nephew of Constantine, and was made _Cæsar_ by his cousin the
Emperor Constantius in 355. On the death of the latter, Julian
became sole emperor in 361. Though bred in the Christian faith, his
deep sympathy with the philosophy and letters of Greece, and his
aversion to the factional bigotry of the Christian sects, caused
him, on assuming the purple, to discard the doctrines of Christ,
and attempt the restitution of paganism.]
The retired scholastic education of Julian, in which he had been more
conversant with books than with arms, with the dead than with the
living, left him in profound ignorance of the practical arts of war and
government; and when he awkwardly repeated some military exercise which
it was necessary for him to learn, he exclaimed, with a sigh, “Oh Plato,
Plato, what a task for a philosopher!” Yet even this speculative
philosophy, which men of business are too apt to despise, had filled the
mind of Julian with the noblest precepts and the most shining examples;
had animated him with the love of virtue, the desire of fame, and the
contempt of death. The habits of temperance recommended in the schools
are still more essential in the severe discipline of a camp. The simple
wants of nature regulated the measure of his food and sleep. Rejecting
with disdain the delicacies provided for his table, he satisfied his
appetite with the coarse and common fare which was allotted to the
meanest soldiers. During the rigor of a Gallic winter he never suffered
a fire in his bed-chamber; and after a short and interrupted slumber, he
frequently rose in the middle of the night from a carpet spread on the
floor, to dispatch any urgent business, to visit his rounds, or to steal
a few moments for the prosecution of his favorite studies.
The precepts of eloquence, which he had hitherto practiced on fancied
topics of declamation, were more usefully applied to excite or assuage
the passions of an armed multitude; and though Julian, from his early
habits of conversation and literature, was more familiarly acquainted
with the beauties of the Greek language, he had attained a competent
knowledge of the Latin tongue. Since Julian was not originally designed
for the character of a legislator or a judge, it is probable that the
civil jurisprudence of the Romans had not engaged any considerable share
of his attention; but he derived from his philosophic studies an
inflexible regard for justice, tempered by a disposition to clemency;
the knowledge of the general principles of equity and evidence; and the
faculty of patiently investigating the most intricate and tedious
questions which could be proposed for his discussion. The measures of
policy and the operations of war must submit to the various accidents of
circumstance and character, and the unpracticed student will often be
perplexed in the application of the most perfect theory. But, in the
acquisition of this important science, Julian was assisted by the active
vigor of his own genius, as well as by the wisdom and experience of
Sallust, an officer of rank, who soon conceived a sincere attachment for
a prince so worthy of his friendship; and whose incorruptible integrity
was adorned by the talent of insinuating the harshest truths, without
wounding the delicacy of a royal ear.
Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom. From his studies
he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his life and
fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant, and when he ascended
the throne his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection that the
slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to
applaud his virtues. He sincerely abhorred the system of Oriental
despotism which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits of
fourscore years had established in the empire. A motive of superstition
prevented the execution of the design which Julian had frequently
meditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a costly diadem; but
he absolutely refused the title of _Dominus_, or _Lord_--a word which
was grown so familiar to the ears of the Romans that they no longer
remembered its servile and humiliating origin. The office, or rather the
name, of consul was cherished by a prince who contemplated with
reverence the ruins of the republic; and the same behavior which had
been assumed by the prudence of Augustus was adopted by Julian from
choice and inclination. On the calends of January (A.D. 363, January
1st), at break of day, the new consuls, Mamertinus and Nevitta, hastened
to the palace to salute the emperor. As soon as he was informed of their
approach he leaped from his throne, eagerly advanced to meet them, and
compelled the blushing magistrates to receive the demonstrations of his
affected humility. From the palace they proceeded to the senate. The
emperor, on foot, marched before their litters; and the gazing multitude
admired the image of ancient times, or secretly blamed a conduct which,
in their eyes, degraded the majesty of the purple. But the behavior of
Julian was uniformly supported. During the games of the Circus he had,
imprudently or designedly, performed the manumission of a slave in the
presence of the consul. The moment he was reminded that he had
trespassed on the jurisdiction of _another_ magistrate, he condemned
himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold, and embraced this public
occasion of declaring to the world that he was subject, like the rest of
his fellow-citizens, to the laws, and even to the forms of the republic.
The spirit of his administration and his regard for the place of his
nativity induced Julian to confer on the senate of Constantinople the
same honors, privileges, and authority which were still enjoyed by the
senate of ancient Rome.[14] A legal fiction was introduced, and
gradually established, that one half of the national council had
migrated into the East; and the despotic successors of Julian, accepting
the title of senators, acknowledged themselves the members of a
respectable body which was permitted to represent the majesty of the
Roman name. From Constantinople, the attention of the monarch was
extended to the municipal senates of the provinces. He abolished, by
repeated edicts, the unjust and pernicious exemptions which had
withdrawn so many idle citizens from the service of their country; and,
by imposing an equal distribution of public duties, he restored the
strength, the splendor, or, according to the glowing expression of
Libanius, the soul of the expiring cities of his empire. The venerable
age of Greece excited the most tender compassion in the mind of Julian,
which kindled into rapture when he recollected the gods, the heroes, and
the men superior to heroes and to gods, who had bequeathed to the latest
posterity the monuments of their genius or the example of their virtues.
He relieved the distress, and restored the beauty of the cities of
Epirus and Peloponnesus. Athens acknowledged him for her benefactor;
Argos, for her deliverer. The pride of Corinth, again rising from her
ruins with the honors of a Roman colony, exacted a tribute from the
adjacent republics for the purpose of defraying the games of the
Isthmus, which were celebrated in the amphitheatre with the hunting of
bears and panthers. From this tribute the cities of Elis, of Delphi, and
of Argos, which had inherited from their remote ancestors the sacred
office of perpetuating the Olympic, the Pythian, and the Nemean games,
claimed a just exemption. The immunity of Elis and Delphi was respected
by the Corinthians, but the poverty of Argos tempted the insolence of
oppression, and the feeble complaints of its deputies were silenced by
the decree of a provincial magistrate, who seems to have consulted only
the interest of the capital in which he resided. Seven years after this
sentence Julian allowed the cause to be referred to a superior tribunal,
and his eloquence was interposed--most probably with success--in the
defense of a city which had been the royal seat of Agamemnon and had
given to Macedonia a race of kings and conquerors.
The laborious administration of military and civil affairs, which were
multiplied in proportion to the extent of the empire, exercised the
abilities of Julian; but he frequently assumed the two characters of
orator and of judge, which are almost unknown to the modern sovereigns
of Europe. The arts of persuasion, so diligently cultivated by the first
Cæsars, were neglected by the military ignorance and Asiatic pride of
their successors; and if they condescended to harangue the soldiers,
whom they feared, they treated with silent disdain the senators, whom
they despised. The assemblies of the senate, which Constantius had
avoided, were considered by Julian as the place where he could exhibit,
with the most propriety, the maxims of a republican and the talents of a
rhetorician. He alternately practiced, as in a school of declamation,
the several modes of praise, of censure, of exhortation; and his friend
Libanius has remarked that the study of Homer taught him to imitate the
simple, concise style of Menelaus, the copiousness of Nestor, whose
words descended like the flakes of a winter’s snow, or the pathetic and
forcible eloquence of Ulysses.
The functions of a judge, which are sometimes incompatible with those of
a prince, were exercised by Julian, not only as a duty, but as an
amusement; and, although he might have trusted the integrity and
discernment of his prætorian prefects, he often placed himself by their
side on the seat of judgment. The acute penetration of his mind was
agreeably occupied in detecting and defeating the chicanery of the
advocates, who labored to disguise the truth of facts and to pervert the
sense of the laws. He sometimes forgot the gravity of his station, asked
indiscreet or unseasonable questions, and betrayed, by the loudness of
his voice and the agitation of his body, the earnest vehemence with
which he maintained his opinion against the judges, the advocates, and
their clients. But his knowledge of his own temper prompted him to
encourage, and even to solicit, the reproof of his friends and
ministers; and whenever they ventured to oppose the irregular sallies of
his passions, the spectators could observe the shame, as well as the
gratitude, of their monarch. The decrees of Julian were almost always
founded on the principles of justice; and he had the firmness to resist
the two most dangerous temptations which assault the tribunal of a
sovereign, under the specious forms of compassion and equity. He decided
the merits of the cause without weighing the circumstances of the
parties; and the poor, whom he wished to relieve, were condemned to
satisfy the just demands of a noble and wealthy adversary. He carefully
distinguished the judge from the legislator; and, though he meditated a
necessary reformation of the Roman jurisprudence, he pronounced sentence
according to the strict and literal interpretation of those laws which
the magistrates were bound to execute and the subjects to obey.
The generality of princes, if they were stripped of their purple and
cast naked into the world, would immediately sink to the lowest rank of
society, without a hope of emerging from their obscurity. But the
personal merit of Julian was, in some measure, independent of his
fortune. Whatever had been his choice of life, by the force of intrepid
courage, lively wit, and intense application, he would have obtained, or
at least he would have deserved, the highest honors of his profession;
and Julian might have raised himself to the rank of minister, or
general, of the state in which he was born a private citizen. If the
jealous caprice of power had disappointed his expectations, if he had
prudently declined the paths of greatness, the employment of the same
talents in studious solitude would have placed beyond the reach of kings
his present happiness and his immortal fame. When we inspect with
minute, or perhaps malevolent attention the portrait of Julian,
something seems wanting to the grace and perfection of the whole figure.
His genius was less powerful and sublime than that of Cæsar; nor did he
possess the consummate prudence of Augustus. The virtues of Trajan
appear more steady and natural, and the philosophy of Marcus is more
simple and consistent. Yet Julian sustained adversity with firmness, and
prosperity with moderation. After an interval of one hundred and twenty
years from the death of Alexander Severus, the Romans beheld an emperor
who made no distinction between his duties and his pleasures; who
labored to relieve the distress and to revive the spirit of his
subjects; and who endeavored always to connect authority with merit, and
happiness with virtue. Even faction, and religious faction, was
constrained to acknowledge the superiority of his genius, in peace as
well as in war; and to confess, with a sigh, that the apostate Julian
was a lover of his country, and that he deserved the empire of the
world.
The character of apostate has injured the reputation of Julian, and the
enthusiasm which clouded his virtues has exaggerated the real and
apparent magnitude of his faults. The vehement zeal of the Christians,
who despised the worship, and overturned the altars of those fabulous
deities, engaged their votary in a state of irreconcilable hostility
with a very numerous party of his subjects; and he was sometimes
tempted, by the desire of victory or the shame of a repulse, to violate
the laws of prudence, and even of justice. The triumph of the party
which he deserted and opposed, has fixed a stain of infamy on the name
of Julian; and the unsuccessful apostate has been overwhelmed with a
torrent of pious invectives, of which the signal was given by the
sonorous trumpet of Gregory Nazianzen.[15]
THEODOSIUS THE GREAT.
BY EDWARD GIBBON.
[Born in Spain, about 346 A.D., of a Visigothic family, and died
395. He was made _Augustus_, or co-Emperor of the West, by Gratian,
in 379, but became by his great abilities the practical ruler of
the two empires, with his imperial seat at Constantinople.
Theodosius twice reconquered the West, where usurpers had made
successful revolt, and became the acknowledged master of the whole
Roman world. He was the last great emperor who shone brightly by
his genius for military affairs and his skill in civil
administration. Theodosius became so dear to the Catholic heart by
his persecution of the Arian heretics that he was afterward
canonized. At his death the empire was again divided, falling to
his sons, Honorius and Arcadius.]
The same province, and, perhaps, the same city, which had given to the
throne the virtues of Trajan and the talents of Hadrian, was the
original seat of another family of Spaniards, who, in a less fortunate
age, possessed, near fourscore years, the declining Empire of Rome. They
emerged from the obscurity of municipal honors by the active spirit of
the elder Theodosius--a general whose exploits in Britain and Africa
have formed one of the most splendid parts of the annals of
Valentinian.[16] The son of that general, who likewise bore the name of
Theodosius, was educated, by skillful preceptors, in the liberal studies
of youth; but he was instructed in the art of war by the tender care and
severe discipline of his father. Under the standard of such a leader,
young Theodosius sought glory and knowledge in the most distant scenes
of military action; inured his constitution to the difference of seasons
and climates; distinguished his valor by sea and land; and observed the
various warfare of the Scots, the Saxons, and the Moors. His own merit,
and the recommendation of the conqueror of Africa, soon raised him to a
separate command; and, in the station of Duke of Mæsia, he vanquished an
army of Sarmatians, saved a province, deserved the love of the soldiers,
and provoked the envy of the court. His rising fortunes were soon
blasted by the disgrace and execution of his illustrious father; and
Theodosius obtained, as a favor, the permission of retiring to a private
life in his native province of Spain. He displayed a firm and temperate
character in the ease with which he adapted himself to this new
situation. His time was almost equally divided between the town and
country; the spirit which had animated his public conduct was shown in
the active and affectionate performance of every social duty; and the
diligence of the soldier was profitably converted to the improvement of
his ample patrimony, which lay between Valladolid and Segovia, in the
midst of a fruitful district, still famous for a most exquisite breed of
sheep. From the innocent, but humble labors of his farm, Theodosius was
transported, in less than four months, to the throne of the Eastern
Empire; and the whole period of the history of the world will not
perhaps afford a similar example of an elevation at the same time so
pure and so honorable.
The princes who peaceably inherit the scepter of their fathers claim and
enjoy a legal right, the more secure as it is absolutely distinct from
the merits of their personal characters. The subjects who, in a monarchy
or a popular state, acquire the possession of supreme power may have
raised themselves, by the superiority either of genius or virtue, above
the heads of their equals; but their virtue is seldom exempt from
ambition, and the cause of the successful candidate is frequently
stained by the guilt of conspiracy or civil war. Even in those
governments which allow the reigning monarch to declare a colleague, or
a successor, his partial choice, which may be influenced by the blindest
passions, is often directed to an unworthy object. But the most
suspicious malignity can not ascribe to Theodosius, in his obscure
solitude of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even the hopes, of an
ambitious statesman; and the name of the exile would long since have
been forgotten if his genuine and distinguished virtues had not left a
deep impression in the imperial court. During the season of prosperity
he had been neglected, but in the public distress his superior merit was
universally felt and acknowledged. What confidence must have been
reposed in his integrity, since Gratian could trust that a pious son
would forgive, for the sake of the republic, the murder of his father!
What expectations must have been formed of his abilities, to encourage
the hope that a single man could save and restore the Empire of the
East! Theodosius was invested with the purple in the thirty-third year
of his age. The vulgar gazed with admiration on the manly beauty of his
face and the graceful majesty of his person, which they were pleased to
compare with the pictures and medals of the Emperor Trajan; while
intelligent observers discovered, in the qualities of his heart and
understanding, a more important resemblance to the best and greatest of
the Roman princes.
The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without
difficulty and without reluctance; and posterity will confess that the
character of Theodosius might furnish the subject of a sincere and ample
panegyric. The wisdom of his laws and the success of his arms rendered
his administration respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of
his enemies. He loved and practiced the virtues of domestic life, which
seldom hold their residence in the palaces of kings. Theodosius was
chaste and temperate; he enjoyed without excess the sensual and social
pleasures of the table, and the warmth of his amorous passions was never
diverted from their lawful objects. The proud titles of imperial
greatness were adorned by the tender names of a faithful husband, an
indulgent father; his uncle was raised, by his affectionate esteem, to
the rank of a second parent. Theodosius embraced as his own the children
of his brother and sister, and the expressions of his regard were
extended to the most distant and obscure branches of his numerous
kindred. His familiar friends were judiciously selected from among those
persons who, in the equal intercourse of private life, had appeared
before his eyes without a mask; the consciousness of personal and
superior merit enabled him to despise the accidental distinction of the
purple; and he proved by his conduct that he had forgotten all the
injuries while he most gratefully remembered all the favors and services
which he had received before he ascended the throne of the Roman Empire.
The serious or lively tone of his conversation was adapted to the age,
the rank, or the character of his subjects whom he admitted into his
society, and the affability of his manners displayed the image of his
mind. Theodosius respected the simplicity of the good and virtuous;
every art, every talent of a useful, or even of an innocent nature, was
rewarded by his judicious liberality; and, except the heretics, whom he
persecuted with implacable hatred, the diffusive circle of his
benevolence was circumscribed only by the limits of the human race.
The government of a mighty empire may assuredly suffice to occupy the
time and the abilities of a mortal; yet the diligent prince, without
aspiring to the unsuitable reputation of profound learning, always
reserved some moments of his leisure for the instructive amusement of
reading. History, which enlarged his experience, was his favorite study.
The annals of Rome, in the long period of eleven hundred years,
presented him with a various and splendid picture of human life; and it
has been particularly observed that whenever he perused the cruel acts
of Cinna, of Marius, or of Sylla, he warmly expressed his generous
detestation of those enemies of humanity and freedom. His disinterested
opinion of past events was usefully applied as the rule of his own
actions; and Theodosius has deserved the singular commendation that his
virtues always seemed to expand with his fortune--the season of his
prosperity was that of his moderation; and his clemency appeared the
most conspicuous after the danger and success of the civil war. The
Moorish guards of the tyrant had been massacred in the first heat of the
victory, and a small number of the most obnoxious criminals suffered the
punishment of the law. But the emperor showed himself much more
attentive to relieve the innocent than to chastise the guilty. The
oppressed subjects of the West, who would have deemed themselves happy
in the restoration of their lands, were astonished to receive a sum of
money equivalent to their losses; and the liberality of the conqueror
supported the aged mother and educated the orphan daughters of Maximus.
A character thus accomplished might almost excuse the extravagant
supposition of the orator Pacatus, that, if the elder Brutus could be
permitted to revisit the earth, the stern republican would abjure, at
the feet of Theodosius, his hatred of kings, and ingenuously confess
that such a monarch was the most faithful guardian of the happiness and
dignity of the Roman people.