52 et seq. ; pre- 
 served from logomachy, 59 ; 
 seeks the philosophers of Asia 
 Minor, 60 ; initiated into Eleu- 
 sinian Mysteries, 61 ; sum- 
 moned to Milan, his life there, 
 76, 77 ; sent to Como and to 
 Athens, 77 ; his personal ap- 
 pearance, 79 ; summoned to 
 Milan, 85 ; vacillations, 86 et 
 seq. ; made Ccesar, 89 ; mar- 
 ried, starts for Gaul, 89 et seq.; 
 his campaign of 356, 99 et seq.; 
 winter occupations, 102 et seq.; 
 his campaign of 357, 105 et 
 seq. ; winter in Paris, reforms, 
 109 et seq. ; his campaign of 
 358, in et seq.; of 359, 112 
 et seq. ; difficulties with troops 
 and elevation to Empire, 134 
 et seq. ; negotiates with Con- 
 stantius, 138 etseq.; his cam- 
 paign of 360, 150 et seq.; divi- 
 nation, letters, 152 ; his fifth 
 crossing of Rhine, march east- 
 wards, 165 et seq. ; hears of 
 death of Constantius, 162 ; en- 
 ters Constantinople and begins 
 reforms, 163 et seq.; beautifies 
 Constantinople, 167 ; his re- 
 ligious and philosophical be- 
 liefs, 169 et seq. ; his religious 
 reforms and controversial writ- 
 
 ings, 193 et seq. ; his policy 
 against the Christians, 223 et 
 seq. ; his legislative and ad- 
 ministrative reforms, 245 et 
 seq. ; character of his literary 
 works, 268 et seq. ; his last 
 campaign, 314 et seq. ; his 
 wound and death, 331 ; his 
 burial and epitaph, 342 ; re- 
 view of his life and character, 
 352 et seq. 
 
 Julian the elder, uncle to the 
 Emperor, 26 ; his religion, 47 ; 
 his death, 311 
 
 Juthungi, tribe of Allemanni, de- 
 feated, in 
 
 Laeti, attack Lyons, 105 ; de- 
 feated by Julian, 106 
 
 Leonas, sent to Julian by Con- 
 stantius, 141 
 
 Leontius, Prsefect of Rome, 84 
 
 Libanius of Antioch, his charac- 
 ter and career, 62 et seq. ; his 
 remarks on Julian, 49, 77, 78, 
 131, 249, 257, 261, 322, 334; 
 relations with Julian, 300 etseq. 
 
 Liberius, Bishop of Rome, his 
 disgrace, 84 
 
 Libinio, sent against Allemanni, 
 154 ; defeated at Sanctio, 155 
 
 Limigantes, war with Sarmatians, 
 123 et seq. 
 
 Lucillianus, captured, 157 
 
 Lupicinus in Britain, 132 ; com- 
 missioned to bring troops to 
 Persia, 131, 132 
 
 Lutetia, see Paris. 
 
 Lyons, Magnentius defeated at, 
 32 ; attacked by Laeti, 105 
 
 M 
 
 Macellum in Cappadocia, Julian 
 and Gallus forced to stay in, 38 
 
 Magnentius, his insurrection, 31 
 et seq., 75, 80; his coinage, 47 
 
362 
 
 Index. 
 
 Magnus, the rhetorical physician 
 of Antioch, 55, 56, go 
 
 Mamertinus the rhetorician, made 
 Consul, 167 
 
 Manichees, persecuted by Dio- 
 cletian, 12 
 
 Maogamalcha, siege of, 322 
 
 Maranga, battle of, 329 
 
 Marcellus, magister equitum in 
 Gaul, 95-99 ; his neglect of 
 duty and recall, 101 
 
 Marcus, Bishop of Arethusa, 230 
 
 Mardonius, tutor to Julian and 
 his mother, 27, 33 et seq. 
 
 Maximian, associated with Dio- 
 cletian, 11 ; his abdication, 11 
 
 Maximus of Ephesus, the Sophist, 
 his character and career, 59 et 
 seq. ; received at Constanti- 
 nople, 166 ; Julian's letter to, 
 169 ; present at Julian's death, 
 333 ; martyred under Valens, 
 35p 
 
 Maximus, Senator of Rome, made 
 Praefect, 158, 159 
 
 Mercurius, " Count of Dreams," 
 76 
 
 Meuse, line of, fortified by Julian , 
 in 
 
 Milan, a residence of Diocletian, 
 10 ; edict of, 15, 224 ; insur- 
 gents brought to; 76 ; Julian 
 summoned to, 76 ; Constantius, 
 in, 82 ; Julian made Ccesar in, 
 89 
 
 Misopogon, written by Julian, 
 308 et seq. 
 
 Mithras, worship of, 16, 151, 175 
 ei seq., 212, 278 
 
 Mursa, battle of, 32, 82 
 
 Musonianus, Praetorian Praefect 
 of the East, 80; sent to nego- 
 tiate with Sapor, 126 
 
 N 
 
 Naargamalcha, cleared for ships, 
 
 323 
 Nebridius, made Praetorian Prae- 
 
 fect, 141, 142 ; refuses to 
 swear loyalty to Julian, 156 
 
 Nepotianus, his revolt, 31, 32 
 
 Neumann, Dr., his edition of the 
 Contra Christianos, 207, 217 
 
 Nevitta, set over Julian's cavalry, 
 156; set to guard Pass of Succi , 
 158 ; in the East, 339 
 
 Nicaea, Council of, 19 ; Julian 
 in, 297 ; earthquake in, 306 
 
 Nicomedia, a residence of Dio- 
 cletian, 10 ; Constantine dies 
 there, 28 ; Julian partly edu- 
 cated in, 33, 40, 52 ; visited 
 by him, 297 ; another earth- 
 quake in, 306 
 
 Nisibis, siege of, 30 ; fortified 
 by Ursicinus, 130 ; given up 
 to the Persians, 341 et seq. 
 
 
 
 Organ, Julian's epigram on the, 
 
 271, 293 
 Oribazius, physician and friend 
 
 of Julian, accompanies him to 
 
 Gaul, 90 
 
 P 
 
 Paris, Julian's affection for, 109 
 
 ei seq. 
 Paul, " the Chain," 76, 126, 164 
 Pergamum, Julian in, 52 ; a 
 
 centre of Greek thought and 
 
 society, 60 
 Pessinus, Julian in, 297 
 Petavio, Gallus arrested at, 44 
 Petit de Juleville, his writings, 71 
 Petulantes and Celtae, 131, 143, 
 
 154 
 Philagrius, secretary to Julian, 
 
 155 
 Pirisabora, resists Julian, 320 
 Plotinus, founder of Neo-Plato- 
 
 nism, 183 
 Pola, Gallus murdered at, 44 
 Porphyry, his writings against 
 
 Christians, 206 
 Presides, over Provinces, 9 
 
Index. 
 
 363 
 
 Praetorian Praefects, their author- 
 ity, 8, 9 
 
 Priscus, the Sophist, comes to 
 Julian, 166; by Julian's death- 
 bed, 333 
 
 Proaeresius, the Sophist, his rhe- 
 torical triumphs, 56, 57 ; his 
 kindliness, 68 ; resigns pro- 
 fessoriate, 241 
 
 Procopius, sent to Armenia, 319 ; 
 rejoins army, 341 ; takes body 
 of Julian to Tarsus, 342 ; his 
 revolt, 347 el seq. 
 
 Pylae, Julian at, 298 
 
 Q 
 
 Quad:, the, war with, 129 et seq. 
 
 R 
 
 Reims, Julian in, 99 
 
 Rhetoric, its importance in edu- 
 cation, 53 
 
 Rhine, Roman troops reach, 81 ; 
 fortresses on the, taken by 
 Julian, 100 ; and rebuilt, 106 ; 
 expeditions across, 109,112,150 
 
 Rome, no longer the centre of 
 the political system, 2 ; tumult 
 in, 84 ; Constantius in, 85, 117, 
 120 
 
 Rufinus Apparitor, 76 ; in Alle- 
 mannic War, 81 ; Praetorian 
 Praefects in Gaul, 95 
 
 Sabinianus, thwarts Ursicinus, 
 129, 130 
 
 Salians, see Franks. 
 
 Sallustius, with Julian in Gaul, 
 95 ; recalled, 112 ; made Prae- 
 fect of Gauls, 156 ; Consul 
 with Julian, 301, 314 ; advises 
 against Persian campaign, 315 
 
 Sallustius Secundus, Praefect of 
 the East, 164 ; with Julian at 
 his death, 333 ; receives offer of 
 imperial dignity, 339, 343 
 
 Sapor, King of Persia, his early 
 history, 30 ; first war with 
 Constantius, 30, 31 ; his move- 
 ments in the East, 80 ; his 
 negotiations with Constantius, 
 126 ; his chivalrous character, 
 129 ; his campaign of 360, 146 
 el seq.; advances against Julian, 
 328 ; rejoices at his death, con- 
 tinues to harass army, 340 et 
 seq.; makes truce with Romans, 
 341 ; invades Armenia, 343 
 
 Sarmatians, the, war with, 129 el 
 seq. 
 
 Saxons, early abodes, 99 
 
 Schiller, Hermann, his history of 
 Empire, 23 
 
 Sebastian sent to Armenia, 319 ; 
 rejoins army, 341 
 
 Senate of Rome, its decline in 
 power, 10 ; Julian's appeal to, 
 152 
 
 Sens (Senonas), Julian's winter 
 quarters in, 100 ; Julian be- 
 sieged in, 101 
 
 Severus, sent out to replace Mar- 
 cellus, 101 ; helps to defeat 
 Chamavi, in; wavers in 
 fidelity, 112 
 
 Silvanus the Frank, his insurrec- 
 tion, 82 et seq., 90 
 
 Singara, battle of, 30 ; besieged 
 by Sapor, 146 
 
 Sintula, 134, 138 
 
 Sirmium, seditious dinner at, 76 ; 
 Constantius at, 123 ; rallying 
 point for Julian's forces, taken, 
 157 ; mutiny in, 159 
 
 Sosipatra of Pergamum, centre of 
 a theosophical circle, 60 
 
 Stoics, their relation to the 
 Cynics, 287 
 
 Strasburg, battle of, 107, 108 
 
 Suamar, King of Allemanni, sues 
 for peace, 112 
 
 Succi, Pass of, Constantius tries 
 to occupy, 149 
 
 Symmacus, Senator of Rome, 
 158 
 
,64 
 
 Index. 
 
 Tamsapor, general of Sapor, 126 
 
 Tarsus, place of Julian's burial, 
 342 
 
 Taurus consul, 164 
 
 Tertullus, Praefect of Rome, 159 
 
 Thalassius, Praetorian Praefect, a 
 spy on Gallus, 42 
 
 Themistius the Orator, his re- 
 ligious attitude, 65 et seq., 219 
 
 Theodosian Code, 227, 238, 248, 
 257 et seq. 
 
 Theodosius, division on his death, 
 11 
 
 Thracians, petition from, 259 
 
 Tillemont, value of his work, 23 
 
 Timaeus of Plato, quoted by 
 Julian against Genesis, 210 
 
 Turin, Julian at, 90 
 
 Tyre, Synod of, 20 
 
 U 
 
 Ursicinus, his mission to Antioch, 
 recalled, 43 ; falsely accused, 
 75 ; his mission against Silva- 
 nus, 83 et seq. ; with Julian, 
 99 ; his Eastern campaign, 128 
 et seq. 
 
 Ursulus, finance minister, exe- 
 cuted, 164 
 
 V 
 
 Vadomarius, King of the Alle- 
 manni, 81 ; his negotiations 
 with Constantius, 154 ; taken 
 captive, 155 
 
 Valens, Emperor, 343 ; causes 
 death of Maximus, 62 ; argu- 
 ment of Themistius against his 
 persecution, 66, 361 
 
 Valentia, troops at, 81 
 
 Valentinian, fails to defend a 
 post and is accused to Con- 
 stantius, 106 ; made Emperor, 
 343 ; his rule in Gaul, 345 et 
 seq. ; his ecclesiastical policy, 
 
 351 .. 
 Vetranio, his revolt, 31 
 Vicars, rulers of Dioceses, 9 
 Victor, one of Julian's officers, 
 
 297, 322 et seq., 339 
 Vienne, Julian in, 91, 99, 150 ; 
 
 Florentius in, 134 
 
 W 
 
 Wiegand, his study of the Battle 
 of Strasburg, 116 
 
 Zizais, made King of the Sarma- 
 tians, 123 
 

 
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 THE STORY OF GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. 
 " " ROME. Arthur Gilman. 
 
 " THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer. 
 
 " CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
 
 " GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. 
 
 " NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. 
 
 " SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. 
 
 " HUNGARY. Prof. A. VAmbery. 
 
 14 CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church. 
 
 " THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman. 
 
 " THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
 
 " THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett. 
 
 " PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. 
 
 " ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. 
 
 " ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. 
 
 " ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
 
 " THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 
 
 " IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. 
 
 " TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
 
 14 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
 
 " MEDIAEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustave Masson. 
 
 " HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers. 
 
 " MEXICO. Susan Hale. 
 
 " PHCENICIA. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. 
 
 " THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern. 
 
 " EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church. 
 
 " THE BARB ARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
 
 " RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill. 
 
 '• THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W.D.Morrison. 
 
 " SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh. 
 
 " SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. A. Hug. 
 
 « PORTUGAL. H. Morse Stephens. 
 
 " THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C. W. C. Oman. 
 
 " SICILY. E. A. Freeman. 
 
 «* THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella Duffy. 
 
 *« POLAND. W. R. koRFiLL. 
 
 " PARTHIA. Prof. George Rawlinson. 
 
 " JAPAN. David Murray. 
 
 " THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY OF SPAIN. H. 
 
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 " AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tregarthen. 
 " SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M. Theal. 
 " VENICE. AletheaWiel. 
 44 THE CRUSADES. T. S. Archer and C. L. Kings- 
 
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 " VEDIC INDIA. By Z. A. Ragozin. 
 
 
 7 
 

 
 
 
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