Whilst his hours were passed in studious retirement, the empress,

resolute to achieve the generous design which she had undertaken,

was not unmindful of the care of his fortune. The death of the

late Cæsar had left Constantius invested with the sole command,

and oppressed by the accumulated weight, of a mighty empire.

Before the wounds of civil discord could be healed, the provinces

of Gaul were overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians. The

Sarmatians no longer respected the barrier of the Danube. The

impunity of rapine had increased the boldness and numbers of the

wild Isaurians: those robbers descended from their craggy

mountains to ravage the adjacent country, and had even presumed,

though without success, to besiege the important city of

Seleucia, which was defended by a garrison of three Roman

legions. Above all, the Persian monarch, elated by victory, again

threatened the peace of Asia, and the presence of the emperor was

indispensably required, both in the West and in the East. For the

first time, Constantius sincerely acknowledged, that his single

strength was unequal to such an extent of care and of dominion.

30 Insensible to the voice of flattery, which assured him that

his all-powerful virtue, and celestial fortune, would still

continue to triumph over every obstacle, he listened with

complacency to the advice of Eusebia, which gratified his

indolence, without offending his suspicious pride. As she

perceived that the remembrance of Gallus dwelt on the emperor’s

mind, she artfully turned his attention to the opposite

characters of the two brothers, which from their infancy had been

compared to those of Domitian and of Titus. 31 She accustomed her

husband to consider Julian as a youth of a mild, unambitious

disposition, whose allegiance and gratitude might be secured by

the gift of the purple, and who was qualified to fill with honor

a subordinate station, without aspiring to dispute the commands,

or to shade the glories, of his sovereign and benefactor. After

an obstinate, though secret struggle, the opposition of the

favorite eunuchs submitted to the ascendency of the empress; and

it was resolved that Julian, after celebrating his nuptials with

Helena, sister of Constantius, should be appointed, with the

title of Cæsar, to reign over the countries beyond the Alps. 32

30 (return) [ Succumbere tot necessitatibus tamque crebris unum

se, quod nunquam fecerat, aperte demonstrans. Ammian. l. xv. c.

8. He then expresses, in their own words, the fattering

assurances of the courtiers.]

31 (return) [ Tantum a temperatis moribus Juliani differens

fratris quantum inter Vespasiani filios fuit, Domitianum et

Titum. Ammian. l. xiv. c. 11. The circumstances and education of

the two brothers, were so nearly the same, as to afford a strong

example of the innate difference of characters.]

32 (return) [ Ammianus, l. xv. c. 8. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 137,

138.]

Although the order which recalled him to court was probably

accompanied by some intimation of his approaching greatness, he

appeals to the people of Athens to witness his tears of

undissembled sorrow, when he was reluctantly torn away from his

beloved retirement. 33 He trembled for his life, for his fame,

and even for his virtue; and his sole confidence was derived from

the persuasion, that Minerva inspired all his actions, and that

he was protected by an invisible guard of angels, whom for that

purpose she had borrowed from the Sun and Moon. He approached,

with horror, the palace of Milan; nor could the ingenuous youth

conceal his indignation, when he found himself accosted with

false and servile respect by the assassins of his family.

Eusebia, rejoicing in the success of her benevolent schemes,

embraced him with the tenderness of a sister; and endeavored, by

the most soothing caresses, to dispel his terrors, and reconcile

him to his fortune. But the ceremony of shaving his beard, and

his awkward demeanor, when he first exchanged the cloak of a

Greek philosopher for the military habit of a Roman prince,

amused, during a few days, the levity of the Imperial court. 34

33 (return) [ Julian. ad S. P. Q. A. p. 275, 276. Libanius, Orat.

x. p. 268. Julian did not yield till the gods had signified their

will by repeated visions and omens. His piety then forbade him to

resist.]

34 (return) [ Julian himself relates, (p. 274) with some humor,

the circumstances of his own metamorphoses, his downcast looks,

and his perplexity at being thus suddenly transported into a new

world, where every object appeared strange and hostile.]

The emperors of the age of Constantine no longer deigned to

consult with the senate in the choice of a colleague; but they

were anxious that their nomination should be ratified by the

consent of the army. On this solemn occasion, the guards, with

the other troops whose stations were in the neighborhood of

Milan, appeared under arms; and Constantius ascended his lofty

tribunal, holding by the hand his cousin Julian, who entered the

same day into the twenty-fifth year of his age. 35 In a studied

speech, conceived and delivered with dignity, the emperor

represented the various dangers which threatened the prosperity

of the republic, the necessity of naming a Cæsar for the

administration of the West, and his own intention, if it was

agreeable to their wishes, of rewarding with the honors of the

purple the promising virtues of the nephew of Constantine. The

approbation of the soldiers was testified by a respectful murmur;

they gazed on the manly countenance of Julian, and observed with

pleasure, that the fire which sparkled in his eyes was tempered

by a modest blush, on being thus exposed, for the first time, to

the public view of mankind. As soon as the ceremony of his

investiture had been performed, Constantius addressed him with

the tone of authority which his superior age and station

permitted him to assume; and exhorting the new Cæsar to deserve,

by heroic deeds, that sacred and immortal name, the emperor gave

his colleague the strongest assurances of a friendship which

should never be impaired by time, nor interrupted by their

separation into the most distant climes. As soon as the speech

was ended, the troops, as a token of applause, clashed their

shields against their knees; 36 while the officers who surrounded

the tribunal expressed, with decent reserve, their sense of the

merits of the representative of Constantius.

35 (return) [ See Ammian. Marcellin. l. xv. c. 8. Zosimus, l.

iii. p. 139. Aurelius Victor. Victor Junior in Epitom. Eutrop. x.

14.]

36 (return) [ Militares omnes horrendo fragore scuta genibus

illidentes; quod est prosperitatis indicium plenum; nam contra

cum hastis clypei feriuntur, iræ documentum est et doloris... ...

Ammianus adds, with a nice distinction, Eumque ut potiori

reverentia servaretur, nec supra modum laudabant nec infra quam

decebat.]

The two princes returned to the palace in the same chariot; and

during the slow procession, Julian repeated to himself a verse of

his favorite Homer, which he might equally apply to his fortune

and to his fears. 37 The four-and-twenty days which the Cæsar

spent at Milan after his investiture, and the first months of his

Gallic reign, were devoted to a splendid but severe captivity;

nor could the acquisition of honor compensate for the loss of

freedom. 38 His steps were watched, his correspondence was

intercepted; and he was obliged, by prudence, to decline the

visits of his most intimate friends. Of his former domestics,

four only were permitted to attend him; two pages, his physician,

and his librarian; the last of whom was employed in the care of a

valuable collection of books, the gift of the empress, who

studied the inclinations as well as the interest of her friend.

In the room of these faithful servants, a household was formed,

such indeed as became the dignity of a Cæsar; but it was filled

with a crowd of slaves, destitute, and perhaps incapable, of any

attachment for their new master, to whom, for the most part, they

were either unknown or suspected. His want of experience might

require the assistance of a wise council; but the minute

instructions which regulated the service of his table, and the

distribution of his hours, were adapted to a youth still under

the discipline of his preceptors, rather than to the situation of

a prince intrusted with the conduct of an important war. If he

aspired to deserve the esteem of his subjects, he was checked by

the fear of displeasing his sovereign; and even the fruits of his

marriage-bed were blasted by the jealous artifices of Eusebia 39

herself, who, on this occasion alone, seems to have been

unmindful of the tenderness of her sex, and the generosity of her

character. The memory of his father and of his brothers reminded

Julian of his own danger, and his apprehensions were increased by

the recent and unworthy fate of Sylvanus. In the summer which

preceded his own elevation, that general had been chosen to

deliver Gaul from the tyranny of the Barbarians; but Sylvanus

soon discovered that he had left his most dangerous enemies in

the Imperial court. A dexterous informer, countenanced by several

of the principal ministers, procured from him some recommendatory

letters; and erasing the whole of the contents, except the

signature, filled up the vacant parchment with matters of high

and treasonable import. By the industry and courage of his

friends, the fraud was however detected, and in a great council

of the civil and military officers, held in the presence of the

emperor himself, the innocence of Sylvanus was publicly

acknowledged. But the discovery came too late; the report of the

calumny, and the hasty seizure of his estate, had already

provoked the indignant chief to the rebellion of which he was so

unjustly accused. He assumed the purple at his head- quarters of

Cologne, and his active powers appeared to menace Italy with an

invasion, and Milan with a siege. In this emergency, Ursicinus, a

general of equal rank, regained, by an act of treachery, the

favor which he had lost by his eminent services in the East.

Exasperated, as he might speciously allege, by the injuries of a

similar nature, he hastened with a few followers to join the

standard, and to betray the confidence, of his too credulous

friend. After a reign of only twenty-eight days, Sylvanus was

assassinated: the soldiers who, without any criminal intention,

had blindly followed the example of their leader, immediately

returned to their allegiance; and the flatterers of Constantius

celebrated the wisdom and felicity of the monarch who had

extinguished a civil war without the hazard of a battle. 40

37 (return) [ The word _purple_ which Homer had used as a vague

but common epithet for death, was applied by Julian to express,

very aptly, the nature and object of his own apprehensions.]

38 (return) [ He represents, in the most pathetic terms, (p.

277,) the distress of his new situation. The provision for his

table was, however, so elegant and sumptuous, that the young

philosopher rejected it with disdain. Quum legeret libellum

assidue, quem Constantius ut privignum ad studia mittens manû suâ

conscripserat, prælicenter disponens quid in convivio Cæsaris

impendi deberit: Phasianum, et vulvam et sumen exigi vetuit et

inferri. Ammian. Marcellin. l. xvi. c. 5.]

39 (return) [ If we recollect that Constantine, the father of

Helena, died above eighteen years before, in a mature old age, it

will appear probable, that the daughter, though a virgin, could

not be very young at the time of her marriage. She was soon

afterwards delivered of a son, who died immediately, quod

obstetrix corrupta mercede, mox natum præsecto plusquam

convenerat umbilico necavit. She accompanied the emperor and

empress in their journey to Rome, and the latter, quæsitum

venenum bibere per fraudem illexit, ut quotiescunque concepisset,

immaturum abjicerit partum. Ammian. l. xvi. c. 10. Our physicians

will determine whether there exists such a poison. For my own

part I am inclined to hope that the public malignity imputed the

effects of accident as the guilt of Eusebia.]

40 (return) [ Ammianus (xv. v.) was perfectly well informed of

the conduct and fate of Sylvanus. He himself was one of the few

followers who attended Ursicinus in his dangerous enterprise.]

The protection of the Rhætian frontier, and the persecution of

the Catholic church, detained Constantius in Italy above eighteen

months after the departure of Julian. Before the emperor returned

into the East, he indulged his pride and curiosity in a visit to

the ancient capital. 41 He proceeded from Milan to Rome along the

Æmilian and Flaminian ways, and as soon as he approached within

forty miles of the city, the march of a prince who had never

vanquished a foreign enemy, assumed the appearance of a triumphal

procession. His splendid train was composed of all the ministers

of luxury; but in a time of profound peace, he was encompassed by

the glittering arms of the numerous squadrons of his guards and

cuirassiers. Their streaming banners of silk, embossed with gold,

and shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the person of the

emperor. Constantius sat alone in a lofty car, resplendent with

gold and precious gems; and, except when he bowed his head to

pass under the gates of the cities, he affected a stately

demeanor of inflexible, and, as it might seem, of insensible

gravity. The severe discipline of the Persian youth had been

introduced by the eunuchs into the Imperial palace; and such were

the habits of patience which they had inculcated, that during a

slow and sultry march, he was never seen to move his hand towards

his face, or to turn his eyes either to the right or to the left.

He was received by the magistrates and senate of Rome; and the

emperor surveyed, with attention, the civil honors of the

republic, and the consular images of the noble families. The

streets were lined with an innumerable multitude. Their repeated

acclamations expressed their joy at beholding, after an absence

of thirty-two years, the sacred person of their sovereign, and

Constantius himself expressed, with some pleasantry, he affected

surprise that the human race should thus suddenly be collected on

the same spot. The son of Constantine was lodged in the ancient

palace of Augustus: he presided in the senate, harangued the

people from the tribunal which Cicero had so often ascended,

assisted with unusual courtesy at the games of the Circus, and

accepted the crowns of gold, as well as the Panegyrics which had

been prepared for the ceremony by the deputies of the principal

cities. His short visit of thirty days was employed in viewing

the monuments of art and power which were scattered over the

seven hills and the interjacent valleys. He admired the awful

majesty of the Capitol, the vast extent of the baths of Caracalla

and Diocletian, the severe simplicity of the Pantheon, the massy

greatness of the amphitheatre of Titus, the elegant architecture

of the theatre of Pompey and the Temple of Peace, and, above all,

the stately structure of the Forum and column of Trajan;

acknowledging that the voice of fame, so prone to invent and to

magnify, had made an inadequate report of the metropolis of the

world. The traveller, who has contemplated the ruins of ancient

Rome, may conceive some imperfect idea of the sentiments which

they must have inspired when they reared their heads in the

splendor of unsullied beauty.

[See The Pantheon: The severe simplicity of the Pantheon]

41 (return) [ For the particulars of the visit of Constantius to

Rome, see Ammianus, l. xvi. c. 10. We have only to add, that

Themistius was appointed deputy from Constantinople, and that he

composed his fourth oration for his ceremony.]

The satisfaction which Constantius had received from this journey

excited him to the generous emulation of bestowing on the Romans

some memorial of his own gratitude and munificence. His first

idea was to imitate the equestrian and colossal statue which he

had seen in the Forum of Trajan; but when he had maturely weighed

the difficulties of the execution, 42 he chose rather to

embellish the capital by the gift of an Egyptian obelisk. In a

remote but polished age, which seems to have preceded the

invention of alphabetical writing, a great number of these

obelisks had been erected, in the cities of Thebes and

Heliopolis, by the ancient sovereigns of Egypt, in a just

confidence that the simplicity of their form, and the hardness of

their substance, would resist the injuries of time and violence.

43 Several of these extraordinary columns had been transported to

Rome by Augustus and his successors, as the most durable

monuments of their power and victory; 44 but there remained one

obelisk, which, from its size or sanctity, escaped for a long

time the rapacious vanity of the conquerors. It was designed by

Constantine to adorn his new city; 45 and, after being removed by

his order from the pedestal where it stood before the Temple of

the Sun at Heliopolis, was floated down the Nile to Alexandria.

The death of Constantine suspended the execution of his purpose,

and this obelisk was destined by his son to the ancient capital

of the empire. A vessel of uncommon strength and capaciousness

was provided to convey this enormous weight of granite, at least

a hundred and fifteen feet in length, from the banks of the Nile

to those of the Tyber. The obelisk of Constantius was landed

about three miles from the city, and elevated, by the efforts of

art and labor, in the great Circus of Rome. 46 4611

42 (return) [ Hormisdas, a fugitive prince of Persia, observed to

the emperor, that if he made such a horse, he must think of

preparing a similar stable, (the Forum of Trajan.) Another saying

of Hormisdas is recorded, “that one thing only had _displeased_

him, to find that men died at Rome as well as elsewhere.” If we

adopt this reading of the text of Ammianus, (_displicuisse_,

instead of _placuisse_,) we may consider it as a reproof of Roman

vanity. The contrary sense would be that of a misanthrope.]

43 (return) [ When Germanicus visited the ancient monuments of

Thebes, the eldest of the priests explained to him the meaning of

these hiero glyphics. Tacit. Annal. ii. c. 60. But it seems

probable, that before the useful invention of an alphabet, these

natural or arbitrary signs were the common characters of the

Egyptian nation. See Warburton’s Divine Legation of Moses, vol.

iii. p. 69-243.]

44 (return) [ See Plin. Hist. Natur. l. xxxvi. c. 14, 15.]

45 (return) [ Ammian. Marcellin l. xvii. c. 4. He gives us a

Greek interpretation of the hieroglyphics, and his commentator

Lindenbrogius adds a Latin inscription, which, in twenty verses

of the age of Constantius, contain a short history of the

obelisk.]

46 (return) [ See Donat. Roma. Antiqua, l. iii. c. 14, l. iv. c.

12, and the learned, though confused, Dissertation of Bargæus on

Obelisks, inserted in the fourth volume of Grævius’s Roman

Antiquities, p. 1897- 1936. This dissertation is dedicated to

Pope Sixtus V., who erected the obelisk of Constantius in the

square before the patriarchal church of at. John Lateran.]

4611 (return) [ It is doubtful whether the obelisk transported by

Constantius to Rome now exists. Even from the text of Ammianus,

it is uncertain whether the interpretation of Hermapion refers to

the older obelisk, (obelisco incisus est veteri quem videmus in

Circo,) raised, as he himself states, in the Circus Maximus, long

before, by Augustus, or to the one brought by Constantius. The

obelisk in the square before the church of St. John Lateran is

ascribed not to Rameses the Great but to Thoutmos II.

Champollion, 1. Lettre a M. de Blacas, p. 32.—M]

The departure of Constantius from Rome was hastened by the

alarming intelligence of the distress and danger of the Illyrian

provinces. The distractions of civil war, and the irreparable

loss which the Roman legions had sustained in the battle of

Mursa, exposed those countries, almost without defence, to the

light cavalry of the Barbarians; and particularly to the inroads

of the Quadi, a fierce and powerful nation, who seem to have

exchanged the institutions of Germany for the arms and military

arts of their Sarmatian allies. 47 The garrisons of the frontiers

were insufficient to check their progress; and the indolent

monarch was at length compelled to assemble, from the extremities

of his dominions, the flower of the Palatine troops, to take the

field in person, and to employ a whole campaign, with the

preceding autumn and the ensuing spring, in the serious

prosecution of the war. The emperor passed the Danube on a bridge

of boats, cut in pieces all that encountered his march,

penetrated into the heart of the country of the Quadi, and

severely retaliated the calamities which they had inflicted on

the Roman province. The dismayed Barbarians were soon reduced to

sue for peace: they offered the restitution of his captive

subjects as an atonement for the past, and the noblest hostages

as a pledge of their future conduct. The generous courtesy which

was shown to the first among their chieftains who implored the

clemency of Constantius, encouraged the more timid, or the more

obstinate, to imitate their example; and the Imperial camp was

crowded with the princes and ambassadors of the most distant

tribes, who occupied the plains of the Lesser Poland, and who

might have deemed themselves secure behind the lofty ridge of the

Carpathian Mountains. While Constantius gave laws to the

Barbarians beyond the Danube, he distinguished, with specious

compassion, the Sarmatian exiles, who had been expelled from

their native country by the rebellion of their slaves, and who

formed a very considerable accession to the power of the Quadi.

The emperor, embracing a generous but artful system of policy,

released the Sarmatians from the bands of this humiliating

dependence, and restored them, by a separate treaty, to the

dignity of a nation united under the government of a king, the

friend and ally of the republic. He declared his resolution of

asserting the justice of their cause, and of securing the peace

of the provinces by the extirpation, or at least the banishment,

of the Limigantes, whose manners were still infected with the

vices of their servile origin. The execution of this design was

attended with more difficulty than glory. The territory of the

Limigantes was protected against the Romans by the Danube,

against the hostile Barbarians by the Teyss. The marshy lands

which lay between those rivers, and were often covered by their

inundations, formed an intricate wilderness, pervious only to the

inhabitants, who were acquainted with its secret paths and

inaccessible fortresses. On the approach of Constantius, the

Limigantes tried the efficacy of prayers, of fraud, and of arms;

but he sternly rejected their supplications, defeated their rude

stratagems, and repelled with skill and firmness the efforts of

their irregular valor. One of their most warlike tribes,

established in a small island towards the conflux of the Teyss

and the Danube, consented to pass the river with the intention of

surprising the emperor during the security of an amicable

conference. They soon became the victims of the perfidy which

they meditated. Encompassed on every side, trampled down by the

cavalry, slaughtered by the swords of the legions, they disdained

to ask for mercy; and with an undaunted countenance, still

grasped their weapons in the agonies of death. After this

victory, a considerable body of Romans was landed on the opposite

banks of the Danube; the Taifalæ, a Gothic tribe engaged in the

service of the empire, invaded the Limigantes on the side of the

Teyss; and their former masters, the free Sarmatians, animated by

hope and revenge, penetrated through the hilly country, into the

heart of their ancient possessions. A general conflagration

revealed the huts of the Barbarians, which were seated in the

depth of the wilderness; and the soldier fought with confidence

on marshy ground, which it was dangerous for him to tread. In

this extremity, the bravest of the Limigantes were resolved to

die in arms, rather than to yield: but the milder sentiment,

enforced by the authority of their elders, at length prevailed;

and the suppliant crowd, followed by their wives and children,

repaired to the Imperial camp, to learn their fate from the mouth

of the conqueror. After celebrating his own clemency, which was

still inclined to pardon their repeated crimes, and to spare the

remnant of a guilty nation, Constantius assigned for the place of

their exile a remote country, where they might enjoy a safe and

honorable repose. The Limigantes obeyed with reluctance; but

before they could reach, at least before they could occupy, their

destined habitations, they returned to the banks of the Danube,

exaggerating the hardships of their situation, and requesting,

with fervent professions of fidelity, that the emperor would

grant them an undisturbed settlement within the limits of the

Roman provinces. Instead of consulting his own experience of

their incurable perfidy, Constantius listened to his flatterers,

who were ready to represent the honor and advantage of accepting

a colony of soldiers, at a time when it was much easier to obtain

the pecuniary contributions than the military service of the

subjects of the empire. The Limigantes were permitted to pass the

Danube; and the emperor gave audience to the multitude in a large

plain near the modern city of Buda. They surrounded the tribunal,

and seemed to hear with respect an oration full of mildness and

dignity when one of the Barbarians, casting his shoe into the

air, exclaimed with a loud voice, _Marha! Marha!_ 4711 a word of

defiance, which was received as a signal of the tumult. They

rushed with fury to seize the person of the emperor; his royal

throne and golden couch were pillaged by these rude hands; but

the faithful defence of his guards, who died at his feet, allowed

him a moment to mount a fleet horse, and to escape from the

confusion. The disgrace which had been incurred by a treacherous

surprise was soon retrieved by the numbers and discipline of the

Romans; and the combat was only terminated by the extinction of

the name and nation of the Limigantes. The free Sarmatians were

reinstated in the possession of their ancient seats; and although

Constantius distrusted the levity of their character, he

entertained some hopes that a sense of gratitude might influence

their future conduct. He had remarked the lofty stature and

obsequious demeanor of Zizais, one of the noblest of their

chiefs. He conferred on him the title of King; and Zizais proved

that he was not unworthy to reign, by a sincere and lasting

attachment to the interests of his benefactor, who, after this

splendid success, received the name of _Sarmaticus_ from the

acclamations of his victorious army. 48

47 (return) [ The events of this Quadian and Sarmatian war are

related by Ammianus, xvi. 10, xvii. 12, 13, xix. 11]

4711 (return) [ Reinesius reads Warrha, Warrha, Guerre, War.

Wagner note as a mm. Marc xix. ll.—M.]

48 (return) [ Genti Sarmatarum magno decori confidens apud eos

regem dedit. Aurelius Victor. In a pompous oration pronounced by

Constantius himself, he expatiates on his own exploits with much

vanity, and some truth]

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part III.

While the Roman emperor and the Persian monarch, at the distance

of three thousand miles, defended their extreme limits against

the Barbarians of the Danube and of the Oxus, their intermediate

frontier experienced the vicissitudes of a languid war, and a

precarious truce. Two of the eastern ministers of Constantius,

the Prætorian præfect Musonian, whose abilities were disgraced by

the want of truth and integrity, and Cassian, duke of

Mesopotamia, a hardy and veteran soldier, opened a secret

negotiation with the satrap Tamsapor. 49 4911 These overtures of

peace, translated into the servile and flattering language of

Asia, were transmitted to the camp of the Great King; who

resolved to signify, by an ambassador, the terms which he was

inclined to grant to the suppliant Romans. Narses, whom he

invested with that character, was honorably received in his

passage through Antioch and Constantinople: he reached Sirmium

after a long journey, and, at his first audience, respectfully

unfolded the silken veil which covered the haughty epistle of his

sovereign. Sapor, King of Kings, and Brother of the Sun and Moon,

(such were the lofty titles affected by Oriental vanity,)

expressed his satisfaction that his brother, Constantius Cæsar,

had been taught wisdom by adversity. As the lawful successor of

Darius Hystaspes, Sapor asserted, that the River Strymon, in

Macedonia, was the true and ancient boundary of his empire;

declaring, however, that as an evidence of his moderation, he

would content himself with the provinces of Armenia and

Mesopotamia, which had been fraudulently extorted from his

ancestors. He alleged, that, without the restitution of these

disputed countries, it was impossible to establish any treaty on

a solid and permanent basis; and he arrogantly threatened, that

if his ambassador returned in vain, he was prepared to take the

field in the spring, and to support the justice of his cause by

the strength of his invincible arms. Narses, who was endowed with

the most polite and amiable manners, endeavored, as far as was

consistent with his duty, to soften the harshness of the message.

50 Both the style and substance were maturely weighed in the

Imperial council, and he was dismissed with the following answer:

“Constantius had a right to disclaim the officiousness of his

ministers, who had acted without any specific orders from the

throne: he was not, however, averse to an equal and honorable

treaty; but it was highly indecent, as well as absurd, to propose

to the sole and victorious emperor of the Roman world, the same

conditions of peace which he had indignantly rejected at the time

when his power was contracted within the narrow limits of the

East: the chance of arms was uncertain; and Sapor should

recollect, that if the Romans had sometimes been vanquished in

battle, they had almost always been successful in the event of

the war.” A few days after the departure of Narses, three

ambassadors were sent to the court of Sapor, who was already

returned from the Scythian expedition to his ordinary residence

of Ctesiphon. A count, a notary, and a sophist, had been selected

for this important commission; and Constantius, who was secretly

anxious for the conclusion of the peace, entertained some hopes

that the dignity of the first of these ministers, the dexterity

of the second, and the rhetoric of the third, 51 would persuade

the Persian monarch to abate of the rigor of his demands. But the

progress of their negotiation was opposed and defeated by the

hostile arts of Antoninus, 52 a Roman subject of Syria, who had

fled from oppression, and was admitted into the councils of

Sapor, and even to the royal table, where, according to the

custom of the Persians, the most important business was

frequently discussed. 53 The dexterous fugitive promoted his

interest by the same conduct which gratified his revenge. He

incessantly urged the ambition of his new master to embrace the

favorable opportunity when the bravest of the Palatine troops

were employed with the emperor in a distant war on the Danube. He

pressed Sapor to invade the exhausted and defenceless provinces

of the East, with the numerous armies of Persia, now fortified by

the alliance and accession of the fiercest Barbarians. The

ambassadors of Rome retired without success, and a second

embassy, of a still more honorable rank, was detained in strict

confinement, and threatened either with death or exile.

49 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 9.]

4911 (return) [ In Persian, Ten-schah-pour. St. Martin, ii.

177.—M.]

50 (return) [ Ammianus (xvii. 5) transcribes the haughty letter.

Themistius (Orat. iv. p. 57, edit. Petav.) takes notice of the

silken covering. Idatius and Zonaras mention the journey of the

ambassador; and Peter the Patrician (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 58)

has informed us of his behavior.]

51 (return) [ Ammianus, xvii. 5, and Valesius ad loc. The

sophist, or philosopher, (in that age these words were almost

synonymous,) was Eustathius the Cappadocian, the disciple of

Jamblichus, and the friend of St. Basil. Eunapius (in Vit.

Ædesii, p. 44-47) fondly attributes to this philosophic

ambassador the glory of enchanting the Barbarian king by the

persuasive charms of reason and eloquence. See Tillemont, Hist.

des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 828, 1132.]

52 (return) [ Ammian. xviii. 5, 6, 8. The decent and respectful

behavior of Antoninus towards the Roman general, sets him in a

very interesting light; and Ammianus himself speaks of the

traitor with some compassion and esteem.]

53 (return) [ This circumstance, as it is noticed by Ammianus,

serves to prove the veracity of Herodotus, (l. i. c. 133,) and

the permanency of the Persian manners. In every age the Persians

have been addicted to intemperance, and the wines of Shiraz have

triumphed over the law of Mahomet. Brisson de Regno Pers. l. ii.

p. 462-472, and Voyages en Perse, tom, iii. p. 90.]

The military historian, 54 who was himself despatched to observe

the army of the Persians, as they were preparing to construct a

bridge of boats over the Tigris, beheld from an eminence the

plain of Assyria, as far as the edge of the horizon, covered with

men, with horses, and with arms. Sapor appeared in the front,

conspicuous by the splendor of his purple. On his left hand, the

place of honor among the Orientals, Grumbates, king of the

Chionites, displayed the stern countenance of an aged and

renowned warrior. The monarch had reserved a similar place on his

right hand for the king of the Albanians, who led his independent

tribes from the shores of the Caspian. 5411 The satraps and

generals were distributed according to their several ranks, and

the whole army, besides the numerous train of Oriental luxury,

consisted of more than one hundred thousand effective men, inured

to fatigue, and selected from the bravest nations of Asia. The

Roman deserter, who in some measure guided the councils of Sapor,

had prudently advised, that, instead of wasting the summer in

tedious and difficult sieges, he should march directly to the

Euphrates, and press forwards without delay to seize the feeble

and wealthy metropolis of Syria. But the Persians were no sooner

advanced into the plains of Mesopotamia, than they discovered

that every precaution had been used which could retard their

progress, or defeat their design. The inhabitants, with their

cattle, were secured in places of strength, the green forage

throughout the country was set on fire, the fords of the rivers

were fortified by sharp stakes; military engines were planted on

the opposite banks, and a seasonable swell of the waters of the

Euphrates deterred the Barbarians from attempting the ordinary

passage of the bridge of Thapsacus. Their skilful guide, changing

his plan of operations, then conducted the army by a longer

circuit, but through a fertile territory, towards the head of the

Euphrates, where the infant river is reduced to a shallow and

accessible stream. Sapor overlooked, with prudent disdain, the

strength of Nisibis; but as he passed under the walls of Amida,

he resolved to try whether the majesty of his presence would not

awe the garrison into immediate submission. The sacrilegious

insult of a random dart, which glanced against the royal tiara,

convinced him of his error; and the indignant monarch listened

with impatience to the advice of his ministers, who conjured him

not to sacrifice the success of his ambition to the gratification

of his resentment. The following day Grumbates advanced towards

the gates with a select body of troops, and required the instant

surrender of the city, as the only atonement which could be

accepted for such an act of rashness and insolence. His proposals

were answered by a general discharge, and his only son, a

beautiful and valiant youth, was pierced through the heart by a

javelin, shot from one of the balistæ. The funeral of the prince

of the Chionites was celebrated according to the rites of the

country; and the grief of his aged father was alleviated by the

solemn promise of Sapor, that the guilty city of Amida should

serve as a funeral pile to expiate the death, and to perpetuate

the memory, of his son.

54 (return) [ Ammian. lxviii. 6, 7, 8, 10.]

5411 (return) [ These perhaps were the barbarous tribes who

inhabit the northern part of the present Schirwan, the Albania of

the ancients. This country, now inhabited by the Lezghis, the

terror of the neighboring districts, was then occupied by the

same people, called by the ancients Legæ, by the Armenians Gheg,

or Leg. The latter represent them as constant allies of the

Persians in their wars against Armenia and the Empire. A little

after this period, a certain Schergir was their king, and it is

of him doubtless Ammianus Marcellinus speaks. St. Martin, ii.

285.—M.]

The ancient city of Amid or Amida, 55 which sometimes assumes the

provincial appellation of Diarbekir, 56 is advantageously situate

in a fertile plain, watered by the natural and artificial

channels of the Tigris, of which the least inconsiderable stream

bends in a semicircular form round the eastern part of the city.

The emperor Constantius had recently conferred on Amida the honor

of his own name, and the additional fortifications of strong

walls and lofty towers. It was provided with an arsenal of

military engines, and the ordinary garrison had been reenforced

to the amount of seven legions, when the place was invested by

the arms of Sapor. 57 His first and most sanguine hopes depended

on the success of a general assault. To the several nations which

followed his standard, their respective posts were assigned; the

south to the Vertæ; the north to the Albanians; the east to the

Chionites, inflamed with grief and indignation; the west to the

Segestans, the bravest of his warriors, who covered their front

with a formidable line of Indian elephants. 58 The Persians, on

every side, supported their efforts, and animated their courage;

and the monarch himself, careless of his rank and safety,

displayed, in the prosecution of the siege, the ardor of a

youthful soldier. After an obstinate combat, the Barbarians were

repulsed; they incessantly returned to the charge; they were

again driven back with a dreadful slaughter, and two rebel

legions of Gauls, who had been banished into the East, signalized

their undisciplined courage by a nocturnal sally into the heart

of the Persian camp. In one of the fiercest of these repeated

assaults, Amida was betrayed by the treachery of a deserter, who

indicated to the Barbarians a secret and neglected staircase,

scooped out of the rock that hangs over the stream of the Tigris.

Seventy chosen archers of the royal guard ascended in silence to

the third story of a lofty tower, which commanded the precipice;

they elevated on high the Persian banner, the signal of

confidence to the assailants, and of dismay to the besieged; and

if this devoted band could have maintained their post a few

minutes longer, the reduction of the place might have been

purchased by the sacrifice of their lives. After Sapor had tried,

without success, the efficacy of force and of stratagem, he had

recourse to the slower but more certain operations of a regular

siege, in the conduct of which he was instructed by the skill of

the Roman deserters. The trenches were opened at a convenient

distance, and the troops destined for that service advanced under

the portable cover of strong hurdles, to fill up the ditch, and

undermine the foundations of the walls. Wooden towers were at the

same time constructed, and moved forwards on wheels, till the

soldiers, who were provided with every species of missile

weapons, could engage almost on level ground with the troops who

defended the rampart. Every mode of resistance which art could

suggest, or courage could execute, was employed in the defence of

Amida, and the works of Sapor were more than once destroyed by

the fire of the Romans. But the resources of a besieged city may

be exhausted. The Persians repaired their losses, and pushed

their approaches; a large preach was made by the battering-ram,

and the strength of the garrison, wasted by the sword and by

disease, yielded to the fury of the assault. The soldiers, the

citizens, their wives, their children, all who had not time to

escape through the opposite gate, were involved by the conquerors

in a promiscuous massacre.

55 (return) [ For the description of Amida, see D’Herbelot,

Bebliotheque Orientale, p. Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 108.

Histoire de Timur Bec, par Cherefeddin Ali, l. iii. c. 41. Ahmed

Arabsiades, tom. i. p. 331, c. 43. Voyages de Tavernier, tom. i.

p. 301. Voyages d’Otter, tom. ii. p. 273, and Voyages de Niebuhr,

tom. ii. p. 324-328. The last of these travellers, a learned and

accurate Dane, has given a plan of Amida, which illustrates the

operations of the siege.]

56 (return) [ Diarbekir, which is styled Amid, or Kara Amid, in

the public writings of the Turks, contains above 16,000 houses,

and is the residence of a pacha with three tails. The epithet of

_Kara_ is derived from the _blackness_ of the stone which

composes the strong and ancient wall of Amida. ——In my Mém. Hist.

sur l’Armenie, l. i. p. 166, 173, I conceive that I have proved

this city, still called, by the Armenians, Dirkranagerd, the city

of Tigranes, to be the same with the famous Tigranocerta, of

which the situation was unknown. St. Martin, i. 432. On the siege

of Amida, see St. Martin’s Notes, ii. 290. Faustus of Byzantium,

nearly a contemporary, (Armenian,) states that the Persians, on

becoming masters of it, destroyed 40,000 houses though Ammianus

describes the city as of no great extent, (civitatis ambitum non

nimium amplæ.) Besides the ordinary population, and those who

took refuge from the country, it contained 20,000 soldiers. St.

Martin, ii. 290. This interpretation is extremely doubtful.

Wagner (note on Ammianus) considers the whole population to

amount only to—M.]

57 (return) [ The operations of the siege of Amida are very

minutely described by Ammianus, (xix. 1-9,) who acted an

honorable part in the defence, and escaped with difficulty when

the city was stormed by the Persians.]

58 (return) [ Of these four nations, the Albanians are too well

known to require any description. The Segestans [_Sacastenè. St.

Martin._] inhabited a large and level country, which still

preserves their name, to the south of Khorasan, and the west of

Hindostan. (See Geographia Nubiensis. p. 133, and D’Herbelot,

Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 797.) Notwithstanding the boasted

victory of Bahram, (vol. i. p. 410,) the Segestans, above

fourscore years afterwards, appear as an independent nation, the

ally of Persia. We are ignorant of the situation of the Vertæ and

Chionites, but I am inclined to place them (at least the latter)

towards the confines of India and Scythia. See Ammian. ——Klaproth

considers the real Albanians the same with the ancient Alani, and

quotes a passage of the emperor Julian in support of his opinion.

They are the Ossetæ, now inhabiting part of Caucasus. Tableaux

Hist. de l’Asie, p. 179, 180.—M. ——The Vertæ are still unknown.

It is possible that the Chionites are the same as the Huns. These

people were already known; and we find from Armenian authors that

they were making, at this period, incursions into Asia. They were

often at war with the Persians. The name was perhaps pronounced

differently in the East and in the West, and this prevents us

from recognizing it. St. Martin, ii. 177.—M.]

But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the Roman provinces.

As soon as the first transports of victory had subsided, Sapor

was at leisure to reflect, that to chastise a disobedient city,

he had lost the flower of his troops, and the most favorable

season for conquest. 59 Thirty thousand of his veterans had

fallen under the walls of Amida, during the continuance of a

siege, which lasted seventy-three days; and the disappointed

monarch returned to his capital with affected triumph and secret

mortification. It is more than probable, that the inconstancy of

his Barbarian allies was tempted to relinquish a war in which

they had encountered such unexpected difficulties; and that the

aged king of the Chionites, satiated with revenge, turned away

with horror from a scene of action where he had been deprived of

the hope of his family and nation. The strength as well as the

spirit of the army with which Sapor took the field in the ensuing

spring was no longer equal to the unbounded views of his

ambition. Instead of aspiring to the conquest of the East, he was

obliged to content himself with the reduction of two fortified

cities of Mesopotamia, Singara and Bezabde; 60 the one situate in

the midst of a sandy desert, the other in a small peninsula,

surrounded almost on every side by the deep and rapid stream of

the Tigris. Five Roman legions, of the diminutive size to which

they had been reduced in the age of Constantine, were made

prisoners, and sent into remote captivity on the extreme confines

of Persia. After dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror

abandoned that solitary and sequestered place; but he carefully

restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and fixed in that

important post a garrison or colony of veterans; amply supplied

with every means of defence, and animated by high sentiments of

honor and fidelity. Towards the close of the campaign, the arms

of Sapor incurred some disgrace by an unsuccessful enterprise

against Virtha, or Tecrit, a strong, or, as it was universally

esteemed till the age of Tamerlane, an impregnable fortress of

the independent Arabs. 61 6111

59 (return) [ Ammianus has marked the chronology of this year by

three signs, which do not perfectly coincide with each other, or

with the series of the history. 1 The corn was ripe when Sapor

invaded Mesopotamia; “Cum jam stipula flaveate turgerent;” a

circumstance, which, in the latitude of Aleppo, would naturally

refer us to the month of April or May. See Harmer’s Observations

on Scripture vol. i. p. 41. Shaw’s Travels, p. 335, edit 4to. 2.

The progress of Sapor was checked by the overflowing of the

Euphrates, which generally happens in July and August. Plin.

Hist. Nat. v. 21. Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, tom. i. p. 696.

3. When Sapor had taken Amida, after a siege of seventy-three

days, the autumn was far advanced. “Autumno præcipiti hædorumque

improbo sidere exorto.” To reconcile these apparent

contradictions, we must allow for some delay in the Persian king,

some inaccuracy in the historian, and some disorder in the

seasons.]

60 (return) [ The account of these sieges is given by Ammianus,

xx. 6, 7. ——The Christian bishop of Bezabde went to the camp of

the king of Persia, to persuade him to check the waste of human

blood Amm. Mare xx. 7.—M.]

61 (return) [ For the identity of Virtha and Tecrit, see

D’Anville, Geographie. For the siege of that castle by Timur Bec

or Tamerlane, see Cherefeddin, l. iii. c. 33. The Persian

biographer exaggerates the merit and difficulty of this exploit,

which delivered the caravans of Bagdad from a formidable gang of

robbers.]

6111 (return) [ St. Martin doubts whether it lay so much to the

south. “The word Girtha means in Syriac a castle or fortress, and

might be applied to many places.”]

The defence of the East against the arms of Sapor required and

would have exercised, the abilities of the most consummate

general; and it seemed fortunate for the state, that it was the

actual province of the brave Ursicinus, who alone deserved the

confidence of the soldiers and people. In the hour of danger, 62

Ursicinus was removed from his station by the intrigues of the

eunuchs; and the military command of the East was bestowed, by

the same influence, on Sabinian, a wealthy and subtle veteran,

who had attained the infirmities, without acquiring the

experience, of age. By a second order, which issued from the same

jealous and inconstant councils, Ursicinus was again despatched

to the frontier of Mesopotamia, and condemned to sustain the

labors of a war, the honors of which had been transferred to his

unworthy rival. Sabinian fixed his indolent station under the

walls of Edessa; and while he amused himself with the idle parade

of military exercise, and moved to the sound of flutes in the

Pyrrhic dance, the public defence was abandoned to the boldness

and diligence of the former general of the East. But whenever

Ursicinus recommended any vigorous plan of operations; when he

proposed, at the head of a light and active army, to wheel round

the foot of the mountains, to intercept the convoys of the enemy,

to harass the wide extent of the Persian lines, and to relieve

the distress of Amida; the timid and envious commander alleged,

that he was restrained by his positive orders from endangering

the safety of the troops. Amida was at length taken; its bravest

defenders, who had escaped the sword of the Barbarians, died in

the Roman camp by the hand of the executioner: and Ursicinus

himself, after supporting the disgrace of a partial inquiry, was

punished for the misconduct of Sabinian by the loss of his

military rank. But Constantius soon experienced the truth of the

prediction which honest indignation had extorted from his injured

lieutenant, that as long as such maxims of government were

suffered to prevail, the emperor himself would find it is no easy

task to defend his eastern dominions from the invasion of a

foreign enemy. When he had subdued or pacified the Barbarians of

the Danube, Constantius proceeded by slow marches into the East;

and after he had wept over the smoking ruins of Amida, he formed,

with a powerful army, the siege of Becabde. The walls were shaken

by the reiterated efforts of the most enormous of the

battering-rams; the town was reduced to the last extremity; but

it was still defended by the patient and intrepid valor of the

garrison, till the approach of the rainy season obliged the

emperor to raise the siege, and ingloviously to retreat into his

winter quarters at Antioch. 63 The pride of Constantius, and the

ingenuity of his courtiers, were at a loss to discover any

materials for panegyric in the events of the Persian war; while

the glory of his cousin Julian, to whose military command he had

intrusted the provinces of Gaul, was proclaimed to the world in

the simple and concise narrative of his exploits.

62 (return) [ Ammianus (xviii. 5, 6, xix. 3, xx. 2) represents

the merit and disgrace of Ursicinus with that faithful attention

which a soldier owed to his general. Some partiality may be

suspected, yet the whole account is consistent and probable.]

63 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 11. Omisso vano incepto, hiematurus

Antiochiæ redit in Syriam ærumnosam, perpessus et ulcerum sed et

atrocia, diuque deflenda. It is _thus_ that James Gronovius has

restored an obscure passage; and he thinks that this correction

alone would have deserved a new edition of his author: whose

sense may now be darkly perceived. I expected some additional

light from the recent labors of the learned Ernestus. (Lipsiæ,

1773.) * Note: The late editor (Wagner) has nothing better to

suggest, and le menta with Gibbon, the silence of Ernesti.—M.]

In the blind fury of civil discord, Constantius had abandoned to

the Barbarians of Germany the countries of Gaul, which still

acknowledged the authority of his rival. A numerous swarm of

Franks and Alemanni were invited to cross the Rhine by presents

and promises, by the hopes of spoil, and by a perpetual grant of

all the territories which they should be able to subdue. 64 But

the emperor, who for a temporary service had thus imprudently

provoked the rapacious spirit of the Barbarians, soon discovered

and lamented the difficulty of dismissing these formidable

allies, after they had tasted the richness of the Roman soil.

Regardless of the nice distinction of loyalty and rebellion,

these undisciplined robbers treated as their natural enemies all

the subjects of the empire, who possessed any property which they

were desirous of acquiring Forty-five flourishing cities,

Tongres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires, Strasburgh, &c., besides

a far greater number of towns and villages, were pillaged, and

for the most part reduced to ashes. The Barbarians of Germany,

still faithful to the maxims of their ancestors, abhorred the

confinement of walls, to which they applied the odious names of

prisons and sepulchres; and fixing their independent habitations

on the banks of rivers, the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Meuse,

they secured themselves against the danger of a surprise, by a

rude and hasty fortification of large trees, which were felled

and thrown across the roads. The Alemanni were established in the

modern countries of Alsace and Lorraine; the Franks occupied the

island of the Batavians, together with an extensive district of

Brabant, which was then known by the appellation of Toxandria, 65

and may deserve to be considered as the original seat of their

Gallic monarchy. 66 From the sources, to the mouth, of the Rhine,

the conquests of the Germans extended above forty miles to the

west of that river, over a country peopled by colonies of their

own name and nation: and the scene of their devastations was

three times more extensive than that of their conquests. At a

still greater distance the open towns of Gaul were deserted, and

the inhabitants of the fortified cities, who trusted to their

strength and vigilance, were obliged to content themselves with

such supplies of corn as they could raise on the vacant land

within the enclosure of their walls. The diminished legions,

destitute of pay and provisions, of arms and discipline, trembled

at the approach, and even at the name, of the Barbarians.

64 (return) [ The ravages of the Germans, and the distress of

Gaul, may be collected from Julian himself. Orat. ad S. P. Q.

Athen. p. 277. Ammian. xv. ll. Libanius, Orat. x. Zosimus, l.

iii. p. 140. Sozomen, l. iii. c. l. (Mamertin. Grat. Art. c.

iv.)]

65 (return) [ Ammianus, xvi. 8. This name seems to be derived

from the Toxandri of Pliny, and very frequently occurs in the

histories of the middle age. Toxandria was a country of woods and

morasses, which extended from the neighborhood of Tongres to the

conflux of the Vahal and the Rhine. See Valesius, Notit. Galliar.

p. 558.]

66 (return) [ The paradox of P. Daniel, that the Franks never

obtained any permanent settlement on this side of the Rhine

before the time of Clovis, is refuted with much learning and good

sense by M. Biet, who has proved by a chain of evidence, their

uninterrupted possession of Toxandria, one hundred and thirty

years before the accession of Clovis. The Dissertation of M. Biet

was crowned by the Academy of Soissons, in the year 1736, and

seems to have been justly preferred to the discourse of his more

celebrated competitor, the Abbé le Bœuf, an antiquarian, whose

name was happily expressive of his talents.]

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part IV.

Under these melancholy circumstances, an unexperienced youth was

appointed to save and to govern the provinces of Gaul, or rather,

as he expressed it himself, to exhibit the vain image of Imperial

greatness. 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, “O 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 despatch any urgent business, to visit his

rounds, or to steal a few moments for the prosecution of his

favorite studies. 67 The precepts of eloquence, which he had

hitherto practised on fancied topics of declamation, were more

usefully applied to excite or to assuage the passions of an armed

multitude: and although 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. 68 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 unpractised

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, and 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. 69

67 (return) [ The private life of Julian in Gaul, and the severe

discipline which he embraced, are displayed by Ammianus, (xvi.

5,) who professes to praise, and by Julian himself, who affects

to ridicule, (Misopogon, p. 340,) a conduct, which, in a prince

of the house of Constantine, might justly excite the surprise of

mankind.]

68 (return) [ Aderat Latine quoque disserenti sufficiens sermo.

Ammianus xvi. 5. But Julian, educated in the schools of Greece,

always considered the language of the Romans as a foreign and

popular dialect which he might use on necessary occasions.]

69 (return) [ We are ignorant of the actual office of this

excellent minister, whom Julian afterwards created præfect of

Gaul. Sallust was speedly recalled by the jealousy of the

emperor; and we may still read a sensible but pedantic discourse,

(p. 240-252,) in which Julian deplores the loss of so valuable a

friend, to whom he acknowledges himself indebted for his

reputation. See La Bleterie, Preface a la Vie de lovien, p. 20.]

Immediately after Julian had received the purple at Milan, he was

sent into Gaul with a feeble retinue of three hundred and sixty

soldiers. At Vienna, where he passed a painful and anxious winter

in the hands of those ministers to whom Constantius had intrusted

the direction of his conduct, the Cæsar was informed of the siege

and deliverance of Autun. That large and ancient city, protected

only by a ruined wall and pusillanimous garrison, was saved by

the generous resolution of a few veterans, who resumed their arms

for the defence of their country. In his march from Autun,

through the heart of the Gallic provinces, Julian embraced with

ardor the earliest opportunity of signalizing his courage. At the

head of a small body of archers and heavy cavalry, he preferred

the shorter but the more dangerous of two roads; 6911 and

sometimes eluding, and sometimes resisting, the attacks of the

Barbarians, who were masters of the field, he arrived with honor

and safety at the camp near Rheims, where the Roman troops had

been ordered to assemble. The aspect of their young prince

revived the drooping spirits of the soldiers, and they marched

from Rheims in search of the enemy, with a confidence which had

almost proved fatal to them. The Alemanni, familiarized to the

knowledge of the country, secretly collected their scattered

forces, and seizing the opportunity of a dark and rainy day,

poured with unexpected fury on the rear-guard of the Romans.

Before the inevitable disorder could be remedied, two legions

were destroyed; and Julian was taught by experience that caution

and vigilance are the most important lessons of the art of war.

In a second and more successful action, he recovered and

established his military fame; but as the agility of the

Barbarians saved them from the pursuit, his victory was neither

bloody nor decisive. He advanced, however, to the banks of the

Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne, convinced himself of the

difficulties of the war, and retreated on the approach of winter,

discontented with the court, with his army, and with his own

success. 70 The power of the enemy was yet unbroken; and the

Cæsar had no sooner separated his troops, and fixed his own

quarters at Sens, in the centre of Gaul, than he was surrounded

and besieged, by a numerous host of Germans. Reduced, in this

extremity, to the resources of his own mind, he displayed a

prudent intrepidity, which compensated for all the deficiencies

of the place and garrison; and the Barbarians, at the end of

thirty days, were obliged to retire with disappointed rage.

6911 (return) [ Aliis per Arbor—quibusdam per Sedelaucum et Coram

in debere firrantibus. Amm. Marc. xvi. 2. I do not know what

place can be meant by the mutilated name Arbor. Sedelanus is

Saulieu, a small town of the department of the Cote d’Or, six

leagues from Autun. Cora answers to the village of Cure, on the

river of the same name, between Autun and Nevera 4; Martin, ii.

162.—M. ——Note: At Brocomages, Brumat, near Strasburgh. St.

Martin, ii. 184.—M.]

70 (return) [ Ammianus (xvi. 2, 3) appears much better satisfied

with the success of his first campaign than Julian himself; who

very fairly owns that he did nothing of consequence, and that he

fled before the enemy.]

The conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted only to his sword

for this signal deliverance, was imbittered by the reflection,

that he was abandoned, betrayed, and perhaps devoted to

destruction, by those who were bound to assist him, by every tie

of honor and fidelity. Marcellus, master-general of the cavalry

in Gaul, interpreting too strictly the jealous orders of the

court, beheld with supine indifference the distress of Julian,

and had restrained the troops under his command from marching to

the relief of Sens. If the Cæsar had dissembled in silence so

dangerous an insult, his person and authority would have been

exposed to the contempt of the world; and if an action so

criminal had been suffered to pass with impunity, the emperor

would have confirmed the suspicions, which received a very

specious color from his past conduct towards the princes of the

Flavian family. Marcellus was recalled, and gently dismissed from

his office. 71 In his room Severus was appointed general of the

cavalry; an experienced soldier, of approved courage and

fidelity, who could advise with respect, and execute with zeal;

and who submitted, without reluctance to the supreme command

which Julian, by the inrerest of his patroness Eusebia, at length

obtained over the armies of Gaul. 72 A very judicious plan of

operations was adopted for the approaching campaign. Julian

himself, at the head of the remains of the veteran bands, and of

some new levies which he had been permitted to form, boldly

penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments, and

carefully reestablished the fortifications of Saverne, in an

advantageous post, which would either check the incursions, or

intercept the retreat, of the enemy. At the same time, Barbatio,

general of the infantry, advanced from Milan with an army of

thirty thousand men, and passing the mountains, prepared to throw

a bridge over the Rhine, in the neighborhood of Basil. It was

reasonable to expect that the Alemanni, pressed on either side by

the Roman arms, would soon be forced to evacuate the provinces of

Gaul, and to hasten to the defence of their native country. But

the hopes of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, or the

envy, or the secret instructions, of Barbatio; who acted as if he

had been the enemy of the Cæsar, and the secret ally of the

Barbarians. The negligence with which he permitted a troop of

pillagers freely to pass, and to return almost before the gates

of his camp, may be imputed to his want of abilities; but the

treasonable act of burning a number of boats, and a superfluous

stock of provisions, which would have been of the most essential

service to the army of Gaul, was an evidence of his hostile and

criminal intentions. The Germans despised an enemy who appeared

destitute either of power or of inclination to offend them; and

the ignominious retreat of Barbatio deprived Julian of the

expected support; and left him to extricate himself from a

hazardous situation, where he could neither remain with safety,

nor retire with honor. 73

71 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 7. Libanius speaks rather more

advantageously of the military talents of Marcellus, Orat. x. p.

272. And Julian insinuates, that he would not have been so easily

recalled, unless he had given other reasons of offence to the

court, p. 278.]

72 (return) [ Severus, non discors, non arrogans, sed longa

militiæ frugalitate compertus; et eum recta præeuntem secuturus,

ut duetorem morigeran miles. Ammian xvi. 11. Zosimus, l. iii. p.

140.]

73 (return) [ On the design and failure of the cooperation

between Julian and Barbatio, see Ammianus (xvi. 11) and Libanius,

(Orat. x. p. 273.) Note: Barbatio seems to have allowed himself

to be surprised and defeated—M.]

As soon as they were delivered from the fears of invasion, the

Alemanni prepared to chastise the Roman youth, who presumed to

dispute the possession of that country, which they claimed as

their own by the right of conquest and of treaties. They employed

three days, and as many nights, in transporting over the Rhine

their military powers. The fierce Chnodomar, shaking the

ponderous javelin which he had victoriously wielded against the

brother of Magnentius, led the van of the Barbarians, and

moderated by his experience the martial ardor which his example

inspired. 74 He was followed by six other kings, by ten princes

of regal extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and

by thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the tribes of

Germany. The confidence derived from the view of their own

strength, was increased by the intelligence which they received

from a deserter, that the Cæsar, with a feeble army of thirteen

thousand men, occupied a post about one-and-twenty miles from

their camp of Strasburgh. With this inadequate force, Julian

resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarian host; and the

chance of a general action was preferred to the tedious and

uncertain operation of separately engaging the dispersed parties

of the Alemanni. The Romans marched in close order, and in two

columns; the cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left; and

the day was so far spent when they appeared in sight of the

enemy, that Julian was desirous of deferring the battle till the

next morning, and of allowing his troops to recruit their

exhausted strength by the necessary refreshments of sleep and

food. Yielding, however, with some reluctance, to the clamors of

the soldiers, and even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted

them to justify by their valor the eager impatience, which, in

case of a defeat, would be universally branded with the epithets

of rashness and presumption. The trumpets sounded, the military

shout was heard through the field, and the two armies rushed with

equal fury to the charge. The Cæsar, who conducted in person his

right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers, and the

weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were instantly broken by

an irregular mixture of light horse and of light infantry, and he

had the mortification of beholding the flight of six hundred of

his most renowned cuirassiers. 75 The fugitives were stopped and

rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who, careless of

his own safety, threw himself before them, and urging every

motive of shame and honor, led them back against the victorious

enemy. The conflict between the two lines of infantry was

obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of

strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and temper;

and as the Barbarians, who served under the standard of the

empire, united the respective advantages of both parties, their

strenuous efforts, guided by a skilful leader, at length

determined the event of the day. The Romans lost four tribunes,

and two hundred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable

battle of Strasburgh, so glorious to the Cæsar, 76 and so

salutary to the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the

Alemanni were slain in the field, without including those who

were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed with darts while they

attempted to swim across the river. 77 Chnodomar himself was

surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his brave

companions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or death

the fate of their chieftain. Julian received him with military

pomp in the council of his officers; and expressing a generous

pity for the fallen state, dissembled his inward contempt for the

abject humiliation, of his captive. Instead of exhibiting the

vanquished king of the Alemanni, as a grateful spectacle to the

cities of Gaul, he respectfully laid at the feet of the emperor

this splendid trophy of his victory. Chnodomar experienced an

honorable treatment: but the impatient Barbarian could not long

survive his defeat, his confinement, and his exile. 78

74 (return) [ Ammianus (xvi. 12) describes with his inflated

eloquence the figure and character of Chnodomar. Audax et fidens

ingenti robore lacertorum, ubi ardor prœlii sperabatur immanis,

equo spumante sublimior, erectus in jaculum formidandæ

vastitatis, armorumque nitore conspicuus: antea strenuus et

miles, et utilis præter cæteros ductor... Decentium Cæsarem

superavit æquo marte congressus.]

75 (return) [ After the battle, Julian ventured to revive the

rigor of ancient discipline, by exposing these fugitives in

female apparel to the derision of the whole camp. In the next

campaign, these troops nobly retrieved their honor. Zosimus, l.

iii. p. 142.]

76 (return) [ Julian himself (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 279) speaks

of the battle of Strasburgh with the modesty of conscious merit;

Zosimus compares it with the victory of Alexander over Darius;

and yet we are at a loss to discover any of those strokes of

military genius which fix the attention of ages on the conduct

and success of a single day.]

77 (return) [ Ammianus, xvi. 12. Libanius adds 2000 more to the

number of the slain, (Orat. x. p. 274.) But these trifling

differences disappear before the 60,000 Barbarians, whom Zosimus

has sacrificed to the glory of his hero, (l. iii. p. 141.) We

might attribute this extravagant number to the carelessness of

transcribers, if this credulous or partial historian had not

swelled the army of 35,000 Alemanni to an innumerable multitude

of Barbarians,. It is our own fault if this detection does not

inspire us with proper distrust on similar occasions.]

78 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 12. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 276.]

After Julian had repulsed the Alemanni from the provinces of the

Upper Rhine, he turned his arms against the Franks, who were

seated nearer to the ocean, on the confines of Gaul and Germany;

and who, from their numbers, and still more from their intrepid

valor, had ever been esteemed the most formidable of the

Barbarians. 79 Although they were strongly actuated by the

allurements of rapine, they professed a disinterested love of

war; which they considered as the supreme honor and felicity of

human nature; and their minds and bodies were so completely

hardened by perpetual action, that, according to the lively

expression of an orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant to

them as the flowers of spring. In the month of December, which

followed the battle of Strasburgh, Julian attacked a body of six

hundred Franks, who had thrown themselves into two castles on the

Meuse. 80 In the midst of that severe season they sustained, with

inflexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days; till at length,

exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the vigilance of the

enemy, in breaking the ice of the river, left them no hopes of

escape, the Franks consented, for the first time, to dispense

with the ancient law which commanded them to conquer or to die.

The Cæsar immediately sent his captives to the court of

Constantius, who, accepting them as a valuable present, 81

rejoiced in the opportunity of adding so many heroes to the

choicest troops of his domestic guards. The obstinate resistance

of this handful of Franks apprised Julian of the difficulties of

the expedition which he meditated for the ensuing spring, against

the whole body of the nation. His rapid diligence surprised and

astonished the active Barbarians. Ordering his soldiers to

provide themselves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly

pitched his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him

in his winter quarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of

his convoys from Aquitain. Without allowing the Franks to unite

or deliberate, he skilfully spread his legions from Cologne to

the ocean; and by the terror, as well as by the success, of his

arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes to implore the clemency,

and to obey the commands, of their conqueror. The Chamavians

submissively retired to their former habitations beyond the

Rhine; but the Salians were permitted to possess their new

establishment of Toxandria, as the subjects and auxiliaries of

the Roman empire. 82 The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths; and

perpetual inspectors were appointed to reside among the Franks,

with the authority of enforcing the strict observance of the

conditions. An incident is related, interesting enough in itself,

and by no means repugnant to the character of Julian, who

ingeniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe of the

tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace, he required the son

of their king, as the only hostage on whom he could rely. A

mournful silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declared the

sad perplexity of the Barbarians; and their aged chief lamented

in pathetic language, that his private loss was now imbittered by

a sense of public calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate at

the foot of his throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to

have been slain, unexpectedly appeared before their eyes; and as

soon as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Cæsar

addressed the assembly in the following terms: “Behold the son,

the prince, whom you wept. You had lost him by your fault. God

and the Romans have restored him to you. I shall still preserve

and educate the youth, rather as a monument of my own virtue,

than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume to violate

the faith which you have sworn, the arms of the republic will

avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty.” The

Barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmest

sentiments of gratitude and admiration. 83

79 (return) [ Libanius (Orat. iii. p. 137) draws a very lively

picture of the manners of the Franks.]

80 (return) [ Ammianus, xvii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278. The

Greek orator, by misapprehending a passage of Julian, has been

induced to represent the Franks as consisting of a thousand men;

and as his head was always full of the Peloponnesian war, he

compares them to the Lacedæmonians, who were besieged and taken

in the Island of Sphatoria.]

81 (return) [ Julian. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 280. Libanius, Orat.

x. p. 278. According to the expression of Libanius, the emperor,

which La Bleterie understands (Vie de Julien, p. 118) as an

honest confession, and Valesius (ad Ammian. xvii. 2) as a mean

evasion, of the truth. Dom Bouquet, (Historiens de France, tom.

i. p. 733,) by substituting another word, would suppress both the

difficulty and the spirit of this passage.]

82 (return) [ Ammian. xvii. 8. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 146-150, (his

narrative is darkened by a mixture of fable,) and Julian. ad S.

P. Q. Athen. p. 280. His expression. This difference of treatment

confirms the opinion that the Salian Franks were permitted to

retain the settlements in Toxandria. Note: A newly discovered

fragment of Eunapius, whom Zosimus probably transcribed,

illustrates this transaction. “Julian commanded the Romans to

abstain from all hostile measures against the Salians, neither to

waste or ravage _their own_ country, for he called every country

_their own_ which was surrendered without resistance or toil on

the part of the conquerors.” Mai, Script. Vez Nov. Collect. ii.

256, and Eunapius in Niebuhr, Byzant. Hist.]

83 (return) [ This interesting story, which Zosimus has abridged,

is related by Eunapius, (in Excerpt. Legationum, p. 15, 16, 17,)

with all the amplifications of Grecian rhetoric: but the silence

of Libanius, of Ammianus, and of Julian himself, renders the

truth of it extremely suspicious.]

It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the provinces of

Gaul from the Barbarians of Germany. He aspired to emulate the

glory of the first and most illustrious of the emperors; after

whose example, he composed his own commentaries of the Gallic

war. 84 Cæsar has related, with conscious pride, the manner in

which he _twice_ passed the Rhine. Julian could boast, that

before he assumed the title of Augustus, he had carried the Roman

eagles beyond that great river in _three_ successful expeditions.

85 The consternation of the Germans, after the battle of

Strasburgh, encouraged him to the first attempt; and the

reluctance of the troops soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence

of a leader, who shared the fatigues and dangers which he imposed

on the meanest of the soldiers. The villages on either side of

the Meyn, which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle,

felt the ravages of an invading army. The principal houses,

constructed with some imitation of Roman elegance, were consumed

by the flames; and the Cæsar boldly advanced about ten miles,

till his progress was stopped by a dark and impenetrable forest,

undermined by subterraneous passages, which threatened with

secret snares and ambush every step of the assailants. The ground

was already covered with snow; and Julian, after repairing an

ancient castle which had been erected by Trajan, granted a truce

of ten months to the submissive Barbarians. At the expiration of

the truce, Julian undertook a second expedition beyond the Rhine,

to humble the pride of Surmar and Hortaire, two of the kings of

the Alemanni, who had been present at the battle of Strasburgh.

They promised to restore all the Roman captives who yet remained

alive; and as the Cæsar had procured an exact account from the

cities and villages of Gaul, of the inhabitants whom they had

lost, he detected every attempt to deceive him, with a degree of

readiness and accuracy, which almost established the belief of

his supernatural knowledge. His third expedition was still more

splendid and important than the two former. The Germans had

collected their military powers, and moved along the opposite

banks of the river, with a design of destroying the bridge, and

of preventing the passage of the Romans. But this judicious plan

of defence was disconcerted by a skilful diversion. Three hundred

light-armed and active soldiers were detached in forty small

boats, to fall down the stream in silence, and to land at some

distance from the posts of the enemy. They executed their orders

with so much boldness and celerity, that they had almost

surprised the Barbarian chiefs, who returned in the fearless

confidence of intoxication from one of their nocturnal festivals.

Without repeating the uniform and disgusting tale of slaughter

and devastation, it is sufficient to observe, that Julian

dictated his own conditions of peace to six of the haughtiest

kings of the Alemanni, three of whom were permitted to view the

severe discipline and martial pomp of a Roman camp. Followed by

twenty thousand captives, whom he had rescued from the chains of

the Barbarians, the Cæsar repassed the Rhine, after terminating a

war, the success of which has been compared to the ancient

glories of the Punic and Cimbric victories.

84 (return) [ Libanius, the friend of Julian, clearly insinuates

(Orat. ix. p. 178) that his hero had composed the history of his

Gallic campaigns But Zosimus (l. iii. p, 140) seems to have

derived his information only from the Orations and the Epistles

of Julian. The discourse which is addressed to the Athenians

contains an accurate, though general, account of the war against

the Germans.]

85 (return) [ See Ammian. xvii. 1, 10, xviii. 2, and Zosim. l.

iii. p. 144. Julian ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 280.]

As soon as the valor and conduct of Julian had secured an

interval of peace, he applied himself to a work more congenial to

his humane and philosophic temper. The cities of Gaul, which had

suffered from the inroads of the Barbarians, he diligently

repaired; and seven important posts, between Mentz and the mouth

of the Rhine, are particularly mentioned, as having been rebuilt

and fortified by the order of Julian. 86 The vanquished Germans

had submitted to the just but humiliating condition of preparing

and conveying the necessary materials. The active zeal of Julian

urged the prosecution of the work; and such was the spirit which

he had diffused among the troops, that the auxiliaries

themselves, waiving their exemption from any duties of fatigue,

contended in the most servile labors with the diligence of the

Roman soldiers. It was incumbent on the Cæsar to provide for the

subsistence, as well as for the safety, of the inhabitants and of

the garrisons. The desertion of the former, and the mutiny of the

latter, must have been the fatal and inevitable consequences of

famine. The tillage of the provinces of Gaul had been interrupted

by the calamities of war; but the scanty harvests of the

continent were supplied, by his paternal care, from the plenty of

the adjacent island. Six hundred large barks, framed in the

forest of the Ardennes, made several voyages to the coast of

Britain; and returning from thence, laden with corn, sailed up

the Rhine, and distributed their cargoes to the several towns and

fortresses along the banks of the river. 87 The arms of Julian

had restored a free and secure navigation, which Constantinius

had offered to purchase at the expense of his dignity, and of a

tributary present of two thousand pounds of silver. The emperor

parsimoniously refused to his soldiers the sums which he granted

with a lavish and trembling hand to the Barbarians. The

dexterity, as well as the firmness, of Julian was put to a severe

trial, when he took the field with a discontented army, which had

already served two campaigns, without receiving any regular pay

or any extraordinary donative. 88

86 (return) [ Ammian. xviii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 279, 280.

Of these seven posts, four are at present towns of some

consequence; Bingen, Andernach, Bonn, and Nuyss. The other three,

Tricesimæ, Quadriburgium, and Castra Herculis, or Heraclea, no

longer subsist; but there is room to believe, that on the ground

of Quadriburgium the Dutch have constructed the fort of Schenk, a

name so offensive to the fastidious delicacy of Boileau. See

D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 183. Boileau, Epitre

iv. and the notes. Note: Tricesimæ, Kellen, Mannert, quoted by

Wagner. Heraclea, Erkeleus in the district of Juliers. St.

Martin, ii. 311.—M.]

87 (return) [ We may credit Julian himself, (Orat. ad S. P. Q.

Atheniensem, p. 280,) who gives a very particular account of the

transaction. Zosimus adds two hundred vessels more, (l. iii. p.

145.) If we compute the 600 corn ships of Julian at only seventy

tons each, they were capable of exporting 120,000 quarters, (see

Arbuthnot’s Weights and Measures, p. 237;) and the country which

could bear so large an exportation, must already have attained an

improved state of agriculture.]

88 (return) [ The troops once broke out into a mutiny,

immediately before the second passage of the Rhine. Ammian. xvii.

9.]

A tender regard for the peace and happiness of his subjects was

the ruling principle which directed, or seemed to direct, the

administration of Julian. 89 He devoted the leisure of his winter

quarters to the offices of civil government; and affected to

assume, with more pleasure, the character of a magistrate than

that of a general. Before he took the field, he devolved on the

provincial governors most of the public and private causes which

had been referred to his tribunal; but, on his return, he

carefully revised their proceedings, mitigated the rigor of the

law, and pronounced a second judgment on the judges themselves.

Superior to the last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet

and intemperate zeal for justice, he restrained, with calmness

and dignity, the warmth of an advocate, who prosecuted, for

extortion, the president of the Narbonnese province. “Who will

ever be found guilty,” exclaimed the vehement Delphidius, “if it

be enough to deny?” “And who,” replied Julian, “will ever be

innocent, if it be sufficient to affirm?” In the general

administration of peace and war, the interest of the sovereign is

commonly the same as that of his people; but Constantius would

have thought himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had

defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted from

an oppressed and exhausted country. The prince who was invested

with the ensigns of royalty, might sometimes presume to correct

the rapacious insolence of his inferior agents, to expose their

corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and easier mode of

collection. But the management of the finances was more safely

intrusted to Florentius, prætorian præfect of Gaul, an effeminate

tyrant, incapable of pity or remorse: and the haughty minister

complained of the most decent and gentle opposition, while Julian

himself was rather inclined to censure the weakness of his own

behavior. The Cæsar had rejected, with abhorrence, a mandate for

the levy of an extraordinary tax; a new superindiction, which the

præfect had offered for his signature; and the faithful picture

of the public misery, by which he had been obliged to justify his

refusal, offended the court of Constantius. We may enjoy the

pleasure of reading the sentiments of Julian, as he expresses

them with warmth and freedom in a letter to one of his most

intimate friends. After stating his own conduct, he proceeds in

the following terms: “Was it possible for the disciple of Plato

and Aristotle to act otherwise than I have done? Could I abandon

the unhappy subjects intrusted to my care? Was I not called upon

to defend them from the repeated injuries of these unfeeling

robbers? A tribune who deserts his post is punished with death,

and deprived of the honors of burial. With what justice could I

pronounce _his_ sentence, if, in the hour of danger, I myself

neglected a duty far more sacred and far more important? God has

placed me in this elevated post; his providence will guard and

support me. Should I be condemned to suffer, I shall derive

comfort from the testimony of a pure and upright conscience.

Would to Heaven that I still possessed a counsellor like Sallust!

If they think proper to send me a successor, I shall submit

without reluctance; and had much rather improve the short

opportunity of doing good, than enjoy a long and lasting impunity

of evil.” 90 The precarious and dependent situation of Julian

displayed his virtues and concealed his defects. The young hero

who supported, in Gaul, the throne of Constantius, was not

permitted to reform the vices of the government; but he had

courage to alleviate or to pity the distress of the people.

Unless he had been able to revive the martial spirit of the

Romans, or to introduce the arts of industry and refinement among

their savage enemies, he could not entertain any rational hopes

of securing the public tranquillity, either by the peace or

conquest of Germany. Yet the victories of Julian suspended, for a

short time, the inroads of the Barbarians, and delayed the ruin

of the Western Empire.

89 (return) [ Ammian. xvi. 5, xviii. 1. Mamertinus in Panegyr.

Vet. xi. 4]

90 (return) [ Ammian. xvii. 3. Julian. Epistol. xv. edit.

Spanheim. Such a conduct almost justifies the encomium of

Mamertinus. Ita illi anni spatia divisa sunt, ut aut Barbaros

domitet, aut civibus jura restituat, perpetuum professus, aut

contra hostem, aut contra vitia, certamen.]

His salutary influence restored the cities of Gaul, which had

been so long exposed to the evils of civil discord, Barbarian

war, and domestic tyranny; and the spirit of industry was revived

with the hopes of enjoyment. Agriculture, manufactures, and

commerce, again flourished under the protection of the laws; and

the _curiæ_, or civil corporations, were again filled with useful

and respectable members: the youth were no longer apprehensive of

marriage; and married persons were no longer apprehensive of

posterity: the public and private festivals were celebrated with

customary pomp; and the frequent and secure intercourse of the

provinces displayed the image of national prosperity. 91 A mind

like that of Julian must have felt the general happiness of which

he was the author; but he viewed, with particular satisfaction

and complacency, the city of Paris; the seat of his winter

residence, and the object even of his partial affection. 92 That

splendid capital, which now embraces an ample territory on either

side of the Seine, was originally confined to the small island in

the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitants derived a

supply of pure and salubrious water. The river bathed the foot of

the walls; and the town was accessible only by two wooden

bridges. A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine, but

on the south, the ground, which now bears the name of the

University, was insensibly covered with houses, and adorned with

a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of

Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops. The severity of the

climate was tempered by the neighborhood of the ocean; and with

some precautions, which experience had taught, the vine and

fig-tree were successfully cultivated. But in remarkable winters,

the Seine was deeply frozen; and the huge pieces of ice that

floated down the stream, might be compared, by an Asiatic, to the

blocks of white marble which were extracted from the quarries of

Phrygia. The licentiousness and corruption of Antioch recalled to

the memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his beloved

Lutetia; 93 where the amusements of the theatre were unknown or

despised. He indignantly contrasted the effeminate Syrians with

the brave and honest simplicity of the Gauls, and almost forgave

the intemperance, which was the only stain of the Celtic

character. 94 If Julian could now revisit the capital of France,

he might converse with men of science and genius, capable of

understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he

might excuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation, whose

martial spirit has never been enervated by the indulgence of

luxury; and he must applaud the perfection of that inestimable

art, which softens and refines and embellishes the intercourse of

social life.

91 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parental. in Imp. Julian. c. 38, in

Fabricius Bibliothec. Græc. tom. vii. p. 263, 264.]

92 (return) [ See Julian. in Misopogon, p. 340, 341. The

primitive state of Paris is illustrated by Henry Valesius, (ad

Ammian. xx. 4,) his brother Hadrian Valesius, or de Valois, and

M. D’Anville, (in their respective Notitias of ancient Gaul,) the

Abbé de Longuerue, (Description de la France, tom. i. p. 12, 13,)

and M. Bonamy, (in the Mém. de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom.

xv. p. 656-691.)]

93 (return) [ Julian, in Misopogon, p. 340. Leuce tia, or

Lutetia, was the ancient name of the city, which, according to

the fashion of the fourth century, assumed the territorial

appellation of _Parisii_.]

94 (return) [ Julian in Misopogon, p. 359, 360.]

Chapter XX: Conversion Of Constantine.—Part I.

The Motives, Progress, And Effects Of The Conversion Of

Constantine.—Legal Establishment And Constitution Of The Christian Or

Catholic Church.

The public establishment of Christianity may be considered as one of

those important and domestic revolutions which excite the most lively

curiosity, and afford the most valuable instruction. The victories and

the civil policy of Constantine no longer influence the state of

Europe; but a considerable portion of the globe still retains the

impression which it received from the conversion of that monarch; and

the ecclesiastical institutions of his reign are still connected, by an

indissoluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the interests

of the present generation. In the consideration of a subject which may

be examined with impartiality, but cannot be viewed with indifference,

a difficulty immediately arises of a very unexpected nature; that of

ascertaining the real and precise date of the conversion of

Constantine. The eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of his court, seems

impatient 1 to proclaim to the world the glorious example of the

sovereign of Gaul; who, in the first moments of his reign, acknowledged

and adored the majesty of the true and only God. 2 The learned Eusebius

has ascribed the faith of Constantine to the miraculous sign which was

displayed in the heavens whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian

expedition. 3 The historian Zosimus maliciously asserts, that the

emperor had imbrued his hands in the blood of his eldest son, before he

publicly renounced the gods of Rome and of his ancestors. 4 The

perplexity produced by these discordant authorities is derived from the

behavior of Constantine himself. According to the strictness of

ecclesiastical language, the first of the _Christian_ emperors was

unworthy of that name, till the moment of his death; since it was only

during his last illness that he received, as a catechumen, the

imposition of hands, 5 and was afterwards admitted, by the initiatory

rites of baptism, into the number of the faithful. 6 The Christianity

of Constantine must be allowed in a much more vague and qualified

sense; and the nicest accuracy is required in tracing the slow and

almost imperceptible gradations by which the monarch declared himself

the protector, and at length the proselyte, of the church. It was an

arduous task to eradicate the habits and prejudices of his education,

to acknowledge the divine power of Christ, and to understand that the

truth of _his_ revelation was incompatible with the worship of the

gods. The obstacles which he had probably experienced in his own mind,

instructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous change of a

national religion; and he insensibly discovered his new opinions, as

far as he could enforce them with safety and with effect. During the

whole course of his reign, the stream of Christianity flowed with a

gentle, though accelerated, motion: but its general direction was

sometimes checked, and sometimes diverted, by the accidental

circumstances of the times, and by the prudence, or possibly by the

caprice, of the monarch. His ministers were permitted to signify the

intentions of their master in the various language which was best

adapted to their respective principles; 7 and he artfully balanced the

hopes and fears of his subjects, by publishing in the same year two

edicts; the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday, 8

and the second directed the regular consultation of the Aruspices. 9

While this important revolution yet remained in suspense, the

Christians and the Pagans watched the conduct of their sovereign with

the same anxiety, but with very opposite sentiments. The former were

prompted by every motive of zeal, as well as vanity, to exaggerate the

marks of his favor, and the evidences of his faith. The latter, till

their just apprehensions were changed into despair and resentment,

attempted to conceal from the world, and from themselves, that the gods

of Rome could no longer reckon the emperor in the number of their

votaries. The same passions and prejudices have engaged the partial

writers of the times to connect the public profession of Christianity

with the most glorious or the most ignominious æra of the reign of

Constantine.

1 (return) [ The date of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius has been

accurately discussed, difficulties have been started, solutions

proposed, and an expedient imagined of two _original_ editions; the

former published during the persecution of Diocletian, the latter under

that of Licinius. See Dufresnoy, Prefat. p. v. Tillemont, Mém.

Ecclesiast. tom. vi. p. 465-470. Lardner’s Credibility, part ii. vol.

vii. p. 78-86. For my own part, I am _almost_ convinced that Lactantius

dedicated his Institutions to the sovereign of Gaul, at a time when

Galerius, Maximin, and even Licinius, persecuted the Christians; that

is, between the years 306 and 311.]

2 (return) [ Lactant. Divin. Instit. i. l. vii. 27. The first and most

important of these passages is indeed wanting in twenty-eight

manuscripts; but it is found in nineteen. If we weigh the comparative

value of these manuscripts, one of 900 years old, in the king of

France’s library may be alleged in its favor; but the passage is

omitted in the correct manuscript of Bologna, which the P. de

Montfaucon ascribes to the sixth or seventh century (Diarium Italic. p.

489.) The taste of most of the editors (except Isæus; see Lactant.

edit. Dufresnoy, tom. i. p. 596) has felt the genuine style of

Lactantius.]

3 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constant. l. i. c. 27-32.]

4 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 104.]

5 (return) [ That rite was _always_ used in making a catechumen, (see

Bingham’s Antiquities. l. x. c. i. p. 419. Dom Chardon, Hist. des

Sacramens, tom. i. p. 62,) and Constantine received it for the _first_

time (Euseb. in Vit Constant. l. iv. c. 61) immediately before his

baptism and death. From the connection of these two facts, Valesius (ad

loc. Euseb.) has drawn the conclusion which is reluctantly admitted by

Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 628,) and opposed with

feeble arguments by Mosheim, (p. 968.)]

6 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constant. l. iv. c. 61, 62, 63. The legend

of Constantine’s baptism at Rome, thirteen years before his death, was

invented in the eighth century, as a proper motive for his _donation_.

Such has been the gradual progress of knowledge, that a story, of which

Cardinal Baronius (Annual Ecclesiast. A. D. 324, No. 43-49) declared

himself the unblushing advocate, is now feebly supported, even within

the verge of the Vatican. See the Antiquitates Christianæ, tom. ii. p.

232; a work published with six approbations at Rome, in the year 1751

by Father Mamachi, a learned Dominican.]

7 (return) [ The quæstor, or secretary, who composed the law of the

Theodosian Code, makes his master say with indifference, “hominibus

supradictæ religionis,” (l. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 1.) The minister of

ecclesiastical affairs was allowed a more devout and respectful style,

[**Greek] the legal, most holy, and Catholic worship.]

8 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. ii. viii. tit. leg. 1. Cod. Justinian. l.

iii. tit. xii. leg. 3. Constantine styles the Lord’s day _dies solis_,

a name which could not offend the ears of his pagan subjects.]

9 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. l. Godefroy, in the

character of a commentator, endeavors (tom. vi. p. 257) to excuse

Constantine; but the more zealous Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 321,

No. 17) censures his profane conduct with truth and asperity.]

Whatever symptoms of Christian piety might transpire in the discourses

or actions of Constantine, he persevered till he was near forty years

of age in the practice of the established religion; 10 and the same

conduct which in the court of Nicomedia might be imputed to his fear,

could be ascribed only to the inclination or policy of the sovereign of

Gaul. His liberality restored and enriched the temples of the gods; the

medals which issued from his Imperial mint are impressed with the

figures and attributes of Jupiter and Apollo, of Mars and Hercules; and

his filial piety increased the council of Olympus by the solemn

apotheosis of his father Constantius. 11 But the devotion of

Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun, the

Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology; and he was pleased to be

represented with the symbols of the God of Light and Poetry. The

unerring shafts of that deity, the brightness of his eyes, his laurel

wreath, immortal beauty, and elegant accomplishments, seem to point him

out as the patron of a young hero. The altars of Apollo were crowned

with the votive offerings of Constantine; and the credulous multitude

were taught to believe, that the emperor was permitted to behold with

mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity; and that,

either walking or in a vision, he was blessed with the auspicious omens

of a long and victorious reign. The Sun was universally celebrated as

the invincible guide and protector of Constantine; and the Pagans might

reasonably expect that the insulted god would pursue with unrelenting

vengeance the impiety of his ungrateful favorite. 12

10 (return) [ Theodoret. (l. i. c. 18) seems to insinuate that Helena

gave her son a Christian education; but we may be assured, from the

superior authority of Eusebius, (in Vit. Constant. l. iii. c. 47,) that

she herself was indebted to Constantine for the knowledge of

Christianity.]

11 (return) [ See the medals of Constantine in Ducange and Banduri. As

few cities had retained the privilege of coining, almost all the medals

of that age issued from the mint under the sanction of the Imperial

authority.]

12 (return) [ The panegyric of Eumenius, (vii. inter Panegyr. Vet.,)

which was pronounced a few months before the Italian war, abounds with

the most unexceptionable evidence of the Pagan superstition of

Constantine, and of his particular veneration for Apollo, or the Sun;

to which Julian alludes.]

As long as Constantine exercised a limited sovereignty over the

provinces of Gaul, his Christian subjects were protected by the

authority, and perhaps by the laws, of a prince, who wisely left to the

gods the care of vindicating their own honor. If we may credit the

assertion of Constantine himself, he had been an indignant spectator of

the savage cruelties which were inflicted, by the hands of Roman

soldiers, on those citizens whose religion was their only crime. 13 In

the East and in the West, he had seen the different effects of severity

and indulgence; and as the former was rendered still more odious by the

example of Galerius, his implacable enemy, the latter was recommended

to his imitation by the authority and advice of a dying father. The son

of Constantius immediately suspended or repealed the edicts of

persecution, and granted the free exercise of their religious

ceremonies to all those who had already professed themselves members of

the church. They were soon encouraged to depend on the favor as well as

on the justice of their sovereign, who had imbibed a secret and sincere

reverence for the name of Christ, and for the God of the Christians. 14

13 (return) [ Constantin. Orat. ad Sanctos, c. 25. But it might easily

be shown, that the Greek translator has improved the sense of the Latin

original; and the aged emperor might recollect the persecution of

Diocletian with a more lively abhorrence than he had actually felt to

the days of his youth and Paganism.]

14 (return) [ See Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. viii. 13, l. ix. 9, and in

Vit. Const. l. i. c. 16, 17 Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. l. Cæcilius de

Mort. Persecut. c. 25.]

About five months after the conquest of Italy, the emperor made a

solemn and authentic declaration of his sentiments by the celebrated

edict of Milan, which restored peace to the Catholic church. In the

personal interview of the two western princes, Constantine, by the

ascendant of genius and power, obtained the ready concurrence of his

colleague, Licinius; the union of their names and authority disarmed

the fury of Maximin; and after the death of the tyrant of the East, the

edict of Milan was received as a general and fundamental law of the

Roman world. 15

15 (return) [ Cæcilius (de Mort. Persecut. c. 48) has preserved the

Latin original; and Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. l. x. c. 5) has given a

Greek translation of this perpetual edict, which refers to some

provisional regulations.]

The wisdom of the emperors provided for the restitution of all the

civil and religious rights of which the Christians had been so unjustly

deprived. It was enacted that the places of worship, and public lands,

which had been confiscated, should be restored to the church, without

dispute, without delay, and without expense; and this severe injunction

was accompanied with a gracious promise, that if any of the purchasers

had paid a fair and adequate price, they should be indemnified from the

Imperial treasury. The salutary regulations which guard the future

tranquillity of the faithful are framed on the principles of enlarged

and equal toleration; and such an equality must have been interpreted

by a recent sect as an advantageous and honorable distinction. The two

emperors proclaim to the world, that they have granted a free and

absolute power to the Christians, and to all others, of following the

religion which each individual thinks proper to prefer, to which he has

addicted his mind, and which he may deem the best adapted to his own

use. They carefully explain every ambiguous word, remove every

exception, and exact from the governors of the provinces a strict

obedience to the true and simple meaning of an edict, which was

designed to establish and secure, without any limitation, the claims of

religious liberty. They condescend to assign two weighty reasons which

have induced them to allow this universal toleration: the humane

intention of consulting the peace and happiness of their people; and

the pious hope, that, by such a conduct, they shall appease and

propitiate _the Deity_, whose seat is in heaven. They gratefully

acknowledge the many signal proofs which they have received of the

divine favor; and they trust that the same Providence will forever

continue to protect the prosperity of the prince and people. From these

vague and indefinite expressions of piety, three suppositions may be

deduced, of a different, but not of an incompatible nature. The mind of

Constantine might fluctuate between the Pagan and the Christian

religions. According to the loose and complying notions of Polytheism,

he might acknowledge the God of the Christians as _one_ of the _many_

deities who compose the hierarchy of heaven. Or perhaps he might

embrace the philosophic and pleasing idea, that, notwithstanding the

variety of names, of rites, and of opinions, all the sects, and all the

nations of mankind, are united in the worship of the common Father and

Creator of the universe. 16

16 (return) [ A panegyric of Constantine, pronounced seven or eight

months after the edict of Milan, (see Gothofred. Chronolog. Legum, p.

7, and Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 246,) uses the

following remarkable expression: “Summe rerum sator, cujus tot nomina

sant, quot linguas gentium esse voluisti, quem enim te ipse dici velin,

scire non possumus.” (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 26.) In explaining

Constantine’s progress in the faith, Mosheim (p. 971, &c.) is

ingenious, subtle, prolix.]

But the counsels of princes are more frequently influenced by views of

temporal advantage, than by considerations of abstract and speculative

truth. The partial and increasing favor of Constantine may naturally be

referred to the esteem which he entertained for the moral character of

the Christians; and to a persuasion, that the propagation of the gospel

would inculcate the practice of private and public virtue. Whatever

latitude an absolute monarch may assume in his own conduct, whatever

indulgence he may claim for his own passions, it is undoubtedly his

interest that all his subjects should respect the natural and civil

obligations of society. But the operation of the wisest laws is

imperfect and precarious. They seldom inspire virtue, they cannot

always restrain vice. Their power is insufficient to prohibit all that

they condemn, nor can they always punish the actions which they

prohibit. The legislators of antiquity had summoned to their aid the

powers of education and of opinion. But every principle which had once

maintained the vigor and purity of Rome and Sparta, was long since

extinguished in a declining and despotic empire. Philosophy still

exercised her temperate sway over the human mind, but the cause of

virtue derived very feeble support from the influence of the Pagan

superstition. Under these discouraging circumstances, a prudent

magistrate might observe with pleasure the progress of a religion which

diffused among the people a pure, benevolent, and universal system of

ethics, adapted to every duty and every condition of life; recommended

as the will and reason of the supreme Deity, and enforced by the

sanction of eternal rewards or punishments. The experience of Greek and

Roman history could not inform the world how far the system of national

manners might be reformed and improved by the precepts of a divine

revelation; and Constantine might listen with some confidence to the

flattering, and indeed reasonable, assurances of Lactantius. The

eloquent apologist seemed firmly to expect, and almost ventured to

promise, _that_ the establishment of Christianity would restore the

innocence and felicity of the primitive age; _that_ the worship of the

true God would extinguish war and dissension among those who mutually

considered themselves as the children of a common parent; _that_ every

impure desire, every angry or selfish passion, would be restrained by

the knowledge of the gospel; and _that_ the magistrates might sheath

the sword of justice among a people who would be universally actuated

by the sentiments of truth and piety, of equity and moderation, of

harmony and universal love. 17

17 (return) [ See the elegant description of Lactantius, (Divin

Institut. v. 8,) who is much more perspicuous and positive than becomes

a discreet prophet.]

The passive and unresisting obedience, which bows under the yoke of

authority, or even of oppression, must have appeared, in the eyes of an

absolute monarch, the most conspicuous and useful of the evangelic

virtues. 18 The primitive Christians derived the institution of civil

government, not from the consent of the people, but from the decrees of

Heaven. The reigning emperor, though he had usurped the sceptre by

treason and murder, immediately assumed the sacred character of

vicegerent of the Deity. To the Deity alone he was accountable for the

abuse of his power; and his subjects were indissolubly bound, by their

oath of fidelity, to a tyrant, who had violated every law of nature and

society. The humble Christians were sent into the world as sheep among

wolves; and since they were not permitted to employ force even in the

defence of their religion, they should be still more criminal if they

were tempted to shed the blood of their fellow-creatures in disputing

the vain privileges, or the sordid possessions, of this transitory

life. Faithful to the doctrine of the apostle, who in the reign of Nero

had preached the duty of unconditional submission, the Christians of

the three first centuries preserved their conscience pure and innocent

of the guilt of secret conspiracy, or open rebellion. While they

experienced the rigor of persecution, they were never provoked either

to meet their tyrants in the field, or indignantly to withdraw

themselves into some remote and sequestered corner of the globe. 19 The

Protestants of France, of Germany, and of Britain, who asserted with

such intrepid courage their civil and religious freedom, have been

insulted by the invidious comparison between the conduct of the

primitive and of the reformed Christians. 20 Perhaps, instead of

censure, some applause may be due to the superior sense and spirit of

our ancestors, who had convinced themselves that religion cannot

abolish the unalienable rights of human nature. 21 Perhaps the patience

of the primitive church may be ascribed to its weakness, as well as to

its virtue.

A sect of unwarlike plebeians, without leaders, without arms, without

fortifications, must have encountered inevitable destruction in a rash

and fruitless resistance to the master of the Roman legions. But the

Christians, when they deprecated the wrath of Diocletian, or solicited

the favor of Constantine, could allege, with truth and confidence, that

they held the principle of passive obedience, and that, in the space of

three centuries, their conduct had always been conformable to their

principles. They might add, that the throne of the emperors would be

established on a fixed and permanent basis, if all their subjects,

embracing the Christian doctrine, should learn to suffer and to obey.

18 (return) [ The political system of the Christians is explained by

Grotius, de Jure Belli et Pacis, l. i. c. 3, 4. Grotius was a

republican and an exile, but the mildness of his temper inclined him to

support the established powers.]

19 (return) [ Tertullian. Apolog. c. 32, 34, 35, 36. Tamen nunquam

Albiniani, nec Nigriani vel Cassiani inveniri potuerunt Christiani. Ad

Scapulam, c. 2. If this assertion be strictly true, it excludes the

Christians of that age from all civil and military employments, which

would have compelled them to take an active part in the service of

their respective governors. See Moyle’s Works, vol. ii. p. 349.]

20 (return) [ See the artful Bossuet, (Hist. des Variations des Eglises

Protestantes, tom. iii. p. 210-258.) and the malicious Bayle, (tom ii.

p. 820.) I _name_ Bayle, for he was certainly the author of the Avis

aux Refugies; consult the Dictionnaire Critique de Chauffepié, tom. i.

part ii. p. 145.]

21 (return) [ Buchanan is the earliest, or at least the most

celebrated, of the reformers, who has justified the theory of

resistance. See his Dialogue de Jure Regni apud Scotos, tom. ii. p. 28,

30, edit. fol. Rudiman.]

In the general order of Providence, princes and tyrants are considered

as the ministers of Heaven, appointed to rule or to chastise the

nations of the earth. But sacred history affords many illustrious

examples of the more immediate interposition of the Deity in the

government of his chosen people. The sceptre and the sword were

committed to the hands of Moses, of Joshua, of Gideon, of David, of the

Maccabees; the virtues of those heroes were the motive or the effect of

the divine favor, the success of their arms was destined to achieve the

deliverance or the triumph of the church. If the judges of Israel were

occasional and temporary magistrates, the kings of Judah derived from

the royal unction of their great ancestor an hereditary and

indefeasible right, which could not be forfeited by their own vices,

nor recalled by the caprice of their subjects. The same extraordinary

providence, which was no longer confined to the Jewish people, might

elect Constantine and his family as the protectors of the Christian

world; and the devout Lactantius announces, in a prophetic tone, the

future glories of his long and universal reign. 22 Galerius and

Maximin, Maxentius and Licinius, were the rivals who shared with the

favorite of heaven the provinces of the empire. The tragic deaths of

Galerius and Maximin soon gratified the resentment, and fulfilled the

sanguine expectations, of the Christians. The success of Constantine

against Maxentius and Licinius removed the two formidable competitors

who still opposed the triumph of the second David, and his cause might

seem to claim the peculiar interposition of Providence. The character

of the Roman tyrant disgraced the purple and human nature; and though

the Christians might enjoy his precarious favor, they were exposed,

with the rest of his subjects, to the effects of his wanton and

capricious cruelty. The conduct of Licinius soon betrayed the

reluctance with which he had consented to the wise and humane

regulations of the edict of Milan. The convocation of provincial synods

was prohibited in his dominions; his Christian officers were

ignominiously dismissed; and if he avoided the guilt, or rather danger,

of a general persecution, his partial oppressions were rendered still

more odious by the violation of a solemn and voluntary engagement. 23

While the East, according to the lively expression of Eusebius, was

involved in the shades of infernal darkness, the auspicious rays of

celestial light warmed and illuminated the provinces of the West. The

piety of Constantine was admitted as an unexceptionable proof of the

justice of his arms; and his use of victory confirmed the opinion of

the Christians, that their hero was inspired, and conducted, by the

Lord of Hosts. The conquest of Italy produced a general edict of

toleration; and as soon as the defeat of Licinius had invested

Constantine with the sole dominion of the Roman world, he immediately,

by circular letters, exhorted all his subjects to imitate, without

delay, the example of their sovereign, and to embrace the divine truth

of Christianity. 24

22 (return) [ Lactant Divin. Institut. i. l. Eusebius in the course of

his history, his life, and his oration, repeatedly inculcates the

divine right of Constantine to the empire.]

23 (return) [ Our imperfect knowledge of the persecution of Licinius is

derived from Eusebius, (Hist. l. x. c. 8. Vit. Constantin. l. i. c.

49-56, l. ii. c. 1, 2.) Aurelius Victor mentions his cruelty in general

terms.]

24 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constant. l. ii. c. 24-42 48-60.]

Chapter XX: Conversion Of Constantine.—Part II.

The assurance that the elevation of Constantine was intimately

connected with the designs of Providence, instilled into the minds of

the Christians two opinions, which, by very different means, assisted

the accomplishment of the prophecy. Their warm and active loyalty

exhausted in his favor every resource of human industry; and they

confidently expected that their strenuous efforts would be seconded by

some divine and miraculous aid. The enemies of Constantine have imputed

to interested motives the alliance which he insensibly contracted with

the Catholic church, and which apparently contributed to the success of

his ambition. In the beginning of the fourth century, the Christians

still bore a very inadequate proportion to the inhabitants of the

empire; but among a degenerate people, who viewed the change of masters

with the indifference of slaves, the spirit and union of a religious

party might assist the popular leader, to whose service, from a

principle of conscience, they had devoted their lives and fortunes. 25

The example of his father had instructed Constantine to esteem and to

reward the merit of the Christians; and in the distribution of public

offices, he had the advantage of strengthening his government, by the

choice of ministers or generals, in whose fidelity he could repose a

just and unreserved confidence. By the influence of these dignified

missionaries, the proselytes of the new faith must have multiplied in

the court and army; the Barbarians of Germany, who filled the ranks of

the legions, were of a careless temper, which acquiesced without

resistance in the religion of their commander; and when they passed the

Alps, it may fairly be presumed, that a great number of the soldiers

had already consecrated their swords to the service of Christ and of

Constantine. 26 The habits of mankind and the interests of religion

gradually abated the horror of war and bloodshed, which had so long

prevailed among the Christians; and in the councils which were

assembled under the gracious protection of Constantine, the authority

of the bishops was seasonably employed to ratify the obligation of the

military oath, and to inflict the penalty of excommunication on those

soldiers who threw away their arms during the peace of the church. 27

While Constantine, in his own dominions, increased the number and zeal

of his faithful adherents, he could depend on the support of a powerful

faction in those provinces which were still possessed or usurped by his

rivals. A secret disaffection was diffused among the Christian subjects

of Maxentius and Licinius; and the resentment, which the latter did not

attempt to conceal, served only to engage them still more deeply in the

interest of his competitor. The regular correspondence which connected

the bishops of the most distant provinces, enabled them freely to

communicate their wishes and their designs, and to transmit without

danger any useful intelligence, or any pious contributions, which might

promote the service of Constantine, who publicly declared that he had

taken up arms for the deliverance of the church. 28