The vain and ambitious mind of Julian mi_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

ancient glory of the temple of Jerusalem. 70 As the Christians

were firmly persuaded that a sentence of everlasting destruction

had been pronounced against the whole fabric of the Mosaic law,

the Imperial sophist would have converted the success of his

undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of

prophecy, and the truth of revelation. 71 He was displeased with

the spiritual worship of the synagogue; but he approved the

institutions of Moses, who had not disdained to adopt many of the

rites and ceremonies of Egypt. 72 The local and national deity of

the Jews was sincerely adored by a polytheist, who desired only

to multiply the number of the gods; 73 and such was the appetite

of Julian for bloody sacrifice, that his emulation might be

excited by the piety of Solomon, who had offered, at the feast of

the dedication, twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and

twenty thousand sheep. 74 These considerations might influence

his designs; but the prospect of an immediate and important

advantage would not suffer the impatient monarch to expect the

remote and uncertain event of the Persian war. He resolved to

erect, without delay, on the commanding eminence of Moriah, a

stately temple, which might eclipse the splendor of the church of

the resurrection on the adjacent hill of Calvary; to establish an

order of priests, whose interested zeal would detect the arts,

and resist the ambition, of their Christian rivals; and to invite

a numerous colony of Jews, whose stern fanaticism would be always

prepared to second, and even to anticipate, the hostile measures

of the Pagan government. Among the friends of the emperor (if the

names of emperor, and of friend, are not incompatible) the first

place was assigned, by Julian himself, to the virtuous and

learned Alypius. 75 The humanity of Alypius was tempered by

severe justice and manly fortitude; and while he exercised his

abilities in the civil administration of Britain, he imitated, in

his poetical compositions, the harmony and softness of the odes

of Sappho. This minister, to whom Julian communicated, without

reserve, his most careless levities, and his most serious

counsels, received an extraordinary commission to restore, in its

pristine beauty, the temple of Jerusalem; and the diligence of

Alypius required and obtained the strenuous support of the

governor of Palestine. At the call of their great deliverer, the

Jews, from all the provinces of the empire, assembled on the holy

mountain of their fathers; and their insolent triumph alarmed and

exasperated the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem. The desire of

rebuilding the temple has in every age been the ruling passion of

the children of Israel. In this propitious moment the men forgot

their avarice, and the women their delicacy; spades and pickaxes

of silver were provided by the vanity of the rich, and the

rubbish was transported in mantles of silk and purple. Every

purse was opened in liberal contributions, every hand claimed a

share in the pious labor, and the commands of a great monarch

were executed by the enthusiasm of a whole people. 76

70 (return) [ Imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens

propagare Ammian. xxiii. 1. The temple of Jerusalem had been

famous even among the Gentiles. _They_ had many temples in each

city, (at Sichem five, at Gaza eight, at Rome four hundred and

twenty-four;) but the wealth and religion of the Jewish nation

was centred in one spot.]

71 (return) [ The secret intentions of Julian are revealed by the

late bishop of Gloucester, the learned and dogmatic Warburton;

who, with the authority of a theologian, prescribes the motives

and conduct of the Supreme Being. The discourse entitled _Julian_

(2d edition, London, 1751) is strongly marked with all the

peculiarities which are imputed to the Warburtonian school.]

72 (return) [ I shelter myself behind Maimonides, Marsham,

Spencer, Le Clerc, Warburton, &c., who have fairly derided the

fears, the folly, and the falsehood of some superstitious

divines. See Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 25, &c.]

73 (return) [ Julian (Fragment. p. 295) respectfully styles him,

and mentions him elsewhere (Epist. lxiii.) with still higher

reverence. He doubly condemns the Christians for believing, and

for renouncing, the religion of the Jews. Their Deity was a

_true_, but not the _only_, God Apul Cyril. l. ix. p. 305, 306.]

74 (return) [ 1 Kings, viii. 63. 2 Chronicles, vii. 5. Joseph.

Antiquitat. Judaic. l. viii. c. 4, p. 431, edit. Havercamp. As

the blood and smoke of so many hecatombs might be inconvenient,

Lightfoot, the Christian Rabbi, removes them by a miracle. Le

Clerc (ad loca) is bold enough to suspect to fidelity of the

numbers. * Note: According to the historian Kotobeddym, quoted by

Burckhardt, (Travels in Arabia, p. 276,) the Khalif Mokteder

sacrificed, during his pilgrimage to Mecca, in the year of the

Hejira 350, forty thousand camels and cows, and fifty thousand

sheep. Barthema describes thirty thousand oxen slain, and their

carcasses given to the poor. Quarterly Review, xiii.p.39—M.]

75 (return) [ Julian, epist. xxix. xxx. La Bleterie has neglected

to translate the second of these epistles.]

76 (return) [ See the zeal and impatience of the Jews in Gregory

Nazianzen (Orat. iv. p. 111) and Theodoret. (l. iii. c. 20.)]

Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power and enthusiasm

were unsuccessful; and the ground of the Jewish temple, which is

now covered by a Mahometan mosque, 77 still continued to exhibit

the same edifying spectacle of ruin and desolation. Perhaps the

absence and death of the emperor, and the new maxims of a

Christian reign, might explain the interruption of an arduous

work, which was attempted only in the last six months of the life

of Julian. 78 But the Christians entertained a natural and pious

expectation, that, in this memorable contest, the honor of

religion would be vindicated by some signal miracle. An

earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned

and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are attested,

with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence.

79 This public event is described by Ambrose, 80 bishop of Milan,

in an epistle to the emperor Theodosius, which must provoke the

severe animadversion of the Jews; by the eloquent Chrysostom, 81

who might appeal to the memory of the elder part of his

congregation at Antioch; and by Gregory Nazianzen, 82 who

published his account of the miracle before the expiration of the

same year. The last of these writers has boldly declared, that

this preternatural event was not disputed by the infidels; and

his assertion, strange as it may seem is confirmed by the

unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus. 83 The

philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues, without adopting the

prejudices, of his master, has recorded, in his judicious and

candid history of his own times, the extraordinary obstacles

which interrupted the restoration of the temple of Jerusalem.

“Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged,

with vigor and diligence, the execution of the work, horrible

balls of fire breaking out near the foundations, with frequent

and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time to time,

inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and the

victorious element continuing in this manner obstinately and

resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the

undertaking was abandoned.” 8311 Such authority should satisfy a

believing, and must astonish an incredulous, mind. Yet a

philosopher may still require the original evidence of impartial

and intelligent spectators. At this important crisis, any

singular accident of nature would assume the appearance, and

produce the effects of a real prodigy. This glorious deliverance

would be speedily improved and magnified by the pious art of the

clergy of Jerusalem, and the active credulity of the Christian

world and, at the distance of twenty years, a Roman historian,

careless of theological disputes, might adorn his work with the

specious and splendid miracle. 84

77 (return) [ Built by Omar, the second Khalif, who died A. D.

644. This great mosque covers the whole consecrated ground of the

Jewish temple, and constitutes almost a square of 760 _toises_,

or one Roman mile in circumference. See D’Anville, Jerusalem, p.

45.]

78 (return) [ Ammianus records the consults of the year 363,

before he proceeds to mention the _thoughts_ of Julian. Templum.

... instaurare sumptibus _cogitabat_ immodicis. Warburton has a

secret wish to anticipate the design; but he must have

understood, from former examples, that the execution of such a

work would have demanded many years.]

79 (return) [ The subsequent witnesses, Socrates, Sozomen,

Theodoret, Philostorgius, &c., add contradictions rather than

authority. Compare the objections of Basnage (Hist. des Juifs,

tom. viii. p. 156-168) with Warburton’s answers, (Julian, p.

174-258.) The bishop has ingeniously explained the miraculous

crosses which appeared on the garments of the spectators by a

similar instance, and the natural effects of lightning.]

80 (return) [ Ambros. tom. ii. epist. xl. p. 946, edit.

Benedictin. He composed this fanatic epistle (A. D. 388) to

justify a bishop who had been condemned by the civil magistrate

for burning a synagogue.]

81 (return) [ Chrysostom, tom. i. p. 580, advers. Judæos et

Gentes, tom. ii. p. 574, de Sto Babyla, edit. Montfaucon. I have

followed the common and natural supposition; but the learned

Benedictine, who dates the composition of these sermons in the

year 383, is confident they were never pronounced from the

pulpit.]

82 (return) [ Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 110-113.]

83 (return) [ Ammian. xxiii. 1. Cum itaque rei fortiter instaret

Alypius, juvaretque provinciæ rector, metuendi globi flammarum

prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum

exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum; hocque modo elemento

destinatius repellente, cessavit inceptum. Warburton labors (p.

60-90) to extort a confession of the miracle from the mouths of

Julian and Libanius, and to employ the evidence of a rabbi who

lived in the fifteenth century. Such witnesses can only be

received by a very favorable judge.]

8311 (return) [ Michaelis has given an ingenious and sufficiently

probable explanation of this remarkable incident, which the

positive testimony of Ammianus, a contemporary and a pagan, will

not permit us to call in question. It was suggested by a passage

in Tacitus. That historian, speaking of Jerusalem, says, [I omit

the first part of the quotation adduced by M. Guizot, which only

by a most extraordinary mistranslation of muri introrsus sinuati

by “_enfoncemens_” could be made to bear on the question.—M.]

“The Temple itself was a kind of citadel, which had its own

walls, superior in their workmanship and construction to those of

the city. The porticos themselves, which surrounded the temple,

were an excellent fortification. There was a fountain of

constantly running water; _subterranean excavations under the

mountain; reservoirs and cisterns to collect the rain-water_.”

Tac. Hist. v. ii. 12. These excavations and reservoirs must have

been very considerable. The latter furnished water during the

whole siege of Jerusalem to 1,100,000 inhabitants, for whom the

fountain of Siloe could not have sufficed, and who had no fresh

rain-water, the siege having taken place from the month of April

to the month of August, a period of the year during which it

rarely rains in Jerusalem. As to the excavations, they served

after, and even before, the return of the Jews from Babylon, to

contain not only magazines of oil, wine, and corn, but also the

treasures which were laid up in the Temple. Josephus has related

several incidents which show their extent. When Jerusalem was on

the point of being taken by Titus, the rebel chiefs, placing

their last hopes in these vast subterranean cavities, formed a

design of concealing themselves there, and remaining during the

conflagration of the city, and until the Romans had retired to a

distance. The greater part had not time to execute their design;

but one of them, Simon, the Son of Gioras, having provided

himself with food, and tools to excavate the earth descended into

this retreat with some companions: he remained there till Titus

had set out for Rome: under the pressure of famine he issued

forth on a sudden in the very place where the Temple had stood,

and appeared in the midst of the Roman guard. He was seized and

carried to Rome for the triumph. His appearance made it be

suspected that other Jews might have chosen the same asylum;

search was made, and a great number discovered. Joseph. de Bell.

Jud. l. vii. c. 2. It is probable that the greater part of these

excavations were the remains of the time of Solomon, when it was

the custom to work to a great extent under ground: no other date

can be assigned to them. The Jews, on their return from the

captivity, were too poor to undertake such works; and, although

Herod, on rebuilding the Temple, made some excavations, (Joseph.

Ant. Jud. xv. 11, vii.,) the haste with which that building was

completed will not allow us to suppose that they belonged to that

period. Some were used for sewers and drains, others served to

conceal the immense treasures of which Crassus, a hundred and

twenty years before, plundered the Jews, and which doubtless had

been since replaced. The Temple was destroyed A. C. 70; the

attempt of Julian to rebuild it, and the fact related by

Ammianus, coincide with the year 363. There had then elapsed

between these two epochs an interval of near 300 years, during

which the excavations, choked up with ruins, must have become

full of inflammable air. The workmen employed by Julian as they

were digging, arrived at the excavations of the Temple; they

would take torches to explore them; sudden flames repelled those

who approached; explosions were heard, and these phenomena were

renewed every time that they penetrated into new subterranean

passages. This explanation is confirmed by the relation of an

event nearly similar, by Josephus. King Herod having heard that

immense treasures had been concealed in the sepulchre of David,

he descended into it with a few confidential persons; he found in

the first subterranean chamber only jewels and precious stuffs:

but having wished to penetrate into a second chamber, which had

been long closed, he was repelled, when he opened it, by flames

which killed those who accompanied him. (Ant. Jud. xvi. 7, i.) As

here there is no room for miracle, this fact may be considered as

a new proof of the veracity of that related by Ammianus and the

contemporary writers.—G. ——To the illustrations of the extent of

the subterranean chambers adduced by Michaelis, may be added,

that when John of Gischala, during the siege, surprised the

Temple, the party of Eleazar took refuge within them. Bell. Jud.

vi. 3, i. The sudden sinking of the hill of Sion when Jerusalem

was occupied by Barchocab, may have been connected with similar

excavations. Hist. of Jews, vol. iii. 122 and 186.—M. ——It is a

fact now popularly known, that when mines which have been long

closed are opened, one of two things takes place; either the

torches are extinguished and the men fall first into a swoor and

soon die; or, if the air is inflammable, a little flame is seen

to flicker round the lamp, which spreads and multiplies till the

conflagration becomes general, is followed by an explosion, and

kill all who are in the way.—G.]

84 (return) [ Dr. Lardner, perhaps alone of the Christian

critics, presumes to doubt the truth of this famous miracle.

(Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 47-71.)]

The silence of Jerom would lead to a suspicion that the same

story which was celebrated at a distance, might be despised on

the spot. * Note: Gibbon has forgotten Basnage, to whom Warburton

replied.—M.

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part IV.

The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected with

the ruin of the Christian church. Julian still continued to

maintain the freedom of religious worship, without distinguishing

whether this universal toleration proceeded from his justice or

his clemency. He affected to pity the unhappy Christians, who

were mistaken in the most important object of their lives; but

his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt was embittered by

hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of

sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly wound, whenever

it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible that

the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer, he

countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honorable

appellation of Galilæans. 85 He declared, that by the folly of

the Galilæans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics,

contemptible to men, and odious to the gods, the empire had been

reduced to the brink of destruction; and he insinuates in a

public edict, that a frantic patient might sometimes be cured by

salutary violence. 86 An ungenerous distinction was admitted into

the mind and counsels of Julian, that, according to the

difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his

subjects deserved his favor and friendship, while the other was

entitled only to the common benefits that his justice could not

refuse to an obedient people. According to a principle, pregnant

with mischief and oppression, the emperor transferred to the

pontiffs of his own religion the management of the liberal

allowances from the public revenue, which had been granted to the

church by the piety of Constantine and his sons. The proud system

of clerical honors and immunities, which had been constructed

with so much art and labor, was levelled to the ground; the hopes

of testamentary donations were intercepted by the rigor of the

laws; and the priests of the Christian sect were confounded with

the last and most ignominious class of the people. Such of these

regulations as appeared necessary to check the ambition and

avarice of the ecclesiastics, were soon afterwards imitated by

the wisdom of an orthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which

policy has bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on the

sacerdotal order, _must_ be confined to those priests who profess

the religion of the state. But the will of the legislator was not

exempt from prejudice and passion; and it was the object of the

insidious policy of Julian, to deprive the Christians of all the

temporal honors and advantages which rendered them respectable in

the eyes of the world. 88

85 (return) [ Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 81. And this law was

confirmed by the invariable practice of Julian himself. Warburton

has justly observed (p. 35,) that the Platonists believed in the

mysterious virtue of words and Julian’s dislike for the name of

Christ might proceed from superstition, as well as from

contempt.]

86 (return) [ Fragment. Julian. p. 288. He derides the (Epist.

vii.,) and so far loses sight of the principles of toleration, as

to wish (Epist. xlii.).]

88 (return) [ These laws, which affected the clergy, may be found

in the slight hints of Julian himself, (Epist. lii.) in the vague

declamations of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 86, 87,) and in the

positive assertions of Sozomen, (l. v. c. 5.)]

A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the law which

prohibited the Christians from teaching the arts of grammar and

rhetoric. 89 The motives alleged by the emperor to justify this

partial and oppressive measure, might command, during his

lifetime, the silence of slaves and the applause of Gatterers.

Julian abuses the ambiguous meaning of a word which might be

indifferently applied to the language and the religion of the

Greeks: he contemptuously observes, that the men who exalt the

merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy the

advantages of science; and he vainly contends, that if they

refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to

content themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the church

of the Galilæans. 90 In all the cities of the Roman world, the

education of the youth was intrusted to masters of grammar and

rhetoric; who were elected by the magistrates, maintained at the

public expense, and distinguished by many lucrative and honorable

privileges. The edict of Julian appears to have included the

physicians, and professors of all the liberal arts; and the

emperor, who reserved to himself the approbation of the

candidates, was authorized by the laws to corrupt, or to punish,

the religious constancy of the most learned of the Christians. 91

As soon as the resignation of the more obstinate 92 teachers had

established the unrivalled dominion of the Pagan sophists, Julian

invited the rising generation to resort with freedom to the

public schools, in a just confidence, that their tender minds

would receive the impressions of literature and idolatry. If the

greatest part of the Christian youth should be deterred by their

own scruples, or by those of their parents, from accepting this

dangerous mode of instruction, they must, at the same time,

relinquish the benefits of a liberal education. Julian had reason

to expect that, in the space of a few years, the church would

relapse into its primæval simplicity, and that the theologians,

who possessed an adequate share of the learning and eloquence of

the age, would be succeeded by a generation of blind and ignorant

fanatics, incapable of defending the truth of their own

principles, or of exposing the various follies of Polytheism. 93

89 (return) [ Inclemens.... perenni obruendum silentio. Ammian.

xxii. 10, ixv. 5.]

90 (return) [ The edict itself, which is still extant among the

epistles of Julian, (xlii.,) may be compared with the loose

invectives of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 96.) Tillemont (Mém. Eccles.

tom. vii. p. 1291-1294) has collected the seeming differences of

ancients and moderns. They may be easily reconciled. The

Christians were _directly_ forbid to teach, they were

_indirectly_ forbid to learn; since they would not frequent the

schools of the Pagans.]

91 (return) [ Codex Theodos. l. xiii. tit. iii. de medicis et

professoribus, leg. 5, (published the 17th of June, received, at

Spoleto in Italy, the 29th of July, A. D. 363,) with Godefroy’s

Illustrations, tom. v. p. 31.]

92 (return) [ Orosius celebrates their disinterested resolution,

Sicut a majori bus nostris compertum habemus, omnes ubique

propemodum... officium quam fidem deserere maluerunt, vii. 30.

Proæresius, a Christian sophist, refused to accept the partial

favor of the emperor Hieronym. in Chron. p. 185, edit. Scaliger.

Eunapius in Proæresio p. 126.]

93 (return) [ They had recourse to the expedient of composing

books for their own schools. Within a few months Apollinaris

produced his Christian imitations of Homer, (a sacred history in

twenty-four books,) Pindar, Euripides, and Menander; and Sozomen

is satisfied, that they equalled, or excelled, the originals. *

Note: Socrates, however, implies that, on the death of Julian,

they were contemptuously thrown aside by the Christians. Socr.

Hist. iii.16.—M.]

It was undoubtedly the wish and design of Julian to deprive the

Christians of the advantages of wealth, of knowledge, and of

power; but the injustice of excluding them from all offices of

trust and profit seems to have been the result of his general

policy, rather than the immediate consequence of any positive

law. 94 Superior merit might deserve and obtain, some

extraordinary exceptions; but the greater part of the Christian

officers were gradually removed from their employments in the

state, the army, and the provinces. The hopes of future

candidates were extinguished by the declared partiality of a

prince, who maliciously reminded them, that it was unlawful for a

Christian to use the sword, either of justice, or of war; and who

studiously guarded the camp and the tribunals with the ensigns of

idolatry. The powers of government were intrusted to the pagans,

who professed an ardent zeal for the religion of their ancestors;

and as the choice of the emperor was often directed by the rules

of divination, the favorites whom he preferred as the most

agreeable to the gods, did not always obtain the approbation of

mankind. 95 Under the administration of their enemies, the

Christians had much to suffer, and more to apprehend. The temper

of Julian was averse to cruelty; and the care of his reputation,

which was exposed to the eyes of the universe, restrained the

philosophic monarch from violating the laws of justice and

toleration, which he himself had so recently established. But the

provincial ministers of his authority were placed in a less

conspicuous station. In the exercise of arbitrary power, they

consulted the wishes, rather than the commands, of their

sovereign; and ventured to exercise a secret and vexatious

tyranny against the sectaries, on whom they were not permitted to

confer the honors of martyrdom. The emperor, who dissembled as

long as possible his knowledge of the injustice that was

exercised in his name, expressed his real sense of the conduct of

his officers, by gentle reproofs and substantial rewards. 96

94 (return) [ It was the instruction of Julian to his

magistrates, (Epist. vii.,). Sozomen (l. v. c. 18) and Socrates

(l. iii. c. 13) must be reduced to the standard of Gregory,

(Orat. iii. p. 95,) not less prone to exaggeration, but more

restrained by the actual knowledge of his contemporary readers.]

95 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. 88, p. 814.]

96 (return) [ Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 74, 91, 92. Socrates, l.

iii. c. 14. The doret, l. iii. c. 6. Some drawback may, however,

be allowed for the violence of _their_ zeal, not less partial

than the zeal of Julian]

The most effectual instrument of oppression, with which they were

armed, was the law that obliged the Christians to make full and

ample satisfaction for the temples which they had destroyed under

the preceding reign. The zeal of the triumphant church had not

always expected the sanction of the public authority; and the

bishops, who were secure of impunity, had often marched at the

head of their congregation, to attack and demolish the fortresses

of the prince of darkness. The consecrated lands, which had

increased the patrimony of the sovereign or of the clergy, were

clearly defined, and easily restored. But on these lands, and on

the ruins of Pagan superstition, the Christians had frequently

erected their own religious edifices: and as it was necessary to

remove the church before the temple could be rebuilt, the justice

and piety of the emperor were applauded by one party, while the

other deplored and execrated his sacrilegious violence. 97 After

the ground was cleared, the restitution of those stately

structures which had been levelled with the dust, and of the

precious ornaments which had been converted to Christian uses,

swelled into a very large account of damages and debt. The

authors of the injury had neither the ability nor the inclination

to discharge this accumulated demand: and the impartial wisdom of

a legislator would have been displayed in balancing the adverse

claims and complaints, by an equitable and temperate arbitration.

But the whole empire, and particularly the East, was thrown into

confusion by the rash edicts of Julian; and the Pagan

magistrates, inflamed by zeal and revenge, abused the rigorous

privilege of the Roman law, which substitutes, in the place of

his inadequate property, the person of the insolvent debtor.

Under the preceding reign, Mark, bishop of Arethusa, 98 had

labored in the conversion of his people with arms more effectual

than those of persuasion. 99 The magistrates required the full

value of a temple which had been destroyed by his intolerant

zeal: but as they were satisfied of his poverty, they desired

only to bend his inflexible spirit to the promise of the

slightest compensation. They apprehended the aged prelate, they

inhumanly scourged him, they tore his beard; and his naked body,

annointed with honey, was suspended, in a net, between heaven and

earth, and exposed to the stings of insects and the rays of a

Syrian sun. 100 From this lofty station, Mark still persisted to

glory in his crime, and to insult the impotent rage of his

persecutors. He was at length rescued from their hands, and

dismissed to enjoy the honor of his divine triumph. The Arians

celebrated the virtue of their pious confessor; the Catholics

ambitiously claimed his alliance; 101 and the Pagans, who might

be susceptible of shame or remorse, were deterred from the

repetition of such unavailing cruelty. 102 Julian spared his

life: but if the bishop of Arethusa had saved the infancy of

Julian, 103 posterity will condemn the ingratitude, instead of

praising the clemency, of the emperor.

97 (return) [ If we compare the gentle language of Libanius

(Orat. Parent c. 60. p. 286) with the passionate exclamations of

Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 86, 87,) we may find it difficult to

persuade ourselves that the two orators are really describing the

same events.]

98 (return) [ Restan, or Arethusa, at the equal distance of

sixteen miles between Emesa (_Hems_) and Epiphania, (_Hamath_,)

was founded, or at least named, by Seleucus Nicator. Its peculiar

æra dates from the year of Rome 685, according to the medals of

the city. In the decline of the Seleucides, Emesa and Arethusa

were usurped by the Arab Sampsiceramus, whose posterity, the

vassals of Rome, were not extinguished in the reign of

Vespasian.——See D’Anville’s Maps and Geographie Ancienne, tom.

ii. p. 134. Wesseling, Itineraria, p. 188, and Noris. Epoch

Syro-Macedon, p. 80, 481, 482.]

99 (return) [ Sozomen, l. v. c. 10. It is surprising, that

Gregory and Theodoret should suppress a circumstance, which, in

their eyes, must have enhanced the religious merit of the

confessor.]

100 (return) [ The sufferings and constancy of Mark, which

Gregory has so tragically painted, (Orat. iii. p. 88-91,) are

confirmed by the unexceptionable and reluctant evidence of

Libanius. Epist. 730, p. 350, 351. Edit. Wolf. Amstel. 1738.]

101 (return) [ Certatim eum sibi (Christiani) vindicant. It is

thus that La Croze and Wolfius (ad loc.) have explained a Greek

word, whose true signification had been mistaken by former

interpreters, and even by Le Clerc, (Bibliothèque Ancienne et

Moderne, tom. iii. p. 371.) Yet Tillemont is strangely puzzled to

understand (Mém. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1309) _how_ Gregory and

Theodoret could mistake a Semi-Arian bishop for a saint.]

102 (return) [ See the probable advice of Sallust, (Greg.

Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 90, 91.) Libanius intercedes for a

similar offender, lest they should find many _Marks;_ yet he

allows, that if Orion had secreted the consecrated wealth, he

deserved to suffer the punishment of Marsyas; to be flayed alive,

(Epist. 730, p. 349-351.)]

103 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 90) is satisfied that, by

saving the apostate, Mark had deserved still more than he had

suffered.]

At the distance of five miles from Antioch, the Macedonian kings

of Syria had consecrated to Apollo one of the most elegant places

of devotion in the Pagan world. 104 A magnificent temple rose in

honor of the god of light; and his colossal figure 105 almost

filled the capacious sanctuary, which was enriched with gold and

gems, and adorned by the skill of the Grecian artists. The deity

was represented in a bending attitude, with a golden cup in his

hand, pouring out a libation on the earth; as if he supplicated

the venerable mother to give to his arms the cold and beauteous

Daphne: for the spot was ennobled by fiction; and the fancy of

the Syrian poets had transported the amorous tale from the banks

of the Peneus to those of the Orontes. The ancient rites of

Greece were imitated by the royal colony of Antioch. A stream of

prophecy, which rivalled the truth and reputation of the Delphic

oracle, flowed from the _Castalian_ fountain of Daphne. 106 In

the adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special privilege,

107 which had been purchased from Elis; the Olympic games were

celebrated at the expense of the city; and a revenue of thirty

thousand pounds sterling was annually applied to the public

pleasures. 108 The perpetual resort of pilgrims and spectators

insensibly formed, in the neighborhood of the temple, the stately

and populous village of Daphne, which emulated the splendor,

without acquiring the title, of a provincial city. The temple and

the village were deeply bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and

cypresses, which reached as far as a circumference of ten miles,

and formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable

shade. A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every

hill, preserved the verdure of the earth, and the temperature of

the air; the senses were gratified with harmonious sounds and

aromatic odors; and the peaceful grove was consecrated to health

and joy, to luxury and love. The vigorous youth pursued, like

Apollo, the object of his desires; and the blushing maid was

warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the folly of unseasonable

coyness. The soldier and the philosopher wisely avoided the

temptation of this sensual paradise: 109 where pleasure, assuming

the character of religion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness

of manly virtue. But the groves of Daphne continued for many ages

to enjoy the veneration of natives and strangers; the privileges

of the holy ground were enlarged by the munificence of succeeding

emperors; and every generation added new ornaments to the

splendor of the temple. 110

104 (return) [ The grove and temple of Daphne are described by

Strabo, (l. xvi. p. 1089, 1090, edit. Amstel. 1707,) Libanius,

(Nænia, p. 185-188. Antiochic. Orat. xi. p. 380, 381,) and

Sozomen, (l. v. c. 19.) Wesseling (Itinerar. p. 581) and Casaubon

(ad Hist. August. p. 64) illustrate this curious subject.]

105 (return) [ Simulacrum in eo Olympiaci Jovis imitamenti

æquiparans magnitudinem. Ammian. xxii. 13. The Olympic Jupiter

was sixty feet high, and his bulk was consequently equal to that

of a thousand men. See a curious _Mémoire_ of the Abbé Gedoyn,

(Académie des Inscriptions, tom. ix. p. 198.)]

106 (return) [ Hadrian read the history of his future fortunes on

a leaf dipped in the Castalian stream; a trick which, according

to the physician Vandale, (de Oraculis, p. 281, 282,) might be

easily performed by chemical preparations. The emperor stopped

the source of such dangerous knowledge; which was again opened by

the devout curiosity of Julian.]

107 (return) [ It was purchased, A. D. 44, in the year 92 of the

æra of Antioch, (Noris. Epoch. Syro-Maced. p. 139-174,) for the

term of ninety Olympiads. But the Olympic games of Antioch were

not regularly celebrated till the reign of Commodus. See the

curious details in the Chronicle of John Malala, (tom. i. p. 290,

320, 372-381,) a writer whose merit and authority are confined

within the limits of his native city.]

108 (return) [ Fifteen talents of gold, bequeathed by Sosibius,

who died in the reign of Augustus. The theatrical merits of the

Syrian cities in the reign of Constantine, are computed in the

Expositio totius Murd, p. 8, (Hudson, Geograph. Minor tom. iii.)]

109 (return) [ Avidio Cassio Syriacas legiones dedi luxuria

diffluentes et _Daphnicis_ moribus. These are the words of the

emperor Marcus Antoninus in an original letter preserved by his

biographer in Hist. August. p. 41. Cassius dismissed or punished

every soldier who was seen at Daphne.]

110 (return) [ Aliquantum agrorum Daphnensibus dedit, (_Pompey_,)

quo lucus ibi spatiosior fieret; delectatus amœnitate loci et

aquarum abundantiz, Eutropius, vi. 14. Sextus Rufus, de

Provinciis, c. 16.]

When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, hastened to adore

the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was raised to the highest

pitch of eagerness and impatience. His lively imagination

anticipated the grateful pomp of victims, of libations and of

incense; a long procession of youths and virgins, clothed in

white robes, the symbol of their innocence; and the tumultuous

concourse of an innumerable people. But the zeal of Antioch was

diverted, since the reign of Christianity, into a different

channel. Instead of hecatombs of fat oxen sacrificed by the

tribes of a wealthy city to their tutelar deity the emperor

complains that he found only a single goose, provided at the

expense of a priest, the pale and solitary inhabitant of this

decayed temple. 111 The altar was deserted, the oracle had been

reduced to silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the

introduction of Christian and funereal rites. After Babylas 112

(a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution of

Decius) had rested near a century in his grave, his body, by the

order of Cæsar Gallus, was transported into the midst of the

grove of Daphne. A magnificent church was erected over his

remains; a portion of the sacred lands was usurped for the

maintenance of the clergy, and for the burial of the Christians

at Antioch, who were ambitious of lying at the feet of their

bishop; and the priests of Apollo retired, with their affrighted

and indignant votaries. As soon as another revolution seemed to

restore the fortune of Paganism, the church of St. Babylas was

demolished, and new buildings were added to the mouldering

edifice which had been raised by the piety of Syrian kings. But

the first and most serious care of Julian was to deliver his

oppressed deity from the odious presence of the dead and living

Christians, who had so effectually suppressed the voice of fraud

or enthusiasm. 113 The scene of infection was purified, according

to the forms of ancient rituals; the bodies were decently

removed; and the ministers of the church were permitted to convey

the remains of St. Babylas to their former habitation within the

walls of Antioch. The modest behavior which might have assuaged

the jealousy of a hostile government was neglected, on this

occasion, by the zeal of the Christians. The lofty car, that

transported the relics of Babylas, was followed, and accompanied,

and received, by an innumerable multitude; who chanted, with

thundering acclamations, the Psalms of David the most expressive

of their contempt for idols and idolaters. The return of the

saint was a triumph; and the triumph was an insult on the

religion of the emperor, who exerted his pride to dissemble his

resentment. During the night which terminated this indiscreet

procession, the temple of Daphne was in flames; the statue of

Apollo was consumed; and the walls of the edifice were left a

naked and awful monument of ruin. The Christians of Antioch

asserted, with religious confidence, that the powerful

intercession of St. Babylas had pointed the lightnings of heaven

against the devoted roof: but as Julian was reduced to the

alternative of believing either a crime or a miracle, he chose,

without hesitation, without evidence, but with some color of

probability, to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of the

Galilæans. 114 Their offence, had it been sufficiently proved,

might have justified the retaliation, which was immediately

executed by the order of Julian, of shutting the doors, and

confiscating the wealth, of the cathedral of Antioch. To discover

the criminals who were guilty of the tumult, of the fire, or of

secreting the riches of the church, several of the ecclesiastics

were tortured; 115 and a Presbyter, of the name of Theodoret, was

beheaded by the sentence of the Count of the East. But this hasty

act was blamed by the emperor; who lamented, with real or

affected concern, that the imprudent zeal of his ministers would

tarnish his reign with the disgrace of persecution. 116

111 (return) [ Julian (Misopogon, p. 367, 362) discovers his own

character with _naïveté_, that unconscious simplicity which

always constitutes genuine humor.]

112 (return) [ Babylas is named by Eusebius in the succession of

the bishops of Antioch, (Hist. Eccles. l. vi. c. 29, 39.) His

triumph over two emperors (the first fabulous, the second

historical) is diffusely celebrated by Chrysostom, (tom. ii. p.

536-579, edit. Montfaucon.) Tillemont (Mém. Eccles. tom. iii.

part ii. p. 287-302, 459-465) becomes almost a sceptic.]

113 (return) [ Ecclesiastical critics, particularly those who

love relics, exult in the confession of Julian (Misopogon, p.

361) and Libanius, (Lænia, p. 185,) that Apollo was disturbed by

the vicinity of _one_ dead man. Yet Ammianus (xxii. 12) clears

and purifies the whole ground, according to the rites which the

Athenians formerly practised in the Isle of Delos.]

114 (return) [ Julian (in Misopogon, p. 361) rather insinuates,

than affirms, their guilt. Ammianus (xxii. 13) treats the

imputation as _levissimus rumor_, and relates the story with

extraordinary candor.]

115 (return) [ Quo tam atroci casu repente consumpto, ad id usque

e imperatoris ira provexit, ut quæstiones agitare juberet solito

acriores, (yet Julian blames the lenity of the magistrates of

Antioch,) et majorem ecclesiam Antiochiæ claudi. This

interdiction was performed with some circumstances of indignity

and profanation; and the seasonable death of the principal actor,

Julian’s uncle, is related with much superstitious complacency by

the Abbé de la Bleterie. Vie de Julien, p. 362-369.]

116 (return) [ Besides the ecclesiastical historians, who are

more or less to be suspected, we may allege the passion of St.

Theodore, in the Acta Sincera of Ruinart, p. 591. The complaint

of Julian gives it an original and authentic air.]

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part V.

The zeal of the ministers of Julian was instantly checked by the

frown of their sovereign; but when the father of his country

declares himself the leader of a faction, the license of popular

fury cannot easily be restrained, nor consistently punished.

Julian, in a public composition, applauds the devotion and

loyalty of the holy cities of Syria, whose pious inhabitants had

destroyed, at the first signal, the sepulchres of the Galilæans;

and faintly complains, that they had revenged the injuries of the

gods with less moderation than he should have recommended. 117

This imperfect and reluctant confession may appear to confirm the

ecclesiastical narratives; that in the cities of Gaza, Ascalon,

Cæsarea, Heliopolis, &c., the Pagans abused, without prudence or

remorse, the moment of their prosperity. That the unhappy objects

of their cruelty were released from torture only by death; and as

their mangled bodies were dragged through the streets, they were

pierced (such was the universal rage) by the spits of cooks, and

the distaffs of enraged women; and that the entrails of Christian

priests and virgins, after they had been tasted by those bloody

fanatics, were mixed with barley, and contemptuously thrown to

the unclean animals of the city. 118 Such scenes of religious

madness exhibit the most contemptible and odious picture of human

nature; but the massacre of Alexandria attracts still more

attention, from the certainty of the fact, the rank of the

victims, and the splendor of the capital of Egypt.

117 (return) [ Julian. Misopogon, p. 361.]

118 (return) [ See Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iii. p. 87.) Sozomen

(l. v. c. 9) may be considered as an original, though not

impartial, witness. He was a native of Gaza, and had conversed

with the confessor Zeno, who, as bishop of Maiuma, lived to the

age of a hundred, (l. vii. c. 28.) Philostorgius (l. vii. c. 4,

with Godefroy’s Dissertations, p. 284) adds some tragic

circumstances, of Christians who were _literally_ sacrificed at

the altars of the gods, &c.]

George, 119 from his parents or his education, surnamed the

Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller’s

shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by

the talents of a parasite; and the patrons, whom he assiduously

flattered, procured for their worthless dependent a lucrative

commission, or contract, to supply the army with bacon. His

employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated

wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his

malversations were so notorious, that George was compelled to

escape from the pursuits of justice. After this disgrace, in

which he appears to have saved his fortune at the expense of his

honor, he embraced, with real or affected zeal, the profession of

Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation, of learning, he

collected a valuable library of history rhetoric, philosophy, and

theology, 120 and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted

George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of

the new archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror; and each

moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The

Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant,

qualified, by nature and education, to exercise the office of

persecution; but he oppressed with an impartial hand the various

inhabitants of his extensive diocese. The primate of Egypt

assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty station; but he still

betrayed the vices of his base and servile extraction. The

merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust, and

almost universal, monopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt,

paper, funerals, &c.: and the spiritual father of a great people

condescended to practise the vile and pernicious arts of an

informer. The Alexandrians could never forget, nor forgive, the

tax, which he suggested, on all the houses of the city; under an

obsolete claim, that the royal founder had conveyed to his

successors, the Ptolemies and the Cæsars, the perpetual property

of the soil. The Pagans, who had been flattered with the hopes of

freedom and toleration, excited his devout avarice; and the rich

temples of Alexandria were either pillaged or insulted by the

haughty prince, who exclaimed, in a loud and threatening tone,

“How long will these sepulchres be permitted to stand?” Under the

reign of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury, or rather by

the justice, of the people; and it was not without a violent

struggle, that the civil and military powers of the state could

restore his authority, and gratify his revenge. The messenger who

proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of Julian, announced the

downfall of the archbishop. George, with two of his obsequious

ministers, Count Diodorus, and Dracontius, master of the mint

were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public prison. At the

end of twenty-four days, the prison was forced open by the rage

of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms of

judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and men expired under

their cruel insults; the lifeless bodies of the archbishop and

his associates were carried in triumph through the streets on the

back of a camel; 12011 and the inactivity of the Athanasian party

121 was esteemed a shining example of evangelical patience. The

remains of these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea; and

the popular leaders of the tumult declared their resolution to

disappoint the devotion of the Christians, and to intercept the

future honors of these _martyrs_, who had been punished, like

their predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. 122 The

fears of the Pagans were just, and their precautions ineffectual.

The meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of

his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the

Arians, and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced

his worship into the bosom of the Catholic church. 123 The odious

stranger, disguising every circumstance of time and place,

assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero; 124

and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed 125

into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of

chivalry, and of the garter. 126

119 (return) [ The life and death of George of Cappadocia are

described by Ammianus, (xxii. 11,) Gregory of Nazianzen, (Orat.

xxi. p. 382, 385, 389, 390,) and Epiphanius, (Hæres. lxxvi.) The

invectives of the two saints might not deserve much credit,

unless they were confirmed by the testimony of the cool and

impartial infidel.]

120 (return) [ After the massacre of George, the emperor Julian

repeatedly sent orders to preserve the library for his own use,

and to torture the slaves who might be suspected of secreting any

books. He praises the merit of the collection, from whence he had

borrowed and transcribed several manuscripts while he pursued his

studies in Cappadocia. He could wish, indeed, that the works of

the Galiæans might perish but he requires an exact account even

of those theological volumes lest other treatises more valuable

should be confounded in their less Julian. Epist. ix. xxxvi.]

12011 (return) [ Julian himself says, that they tore him to

pieces like dogs, Epist. x.—M.]

121 (return) [ Philostorgius, with cautious malice, insinuates

their guilt, l. vii. c. ii. Godefroy p. 267.]

122 (return) [ Cineres projecit in mare, id metuens ut clamabat,

ne, collectis supremis, ædes illis exstruerentur ut reliquis, qui

deviare a religione compulsi, pertulere, cruciabiles pœnas,

adusque gloriosam mortem intemeratâ fide progressi, et nunc

Martyres appellantur. Ammian. xxii. 11. Epiphanius proves to the

Arians, that George was not a martyr.]

123 (return) [ Some Donatists (Optatus Milev. p. 60, 303, edit.

Dupin; and Tillemont, Mém. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 713, in 4to.) and

Priscillianists (Tillemont, Mém. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 517, in

4to.) have in like manner usurped the honors of the Catholic

saints and martyrs.]

124 (return) [ The saints of Cappadocia, Basil, and the

Gregories, were ignorant of their holy companion. Pope Gelasius,

(A. D. 494,) the first Catholic who acknowledges St. George,

places him among the martyrs “qui Deo magis quam hominibus noti

sunt.” He rejects his Acts as the composition of heretics. Some,

perhaps, not the oldest, of the spurious Acts, are still extant;

and, through a cloud of fiction, we may yet distinguish the

combat which St. George of Cappadocia sustained, in the presence

of Queen _Alexandria_, against the _magician Athanasius_.]

125 (return) [ This transformation is not given as absolutely

certain, but as _extremely_ probable. See the Longueruana, tom.

i. p. 194. ——Note: The late Dr. Milner (the Roman Catholic

bishop) wrote a tract to vindicate the existence and the

orthodoxy of the tutelar saint of England. He succeeds, I think,

in tracing the worship of St. George up to a period which makes

it improbable that so notorious an Arian could be palmed upon the

Catholic church as a saint and a martyr. The Acts rejected by

Gelasius may have been of Arian origin, and designed to ingraft

the story of their hero on the obscure adventures of some earlier

saint. See an Historical and Critical Inquiry into the Existence

and Character of Saint George, in a letter to the Earl of

Leicester, by the Rev. J. Milner. F. S. A. London 1792.—M.]

126 (return) [ A curious history of the worship of St. George,

from the sixth century, (when he was already revered in

Palestine, in Armenia at Rome, and at Treves in Gaul,) might be

extracted from Dr. Heylin (History of St. George, 2d edition,

London, 1633, in 4to. p. 429) and the Bollandists, (Act. Ss.

Mens. April. tom. iii. p. 100-163.) His fame and popularity in

Europe, and especially in England, proceeded from the Crusades.]

About the same time that Julian was informed of the tumult of

Alexandria, he received intelligence from Edessa, that the proud

and wealthy faction of the Arians had insulted the weakness of

the Valentinians, and committed such disorders as ought not to be

suffered with impunity in a well-regulated state. Without

expecting the slow forms of justice, the exasperated prince

directed his mandate to the magistrates of Edessa, 127 by which

he confiscated the whole property of the church: the money was

distributed among the soldiers; the lands were added to the

domain; and this act of oppression was aggravated by the most

ungenerous irony. “I show myself,” says Julian, “the true friend

of the Galilæans. Their _admirable_ law has promised the kingdom

of heaven to the poor; and they will advance with more diligence

in the paths of virtue and salvation, when they are relieved by

my assistance from the load of temporal possessions. Take care,”

pursued the monarch, in a more serious tone, “take care how you

provoke my patience and humanity. If these disorders continue, I

will revenge on the magistrates the crimes of the people; and you

will have reason to dread, not only confiscation and exile, but

fire and the sword.” The tumults of Alexandria were doubtless of

a more bloody and dangerous nature: but a Christian bishop had

fallen by the hands of the Pagans; and the public epistle of

Julian affords a very lively proof of the partial spirit of his

administration. His reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria are

mingled with expressions of esteem and tenderness; and he

laments, that, on this occasion, they should have departed from

the gentle and generous manners which attested their Grecian

extraction. He gravely censures the offence which they had

committed against the laws of justice and humanity; but he

recapitulates, with visible complacency, the intolerable

provocations which they had so long endured from the impious

tyranny of George of Cappadocia. Julian admits the principle,

that a wise and vigorous government should chastise the insolence

of the people; yet, in consideration of their founder Alexander,

and of Serapis their tutelar deity, he grants a free and gracious

pardon to the guilty city, for which he again feels the affection

of a brother. 128

127 (return) [ Julian. Epist. xliii.]

128 (return) [ Julian. Epist. x. He allowed his friends to

assuage his anger Ammian. xxii. 11.]

After the tumult of Alexandria had subsided, Athanasius, amidst

the public acclamations, seated himself on the throne from whence

his unworthy competitor had been precipitated: and as the zeal of

the archbishop was tempered with discretion, the exercise of his

authority tended not to inflame, but to reconcile, the minds of

the people. His pastoral labors were not confined to the narrow

limits of Egypt. The state of the Christian world was present to

his active and capacious mind; and the age, the merit, the

reputation of Athanasius, enabled him to assume, in a moment of

danger, the office of Ecclesiastical Dictator. 129 Three years

were not yet elapsed since the majority of the bishops of the

West had ignorantly, or reluctantly, subscribed the Confession of

Rimini. They repented, they believed, but they dreaded the

unseasonable rigor of their orthodox brethren; and if their pride

was stronger than their faith, they might throw themselves into

the arms of the Arians, to escape the indignity of a public

penance, which must degrade them to the condition of obscure

laymen. At the same time the domestic differences concerning the

union and distinction of the divine persons, were agitated with

some heat among the Catholic doctors; and the progress of this

metaphysical controversy seemed to threaten a public and lasting

division of the Greek and Latin churches. By the wisdom of a

select synod, to which the name and presence of Athanasius gave

the authority of a general council, the bishops, who had unwarily

deviated into error, were admitted to the communion of the

church, on the easy condition of subscribing the Nicene Creed;

without any formal acknowledgment of their past fault, or any

minute definition of their scholastic opinions. The advice of the

primate of Egypt had already prepared the clergy of Gaul and

Spain, of Italy and Greece, for the reception of this salutary

measure; and, notwithstanding the opposition of some ardent

spirits, 130 the fear of the common enemy promoted the peace and

harmony of the Christians. 131

129 (return) [ See Athanas. ad Rufin. tom. ii. p. 40, 41, and

Greg. Nazianzen Orat. iii. p. 395, 396; who justly states the

temperate zeal of the primate, as much more meritorious than his

prayers, his fasts, his persecutions, &c.]

130 (return) [ I have not leisure to follow the blind obstinacy

of Lucifer of Cagliari. See his adventures in Tillemont, (Mém.

Eccles. tom. vii. p. 900-926;) and observe how the color of the

narrative insensibly changes, as the confessor becomes a

schismatic.]

131 (return) [ Assensus est huic sententiæ Occidens, et, per tam

necessarium conilium, Satanæ faucibus mundus ereptus. The lively

and artful dialogue of Jerom against the Luciferians (tom. ii. p.

135-155) exhibits an original picture of the ecclesiastical

policy of the times.]

The skill and diligence of the primate of Egypt had improved the

season of tranquillity, before it was interrupted by the hostile

edicts of the emperor. 132 Julian, who despised the Christians,

honored Athanasius with his sincere and peculiar hatred. For his

sake alone, he introduced an arbitrary distinction, repugnant at

least to the spirit of his former declarations. He maintained,

that the Galilæans, whom he had recalled from exile, were not

restored, by that general indulgence, to the possession of their

respective churches; and he expressed his astonishment, that a

criminal, who had been repeatedly condemned by the judgment of

the emperors, should dare to insult the majesty of the laws, and

insolently usurp the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria, without

expecting the orders of his sovereign. As a punishment for the

imaginary offence, he again banished Athanasius from the city;

and he was pleased to suppose, that this act of justice would be

highly agreeable to his pious subjects. The pressing

solicitations of the people soon convinced him, that the majority

of the Alexandrians were Christians; and that the greatest part

of the Christians were firmly attached to the cause of their

oppressed primate. But the knowledge of their sentiments, instead

of persuading him to recall his decree, provoked him to extend to

all Egypt the term of the exile of Athanasius. The zeal of the

multitude rendered Julian still more inexorable: he was alarmed

by the danger of leaving at the head of a tumultuous city, a

daring and popular leader; and the language of his resentment

discovers the opinion which he entertained of the courage and

abilities of Athanasius. The execution of the sentence was still

delayed, by the caution or negligence of Ecdicius, præfect of

Egypt, who was at length awakened from his lethargy by a severe

reprimand. “Though you neglect,” says Julian, “to write to me on

any other subject, at least it is your duty to inform me of your

conduct towards Athanasius, the enemy of the gods. My intentions

have been long since communicated to you. I swear by the great

Serapis, that unless, on the calends of December, Athanasius has

departed from Alexandria, nay, from Egypt, the officers of your

government shall pay a fine of one hundred pounds of gold. You

know my temper: I am slow to condemn, but I am still slower to

forgive.” This epistle was enforced by a short postscript,

written with the emperor’s own hand. “The contempt that is shown

for all the gods fills me with grief and indignation. There is

nothing that I should see, nothing that I should hear, with more

pleasure, than the expulsion of Athanasius from all Egypt. The

abominable wretch! Under my reign, the baptism of several Grecian

ladies of the highest rank has been the effect of his

persecutions.” 133 The death of Athanasius was not _expressly_

commanded; but the præfect of Egypt understood that it was safer

for him to exceed, than to neglect, the orders of an irritated

master. The archbishop prudently retired to the monasteries of

the Desert; eluded, with his usual dexterity, the snares of the

enemy; and lived to triumph over the ashes of a prince, who, in

words of formidable import, had declared his wish that the whole

venom of the Galilæan school were contained in the single person

of Athanasius. 134 13411

132 (return) [ Tillemont, who supposes that George was massacred

in August crowds the actions of Athanasius into a narrow space,

(Mém. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 360.) An original fragment, published

by the Marquis Maffei, from the old Chapter library of Verona,

(Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. iii. p. 60-92,) affords many

important dates, which are authenticated by the computation of

Egyptian months.]

133 (return) [ I have preserved the ambiguous sense of the last

word, the ambiguity of a tyrant who wished to find, or to create,

guilt.]

134 (return) [ The three epistles of Julian, which explain his

intentions and conduct with regard to Athanasius, should be

disposed in the following chronological order, xxvi. x. vi. * See

likewise, Greg. Nazianzen xxi. p. 393. Sozomen, l. v. c. 15.

Socrates, l. iii. c. 14. Theodoret, l iii. c. 9, and Tillemont,

Mém. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 361-368, who has used some materials

prepared by the Bollandists.]

13411 (return) [ The sentence in the text is from Epist. li.

addressed to the people of Alexandria.—M.]

I have endeavored faithfully to represent the artful system by

which Julian proposed to obtain the effects, without incurring

the guilt, or reproach, of persecution. But if the deadly spirit

of fanaticism perverted the heart and understanding of a virtuous

prince, it must, at the same time, be confessed that the _real_

sufferings of the Christians were inflamed and magnified by human

passions and religious enthusiasm. The meekness and resignation

which had distinguished the primitive disciples of the gospel,

was the object of the applause, rather than of the imitation of

their successors. The Christians, who had now possessed above

forty years the civil and ecclesiastical government of the

empire, had contracted the insolent vices of prosperity, 135 and

the habit of believing that the saints alone were entitled to

reign over the earth. As soon as the enmity of Julian deprived

the clergy of the privileges which had been conferred by the

favor of Constantine, they complained of the most cruel

oppression; and the free toleration of idolaters and heretics was

a subject of grief and scandal to the orthodox party. 136 The

acts of violence, which were no longer countenanced by the

magistrates, were still committed by the zeal of the people. At

Pessinus, the altar of Cybele was overturned almost in the

presence of the emperor; and in the city of Cæsarea in

Cappadocia, the temple of Fortune, the sole place of worship

which had been left to the Pagans, was destroyed by the rage of a

popular tumult. On these occasions, a prince, who felt for the

honor of the gods, was not disposed to interrupt the course of

justice; and his mind was still more deeply exasperated, when he

found that the fanatics, who had deserved and suffered the

punishment of incendiaries, were rewarded with the honors of

martyrdom. 137 The Christian subjects of Julian were assured of

the hostile designs of their sovereign; and, to their jealous

apprehension, every circumstance of his government might afford

some grounds of discontent and suspicion. In the ordinary

administration of the laws, the Christians, who formed so large a

part of the people, must frequently be condemned: but their

indulgent brethren, without examining the merits of the cause,

presumed their innocence, allowed their claims, and imputed the

severity of their judge to the partial malice of religious

persecution. 138 These present hardships, intolerable as they

might appear, were represented as a slight prelude of the

impending calamities. The Christians considered Julian as a cruel

and crafty tyrant; who suspended the execution of his revenge

till he should return victorious from the Persian war. They

expected, that as soon as he had triumphed over the foreign

enemies of Rome, he would lay aside the irksome mask of

dissimulation; that the amphitheatre would stream with the blood

of hermits and bishops; and that the Christians who still

persevered in the profession of the faith, would be deprived of

the common benefits of nature and society. 139 Every calumny 140

that could wound the reputation of the Apostate, was credulously

embraced by the fears and hatred of his adversaries; and their

indiscreet clamors provoked the temper of a sovereign, whom it

was their duty to respect, and their interest to flatter.

They still protested, that prayers and tears were their only

weapons against the impious tyrant, whose head they devoted to

the justice of offended Heaven. But they insinuated, with sullen

resolution, that their submission was no longer the effect of

weakness; and that, in the imperfect state of human virtue, the

patience, which is founded on principle, may be exhausted by

persecution. It is impossible to determine how far the zeal of

Julian would have prevailed over his good sense and humanity; but

if we seriously reflect on the strength and spirit of the church,

we shall be convinced, that before the emperor could have

extinguished the religion of Christ, he must have involved his

country in the horrors of a civil war. 141

135 (return) [ See the fair confession of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p.

61, 62.)]

136 (return) [ Hear the furious and absurd complaint of Optatus,

(de Schismat Denatist. l. ii. c. 16, 17.)]

137 (return) [ Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 91, iv. p. 133. He

praises the rioters of Cæsarea. See Sozomen, l. v. 4, 11.

Tillemont (Mém. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 649, 650) owns, that their

behavior was not dans l’ordre commun: but he is perfectly

satisfied, as the great St. Basil always celebrated the festival

of these blessed martyrs.]

138 (return) [ Julian determined a lawsuit against the new

Christian city at Maiuma, the port of Gaza; and his sentence,

though it might be imputed to bigotry, was never reversed by his

successors. Sozomen, l. v. c. 3. Reland, Palestin. tom. ii. p.

791.]

139 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 93, 94, 95. Orat. iv. p.

114) pretends to speak from the information of Julian’s

confidants, whom Orosius (vii. 30) could not have seen.]

140 (return) [ Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 91) charges the Apostate

with secret sacrifices of boys and girls; and positively affirms,

that the dead bodies were thrown into the Orontes. See Theodoret,

l. iii. c. 26, 27; and the equivocal candor of the Abbé de la

Bleterie, Vie de Julien, p. 351, 352. Yet _contemporary_ malice

could not impute to Julian the troops of martyrs, more especially

in the West, which Baronius so greedily swallows, and Tillemont

so faintly rejects, (Mém. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1295-1315.)]

141 (return) [ The resignation of Gregory is truly edifying,

(Orat. iv. p. 123, 124.) Yet, when an officer of Julian attempted

to seize the church of Nazianzus, he would have lost his life, if

he had not yielded to the zeal of the bishop and people, (Orat.

xix. p. 308.) See the reflections of Chrysostom, as they are

alleged by Tillemont, (Mém. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 575.)]

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

Residence Of Julian At Antioch.—His Successful Expedition Against

The Persians.—Passage Of The Tigris—The Retreat And Death Of

Julian.—Election Of Jovian.—He Saves The Roman Army By A

Disgraceful Treaty.

The philosophical fable which Julian composed under the name of

the Cæsars, 1 is one of the most agreeable and instructive

productions of ancient wit. 2 During the freedom and equality of

the days of the Saturnalia, Romulus prepared a feast for the

deities of Olympus, who had adopted him as a worthy associate,

and for the Roman princes, who had reigned over his martial

people, and the vanquished nations of the earth. The immortals

were placed in just order on their thrones of state, and the

table of the Cæsars was spread below the Moon in the upper region

of the air. The tyrants, who would have disgraced the society of

gods and men, were thrown headlong, by the inexorable Nemesis,

into the Tartarean abyss. The rest of the Cæsars successively

advanced to their seats; and as they passed, the vices, the

defects, the blemishes of their respective characters, were

maliciously noticed by old Silenus, a laughing moralist, who

disguised the wisdom of a philosopher under the mask of a

Bacchanal. 3 As soon as the feast was ended, the voice of Mercury

proclaimed the will of Jupiter, that a celestial crown should be

the reward of superior merit. Julius Cæsar, Augustus, Trajan, and

Marcus Antoninus, were selected as the most illustrious

candidates; the effeminate Constantine 4 was not excluded from

this honorable competition, and the great Alexander was invited

to dispute the prize of glory with the Roman heroes. Each of the

candidates was allowed to display the merit of his own exploits;

but, in the judgment of the gods, the modest silence of Marcus

pleaded more powerfully than the elaborate orations of his

haughty rivals. When the judges of this awful contest proceeded

to examine the heart, and to scrutinize the springs of action,

the superiority of the Imperial Stoic appeared still more

decisive and conspicuous. 5 Alexander and Cæsar, Augustus,

Trajan, and Constantine, acknowledged, with a blush, that fame,

or power, or pleasure had been the important object of _their_

labors: but the gods themselves beheld, with reverence and love,

a virtuous mortal, who had practised on the throne the lessons of

philosophy; and who, in a state of human imperfection, had

aspired to imitate the moral attributes of the Deity. The value

of this agreeable composition (the Cæsars of Julian) is enhanced

by the rank of the author. A prince, who delineates, with

freedom, the vices and virtues of his predecessors, subscribes,

in every line, the censure or approbation of his own conduct.

1 (return) [ See this fable or satire, p. 306-336 of the Leipsig

edition of Julian’s works. The French version of the learned

Ezekiel Spanheim (Paris, 1683) is coarse, languid, and correct;

and his notes, proofs, illustrations, &c., are piled on each

other till they form a mass of 557 close-printed quarto pages.

The Abbé’ de la Bleterie (Vie de Jovien, tom. i. p. 241-393) has

more happily expressed the spirit, as well as the sense, of the

original, which he illustrates with some concise and curious

notes.]

2 (return) [ Spanheim (in his preface) has most learnedly

discussed the etymology, origin, resemblance, and disagreement of

the Greek _satyrs_, a dramatic piece, which was acted after the

tragedy; and the Latin _satires_, (from _Satura_,) a

_miscellaneous_ composition, either in prose or verse. But the

Cæsars of Julian are of such an original cast, that the critic is

perplexed to which class he should ascribe them. * Note: See also

Casaubon de Satira, with Rambach’s observations.—M.]

3 (return) [ This mixed character of Silenus is finely painted in

the sixth eclogue of Virgil.]

4 (return) [ Every impartial reader must perceive and condemn the

partiality of Julian against his uncle Constantine, and the

Christian religion. On this occasion, the interpreters are

compelled, by a most sacred interest, to renounce their

allegiance, and to desert the cause of their author.]

5 (return) [ Julian was secretly inclined to prefer a Greek to a

Roman. But when he seriously compared a hero with a philosopher,

he was sensible that mankind had much greater obligations to

Socrates than to Alexander, (Orat. ad Themistium, p. 264.)]

In the cool moments of reflection, Julian preferred the useful

and benevolent virtues of Antoninus; but his ambitious spirit was

inflamed by the glory of Alexander; and he solicited, with equal

ardor, the esteem of the wise, and the applause of the multitude.

In the season of life when the powers of the mind and body enjoy

the most active vigor, the emperor who was instructed by the

experience, and animated by the success, of the German war,

resolved to signalize his reign by some more splendid and

memorable achievement. The ambassadors of the East, from the

continent of India, and the Isle of Ceylon, 6 had respectfully

saluted the Roman purple. 7 The nations of the West esteemed and

dreaded the personal virtues of Julian, both in peace and war. He

despised the trophies of a Gothic victory, and was satisfied that

the rapacious Barbarians of the Danube would be restrained from

any future violation of the faith of treaties by the terror of

his name, and the additional fortifications with which he

strengthened the Thracian and Illyrian frontiers. The successor

of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only rival whom he deemed worthy

of his arms; and he resolved, by the final conquest of Persia, to

chastise the naughty nation which had so long resisted and

insulted the majesty of Rome. 9 As soon as the Persian monarch

was informed that the throne of Constantius was filled by a

prince of a very different character, he condescended to make

some artful, or perhaps sincere, overtures towards a negotiation

of peace. But the pride of Sapor was astonished by the firmness

of Julian; who sternly declared, that he would never consent to

hold a peaceful conference among the flames and ruins of the

cities of Mesopotamia; and who added, with a smile of contempt,

that it was needless to treat by ambassadors, as he himself had

determined to visit speedily the court of Persia. The impatience

of the emperor urged the diligence of the military preparations.

The generals were named; and Julian, marching from Constantinople

through the provinces of Asia Minor, arrived at Antioch about

eight months after the death of his predecessor. His ardent

desire to march into the heart of Persia, was checked by the

indispensable duty of regulating the state of the empire; by his

zeal to revive the worship of the gods; and by the advice of his

wisest friends; who represented the necessity of allowing the

salutary interval of winter quarters, to restore the exhausted

strength of the legions of Gaul, and the discipline and spirit of

the Eastern troops. Julian was persuaded to fix, till the ensuing

spring, his residence at Antioch, among a people maliciously

disposed to deride the haste, and to censure the delays, of their

sovereign. 10

6 (return) [ Inde nationibus Indicis certatim cum aonis optimates

mittentibus.... ab usque Divis et _Serendivis_. Ammian. xx. 7.

This island, to which the names of Taprobana, Serendib, and

Ceylon, have been successively applied, manifests how imperfectly

the seas and lands to the east of Cape Comorin were known to the

Romans. 1. Under the reign of Claudius, a freedman, who farmed

the customs of the Red Sea, was accidentally driven by the winds

upon this strange and undiscovered coast: he conversed six months

with the natives; and the king of Ceylon, who heard, for the

first time, of the power and justice of Rome, was persuaded to

send an embassy to the emperor. (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 24.) 2. The

geographers (and even Ptolemy) have magnified, above fifteen

times, the real size of this new world, which they extended as

far as the equator, and the neighborhood of China. * Note: The

name of Diva gens or Divorum regio, according to the probable

conjecture of M. Letronne, (Trois Mém. Acad. p. 127,) was applied

by the ancients to the whole eastern coast of the Indian

Peninsula, from Ceylon to the Canges. The name may be traced in

Devipatnam, Devidan, Devicotta, Divinelly, the point of Divy.——M.

Letronne, p.121, considers the freedman with his embassy from

Ceylon to have been an impostor.—M.]

7 (return) [ These embassies had been sent to Constantius.

Ammianus, who unwarily deviates into gross flattery, must have

forgotten the length of the way, and the short duration of the

reign of Julian. ——Gothos sæpe fallaces et perfidos; hostes

quærere se meliores aiebat: illis enim sufficere mercators

Galatas per quos ubique sine conditionis discrimine venumdantur.

(Ammian. xxii. 7.) Within less than fifteen years, these Gothic

slaves threatened and subdued their masters.]

9 (return) [ Alexander reminds his rival Cæsar, who depreciated

the fame and merit of an Asiatic victory, that Crassus and Antony

had felt the Persian arrows; and that the Romans, in a war of

three hundred years, had not yet subdued the single province of

Mesopotamia or Assyria, (Cæsares, p. 324.)]

10 (return) [ The design of the Persian war is declared by

Ammianus, (xxii. 7, 12,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 79, 80, p.

305, 306,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 158,) and Socrates, (l. iii. c.

19.)]

If Julian had flattered himself, that his personal connection

with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual

satisfaction to the prince and people, he made a very false

estimate of his own character, and of the manners of Antioch. 11

The warmth of the climate disposed the natives to the most

intemperate enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence; and the

lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with the

hereditary softness of the Syrians. Fashion was the only law,

pleasure the only pursuit, and the splendor of dress and

furniture was the only distinction of the citizens of Antioch.

The arts of luxury were honored; the serious and manly virtues

were the subject of ridicule; and the contempt for female modesty

and reverent age announced the universal corruption of the

capital of the East. The love of spectacles was the taste, or

rather passion, of the Syrians; the most skilful artists were

procured from the adjacent cities; 12 a considerable share of the

revenue was devoted to the public amusements; and the

magnificence of the games of the theatre and circus was

considered as the happiness and as the glory of Antioch. The

rustic manners of a prince who disdained such glory, and was

insensible of such happiness, soon disgusted the delicacy of his

subjects; and the effeminate Orientals could neither imitate, nor

admire, the severe simplicity which Julian always maintained, and

sometimes affected. The days of festivity, consecrated, by

ancient custom, to the honor of the gods, were the only occasions

in which Julian relaxed his philosophic severity; and those

festivals were the only days in which the Syrians of Antioch

could reject the allurements of pleasure. The majority of the

people supported the glory of the Christian name, which had been

first invented by their ancestors: 13 they contended themselves

with disobeying the moral precepts, but they were scrupulously

attached to the speculative doctrines of their religion. The

church of Antioch was distracted by heresy and schism; but the

Arians and the Athanasians, the followers of Meletius and those

of Paulinus, 14 were actuated by the same pious hatred of their

common adversary.

11 (return) [ The Satire of Julian, and the Homilies of St.

Chrysostom, exhibit the same picture of Antioch. The miniature

which the Abbé de la Bleterie has copied from thence, (Vie de

Julian, p. 332,) is elegant and correct.]

12 (return) [ Laodicea furnished charioteers; Tyre and Berytus,

comedians; Cæsarea, pantomimes; Heliopolis, singers; Gaza,

gladiators, Ascalon, wrestlers; and Castabala, rope-dancers. See

the Expositio totius Mundi, p. 6, in the third tome of Hudson’s

Minor Geographers.]

13 (return) [ The people of Antioch ingenuously professed their

attachment to the _Chi_, (Christ,) and the _Kappa_,

(Constantius.) Julian in Misopogon, p. 357.]

14 (return) [ The schism of Antioch, which lasted eighty-five

years, (A. D. 330-415,) was inflamed, while Julian resided in

that city, by the indiscreet ordination of Paulinus. See

Tillemont, Mém. Eccles. tom. iii. p. 803 of the quarto edition,

(Paris, 1701, &c,) which henceforward I shall quote.]

The strongest prejudice was entertained against the character of

an apostate, the enemy and successor of a prince who had engaged

the affections of a very numerous sect; and the removal of St.

Babylas excited an implacable opposition to the person of Julian.

His subjects complained, with superstitious indignation, that

famine had pursued the emperor’s steps from Constantinople to

Antioch; and the discontent of a hungry people was exasperated by

the injudicious attempt to relieve their distress. The inclemency

of the season had affected the harvests of Syria; and the price

of bread, 15 in the markets of Antioch, had naturally risen in

proportion to the scarcity of corn. But the fair and reasonable

proportion was soon violated by the rapacious arts of monopoly.

In this unequal contest, in which the produce of the land is

claimed by one party as his exclusive property, is used by

another as a lucrative object of trade, and is required by a

third for the daily and necessary support of life, all the

profits of the intermediate agents are accumulated on the head of

the defenceless customers. The hardships of their situation were

exaggerated and increased by their own impatience and anxiety;

and the apprehension of a scarcity gradually produced the

appearances of a famine. When the luxurious citizens of Antioch

complained of the high price of poultry and fish, Julian publicly

declared, that a frugal city ought to be satisfied with a regular

supply of wine, oil, and bread; but he acknowledged, that it was

the duty of a sovereign to provide for the subsistence of his

people. With this salutary view, the emperor ventured on a very

dangerous and doubtful step, of fixing, by legal authority, the

value of corn. He enacted, that, in a time of scarcity, it should

be sold at a price which had seldom been known in the most

plentiful years; and that his own example might strengthen his

laws, he sent into the market four hundred and twenty-two

thousand _modii_, or measures, which were drawn by his order from

the granaries of Hierapolis, of Chalcis, and even of Egypt. The

consequences might have been foreseen, and were soon felt. The

Imperial wheat was purchased by the rich merchants; the

proprietors of land, or of corn, withheld from the city the

accustomed supply; and the small quantities that appeared in the

market were secretly sold at an advanced and illegal price.

Julian still continued to applaud his own policy, treated the

complaints of the people as a vain and ungrateful murmur, and

convinced Antioch that he had inherited the obstinacy, though not

the cruelty, of his brother Gallus. 16 The remonstrances of the

municipal senate served only to exasperate his inflexible mind.

He was persuaded, perhaps with truth, that the senators of

Antioch who possessed lands, or were concerned in trade, had

themselves contributed to the calamities of their country; and he

imputed the disrespectful boldness which they assumed, to the

sense, not of public duty, but of private interest. The whole

body, consisting of two hundred of the most noble and wealthy

citizens, were sent, under a guard, from the palace to the

prison; and though they were permitted, before the close of

evening, to return to their respective houses, 17 the emperor

himself could not obtain the forgiveness which he had so easily

granted. The same grievances were still the subject of the same

complaints, which were industriously circulated by the wit and

levity of the Syrian Greeks. During the licentious days of the

Saturnalia, the streets of the city resounded with insolent

songs, which derided the laws, the religion, the personal

conduct, and even the _beard_, of the emperor; the spirit of

Antioch was manifested by the connivance of the magistrates, and

the applause of the multitude. 18 The disciple of Socrates was

too deeply affected by these popular insults; but the monarch,

endowed with a quick sensibility, and possessed of absolute

power, refused his passions the gratification of revenge. A

tyrant might have proscribed, without distinction, the lives and

fortunes of the citizens of Antioch; and the unwarlike Syrians

must have patiently submitted to the lust, the rapaciousness and

the cruelty, of the faithful legions of Gaul. A milder sentence

might have deprived the capital of the East of its honors and

privileges; and the courtiers, perhaps the subjects, of Julian,

would have applauded an act of justice, which asserted the

dignity of the supreme magistrate of the republic. 19 But instead

of abusing, or exerting, the authority of the state, to revenge

his personal injuries, Julian contented himself with an

inoffensive mode of retaliation, which it would be in the power

of few princes to employ. He had been insulted by satires and

libels; in his turn, he composed, under the title of the _Enemy

of the Beard_, an ironical confession of his own faults, and a

severe satire on the licentious and effeminate manners of

Antioch. This Imperial reply was publicly exposed before the

gates of the palace; and the Misopogon 20 still remains a

singular monument of the resentment, the wit, the humanity, and

the indiscretion of Julian. Though he affected to laugh, he could

not forgive. 21 His contempt was expressed, and his revenge might

be gratified, by the nomination of a governor 22 worthy only of

such subjects; and the emperor, forever renouncing the ungrateful

city, proclaimed his resolution to pass the ensuing winter at

Tarsus in Cilicia. 23

15 (return) [ Julian states three different proportions, of five,

ten, or fifteen _modii_ of wheat for one piece of gold, according

to the degrees of plenty and scarcity, (in Misopogon, p. 369.)

From this fact, and from some collateral examples, I conclude,

that under the successors of Constantine, the moderate price of

wheat was about thirty-two shillings the English quarter, which

is equal to the average price of the sixty-four first years of

the present century. See Arbuthnot’s Tables of Coins, Weights,

and Measures, p. 88, 89. Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 12. Mém. de

l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 718-721. Smith’s

Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, vol.

i. p 246. This last I am proud to quote as the work of a sage and

a friend.]

16 (return) [ Nunquam a proposito declinabat, Galli similis

fratris, licet incruentus. Ammian. xxii. 14. The ignorance of the

most enlightened princes may claim some excuse; but we cannot be

satisfied with Julian’s own defence, (in Misopogon, p. 363, 369,)

or the elaborate apology of Libanius, (Orat. Parental c. xcvii.

p. 321.)]

17 (return) [ Their short and easy confinement is gently touched

by Libanius, (Orat. Parental. c. xcviii. p. 322, 323.)]

18 (return) [ Libanius, (ad Antiochenos de Imperatoris ira, c.

17, 18, 19, in Fabricius, Bibliot. Græc. tom. vii. p. 221-223,)

like a skilful advocate, severely censures the folly of the

people, who suffered for the crime of a few obscure and drunken

wretches.]

19 (return) [ Libanius (ad Antiochen. c. vii. p. 213) reminds

Antioch of the recent chastisement of Cæsarea; and even Julian

(in Misopogon, p. 355) insinuates how severely Tarentum had

expiated the insult to the Roman ambassadors.]

20 (return) [ On the subject of the Misopogon, see Ammianus,

(xxii. 14,) Libanius, (Orat. Parentalis, c. xcix. p. 323,)

Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 133) and the Chronicle of

Antioch, by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 15, 16.) I have essential

obligations to the translation and notes of the Abbé de la

Bleterie, (Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 1-138.)]

21 (return) [ Ammianus very justly remarks, Coactus dissimulare

pro tempore ira sufflabatur interna. The elaborate irony of

Julian at length bursts forth into serious and direct invective.]

22 (return) [ Ipse autem Antiochiam egressurus, Heliopoliten

quendam Alexandrum Syriacæ jurisdictioni præfecit, turbulentum et

sævum; dicebatque non illum meruisse, sed Antiochensibus avaris

et contumeliosis hujusmodi judicem convenire. Ammian. xxiii. 2.

Libanius, (Epist. 722, p. 346, 347,) who confesses to Julian

himself, that he had shared the general discontent, pretends that

Alexander was a useful, though harsh, reformer of the manners and

religion of Antioch.]

23 (return) [ Julian, in Misopogon, p. 364. Ammian. xxiii. 2, and

Valesius, ad loc. Libanius, in a professed oration, invites him

to return to his loyal and penitent city of Antioch.]

Yet Antioch possessed one citizen, whose genius and virtues might

atone, in the opinion of Julian, for the vice and folly of his

country. The sophist Libanius was born in the capital of the

East; he publicly professed the arts of rhetoric and declamation

at Nice, Nicomedia, Constantinople, Athens, and, during the

remainder of his life, at Antioch. His school was assiduously

frequented by the Grecian youth; his disciples, who sometimes

exceeded the number of eighty, celebrated their incomparable

master; and the jealousy of his rivals, who persecuted him from

one city to another, confirmed the favorable opinion which

Libanius ostentatiously displayed of his superior merit. The

preceptors of Julian had extorted a rash but solemn assurance,

that he would never attend the lectures of their adversary: the

curiosity of the royal youth was checked and inflamed: he

secretly procured the writings of this dangerous sophist, and

gradually surpassed, in the perfect imitation of his style, the

most laborious of his domestic pupils. 24 When Julian ascended

the throne, he declared his impatience to embrace and reward the

Syrian sophist, who had preserved, in a degenerate age, the

Grecian purity of taste, of manners, and of religion. The

emperor’s prepossession was increased and justified by the

discreet pride of his favorite. Instead of pressing, with the

foremost of the crowd, into the palace of Constantinople,

Libanius calmly expected his arrival at Antioch; withdrew from

court on the first symptoms of coldness and indifference;

required a formal invitation for each visit; and taught his

sovereign an important lesson, that he might command the

obedience of a subject, but that he must deserve the attachment

of a friend. The sophists of every age, despising, or affecting

to despise, the accidental distinctions of birth and fortune, 25

reserve their esteem for the superior qualities of the mind, with

which they themselves are so plentifully endowed. Julian might

disdain the acclamations of a venal court, who adored the

Imperial purple; but he was deeply flattered by the praise, the

admonition, the freedom, and the envy of an independent

philosopher, who refused his favors, loved his person, celebrated

his fame, and protected his memory. The voluminous writings of

Libanius still exist; for the most part, they are the vain and

idle compositions of an orator, who cultivated the science of

words; the productions of a recluse student, whose mind,

regardless of his contemporaries, was incessantly fixed on the

Trojan war and the Athenian commonwealth. Yet the sophist of

Antioch sometimes descended from this imaginary elevation; he

entertained a various and elaborate correspondence; 26 he praised

the virtues of his own times; he boldly arraigned the abuse of

public and private life; and he eloquently pleaded the cause of

Antioch against the just resentment of Julian and Theodosius. It

is the common calamity of old age, 27 to lose whatever might have

rendered it desirable; but Libanius experienced the peculiar

misfortune of surviving the religion and the sciences, to which

he had consecrated his genius. The friend of Julian was an

indignant spectator of the triumph of Christianity; and his

bigotry, which darkened the prospect of the visible world, did

not inspire Libanius with any lively hopes of celestial glory and

happiness. 28

24 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. vii. p. 230, 231.]

25 (return) [ Eunapius reports, that Libanius refused the

honorary rank of Prætorian præfect, as less illustrious than the

title of Sophist, (in Vit. Sophist. p. 135.) The critics have

observed a similar sentiment in one of the epistles (xviii. edit.

Wolf) of Libanius himself.]

26 (return) [ Near two thousand of his letters—a mode of

composition in which Libanius was thought to excel—are still

extant, and already published. The critics may praise their

subtle and elegant brevity; yet Dr. Bentley (Dissertation upon

Phalaris, p. 48) might justly, though quaintly observe, that “you

feel, by the emptiness and deadness of them, that you converse

with some dreaming pedant, with his elbow on his desk.”]

27 (return) [ His birth is assigned to the year 314. He mentions

the seventy-sixth year of his age, (A. D. 390,) and seems to

allude to some events of a still later date.]

28 (return) [ Libanius has composed the vain, prolix, but curious

narrative of his own life, (tom. ii. p. 1-84, edit. Morell,) of

which Eunapius (p. 130-135) has left a concise and unfavorable

account. Among the moderns, Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom.

iv. p. 571-576,) Fabricius, (Bibliot. Græc. tom. vii. p.

376-414,) and Lardner, (Heathen Testimonies, tom. iv. p.

127-163,) have illustrated the character and writings of this

famous sophist.]

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

The martial impatience of Julian urged him to take the field in

the beginning of the spring; and he dismissed, with contempt and

reproach, the senate of Antioch, who accompanied the emperor

beyond the limits of their own territory, to which he was

resolved never to return. After a laborious march of two days, 29

he halted on the third at Beræa, or Aleppo, where he had the

mortification of finding a senate almost entirely Christian; who

received with cold and formal demonstrations of respect the

eloquent sermon of the apostle of paganism. The son of one of the

most illustrious citizens of Beræa, who had embraced, either from

interest or conscience, the religion of the emperor, was

disinherited by his angry parent. The father and the son were

invited to the Imperial table. Julian, placing himself between

them, attempted, without success, to inculcate the lesson and

example of toleration; supported, with affected calmness, the

indiscreet zeal of the aged Christian, who seemed to forget the

sentiments of nature, and the duty of a subject; and at length,

turning towards the afflicted youth, “Since you have lost a

father,” said he, “for my sake, it is incumbent on me to supply

his place.” 30 The emperor was received in a manner much more

agreeable to his wishes at Batnæ, 3011 a small town pleasantly

seated in a grove of cypresses, about twenty miles from the city

of Hierapolis. The solemn rites of sacrifice were decently

prepared by the inhabitants of Batnæ, who seemed attached to the

worship of their tutelar deities, Apollo and Jupiter; but the

serious piety of Julian was offended by the tumult of their

applause; and he too clearly discerned, that the smoke which

arose from their altars was the incense of flattery, rather than

of devotion. The ancient and magnificent temple which had

sanctified, for so many ages, the city of Hierapolis, 31 no

longer subsisted; and the consecrated wealth, which afforded a

liberal maintenance to more than three hundred priests, might

hasten its downfall. Yet Julian enjoyed the satisfaction of

embracing a philosopher and a friend, whose religious firmness

had withstood the pressing and repeated solicitations of

Constantius and Gallus, as often as those princes lodged at his

house, in their passage through Hierapolis. In the hurry of

military preparation, and the careless confidence of a familiar

correspondence, the zeal of Julian appears to have been lively

and uniform. He had now undertaken an important and difficult

war; and the anxiety of the event rendered him still more

attentive to observe and register the most trifling presages,

from which, according to the rules of divination, any knowledge

of futurity could be derived. 32 He informed Libanius of his

progress as far as Hierapolis, by an elegant epistle, 33 which

displays the facility of his genius, and his tender friendship

for the sophist of Antioch.

29 (return) [ From Antioch to Litarbe, on the territory of

Chalcis, the road, over hills and through morasses, was extremely

bad; and the loose stones were cemented only with sand, (Julian.

epist. xxvii.) It is singular enough that the Romans should have

neglected the great communication between Antioch and the

Euphrates. See Wesseling Itinerar. p. 190 Bergier, Hist des

Grands Chemins, tom. ii. p. 100]

30 (return) [ Julian alludes to this incident, (epist. xxvii.,)

which is more distinctly related by Theodoret, (l. iii. c. 22.)

The intolerant spirit of the father is applauded by Tillemont,

(Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 534.) and even by La Bleterie,

(Vie de Julien, p. 413.)]

3011 (return) [ This name, of Syriac origin, is found in the

Arabic, and means a place in a valley where waters meet. Julian

says, the name of the city is Barbaric, the situation Greek. The

geographer Abulfeda (tab. Syriac. p. 129, edit. Koehler) speaks

of it in a manner to justify the praises of Julian.—St. Martin.

Notes to Le Beau, iii. 56.—M.]

31 (return) [ See the curious treatise de Deâ Syriâ, inserted

among the works of Lucian, (tom. iii. p. 451-490, edit. Reitz.)

The singular appellation of _Ninus vetus_ (Ammian. xiv. 8) might

induce a suspicion, that Heirapolis had been the royal seat of

the Assyrians.]

32 (return) [ Julian (epist. xxviii.) kept a regular account of

all the fortunate omens; but he suppresses the inauspicious

signs, which Ammianus (xxiii. 2) has carefully recorded.]

33 (return) [ Julian. epist. xxvii. p. 399-402.]

Hierapolis, 3311 situate almost on the banks of the Euphrates, 34

had been appointed for the general rendezvous of the Roman

troops, who immediately passed the great river on a bridge of

boats, which was previously constructed. 35 If the inclinations

of Julian had been similar to those of his predecessor, he might

have wasted the active and important season of the year in the

circus of Samosata or in the churches of Edessa. But as the

warlike emperor, instead of Constantius, had chosen Alexander for

his model, he advanced without delay to Carrhæ, 36 a very ancient

city of Mesopotamia, at the distance of fourscore miles from

Hierapolis. The temple of the Moon attracted the devotion of

Julian; but the halt of a few days was principally employed in

completing the immense preparations of the Persian war. The

secret of the expedition had hitherto remained in his own breast;

but as Carrhæ is the point of separation of the two great roads,

he could no longer conceal whether it was his design to attack

the dominions of Sapor on the side of the Tigris, or on that of

the Euphrates. The emperor detached an army of thirty thousand

men, under the command of his kinsman Procopius, and of

Sebastian, who had been duke of Egypt. They were ordered to

direct their march towards Nisibis, and to secure the frontier

from the desultory incursions of the enemy, before they attempted

the passage of the Tigris. Their subsequent operations were left

to the discretion of the generals; but Julian expected, that

after wasting with fire and sword the fertile districts of Media

and Adiabene, they might arrive under the walls of Ctesiphon at

the same time that he himself, advancing with equal steps along

the banks of the Euphrates, should besiege the capital of the

Persian monarchy. The success of this well-concerted plan

depended, in a great measure, on the powerful and ready

assistance of the king of Armenia, who, without exposing the

safety of his own dominions, might detach an army of four

thousand horse, and twenty thousand foot, to the assistance of

the Romans. 37 But the feeble Arsaces Tiranus, 38 king of

Armenia, had degenerated still more shamefully than his father

Chosroes, from the manly virtues of the great Tiridates; and as

the pusillanimous monarch was averse to any enterprise of danger

and glory, he could disguise his timid indolence by the more

decent excuses of religion and gratitude. He expressed a pious

attachment to the memory of Constantius, from whose hands he had

received in marriage Olympias, the daughter of the præfect

Ablavius; and the alliance of a female, who had been educated as

the destined wife of the emperor Constans, exalted the dignity of

a Barbarian king. 39 Tiranus professed the Christian religion; he

reigned over a nation of Christians; and he was restrained, by

every principle of conscience and interest, from contributing to

the victory, which would consummate the ruin of the church. The

alienated mind of Tiranus was exasperated by the indiscretion of

Julian, who treated the king of Armenia as _his_ slave, and as

the enemy of the gods. The haughty and threatening style of the

Imperial mandates 40 awakened the secret indignation of a prince,

who, in the humiliating state of dependence, was still conscious

of his royal descent from the Arsacides, the lords of the East,

and the rivals of the Roman power. 4011

3311 (return) [ Or Bambyce, now Bambouch; Manbedj Arab., or

Maboug, Syr. It was twenty-four Roman miles from the

Euphrates.—M.]

34 (return) [ I take the earliest opportunity of acknowledging my

obligations to M. d’Anville, for his recent geography of the

Euphrates and Tigris, (Paris, 1780, in 4to.,) which particularly

illustrates the expedition of Julian.]

35 (return) [ There are three passages within a few miles of each

other; 1. Zeugma, celebrated by the ancients; 2. Bir, frequented

by the moderns; and, 3. The bridge of Menbigz, or Hierapolis, at

the distance of four parasangs from the city. —— Djisr Manbedj is

the same with the ancient Zeugma. St. Martin, iii. 58—M.]

36 (return) [ Haran, or Carrhæ, was the ancient residence of the

Sabæans, and of Abraham. See the Index Geographicus of Schultens,

(ad calcem Vit. Saladin.,) a work from which I have obtained much

_Oriental_ knowledge concerning the ancient and modern geography

of Syria and the adjacent countries. ——On an inedited medal in

the collection of the late M. Tochon. of the Academy of

Inscriptions, it is read Xappan. St. Martin. iii 60—M.]

37 (return) [ See Xenophon. Cyropæd. l. iii. p. 189, edit.

Hutchinson. Artavasdes might have supplied Marc Antony with

16,000 horse, armed and disciplined after the Parthian manner,

(Plutarch, in M. Antonio. tom. v. p. 117.)]

38 (return) [ Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armeniac. l. iii. c. 11, p.

242) fixes his accession (A. D. 354) to the 17th year of

Constantius. ——Arsaces Tiranus, or Diran, had ceased to reign

twenty-five years before, in 337. The intermediate changes in

Armenia, and the character of this Arsaces, the son of Diran, are

traced by M. St. Martin, at considerable length, in his

supplement to Le Beau, ii. 208-242. As long as his Grecian queen

Olympias maintained her influence, Arsaces was faithful to the

Roman and _Christian_ alliance. On the accession of Julian, the

same influence made his fidelity to waver; but Olympias having

been poisoned in the sacramental bread by the agency of

Pharandcem, the former wife of Arsaces, another change took place

in Armenian politics unfavorable to the Christian interest. The

patriarch Narses retired from the impious court to a safe

seclusion. Yet Pharandsem was equally hostile to the Persian

influence, and Arsaces began to support with vigor the cause of

Julian. He made an inroad into the Persian dominions with a body

of Rans and Alans as auxiliaries; wasted Aderbidgan and Sapor,

who had been defeated near Tauriz, was engaged in making head

against his troops in Persarmenia, at the time of the death of

Julian. Such is M. St. Martin’s view, (ii. 276, et sqq.,) which

rests on the Armenian historians, Faustos of Byzantium, and

Mezrob the biographer of the Partriarch Narses. In the history of

Armenia by Father Chamitch, and translated by Avdall, Tiran is

still king of Armenia, at the time of Julian’s death. F. Chamitch

follows Moses of Chorene, The authority of Gibbon.—M.]

39 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 11. Athanasius (tom. i. p. 856) says,

in general terms, that Constantius gave to his brother’s widow,

an expression more suitable to a Roman than a Christian.]

40 (return) [ Ammianus (xxiii. 2) uses a word much too soft for

the occasion, _monuerat_. Muratori (Fabricius, Bibliothec. Græc.

tom. vii. p. 86) has published an epistle from Julian to the

satrap Arsaces; fierce, vulgar, and (though it might deceive

Sozomen, l. vi. c. 5) most probably spurious. La Bleterie (Hist.

de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 339) translates and rejects it. Note: St.

Martin considers it genuine: the Armenian writers mention such a

letter, iii. 37.—M.]

4011 (return) [ Arsaces did not abandon the Roman alliance, but

gave it only feeble support. St. Martin, iii. 41—M.]

The military dispositions of Julian were skilfully contrived to

deceive the spies and to divert the attention of Sapor. The

legions appeared to direct their march towards Nisibis and the

Tigris. On a sudden they wheeled to the right; traversed the

level and naked plain of Carrhæ; and reached, on the third day,

the banks of the Euphrates, where the strong town of Nicephorium,

or Callinicum, had been founded by the Macedonian kings. From

thence the emperor pursued his march, above ninety miles, along

the winding stream of the Euphrates, till, at length, about one

month after his departure from Antioch, he discovered the towers

of Circesium, 4012 the extreme limit of the Roman dominions. The

army of Julian, the most numerous that any of the Cæsars had ever

led against Persia, consisted of sixty-five thousand effective

and well-disciplined soldiers. The veteran bands of cavalry and

infantry, of Romans and Barbarians, had been selected from the

different provinces; and a just preëminence of loyalty and valor

was claimed by the hardy Gauls, who guarded the throne and person

of their beloved prince. A formidable body of Scythian

auxiliaries had been transported from another climate, and almost

from another world, to invade a distant country, of whose name

and situation they were ignorant. The love of rapine and war

allured to the Imperial standard several tribes of Saracens, or

roving Arabs, whose service Julian had commanded, while he

sternly refused the payment of the accustomed subsidies. The

broad channel of the Euphrates 41 was crowded by a fleet of

eleven hundred ships, destined to attend the motions, and to

satisfy the wants, of the Roman army. The military strength of

the fleet was composed of fifty armed galleys; and these were

accompanied by an equal number of flat-bottomed boats, which

might occasionally be connected into the form of temporary

bridges. The rest of the ships, partly constructed of timber, and

partly covered with raw hides, were laden with an almost

inexhaustible supply of arms and engines, of utensils and

provisions. The vigilant humanity of Julian had embarked a very

large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the

soldiers, but he prohibited the indulgence of wine; and

rigorously stopped a long string of superfluous camels that

attempted to follow the rear of the army. The River Chaboras

falls into the Euphrates at Circesium; 42 and as soon as the

trumpet gave the signal of march, the Romans passed the little

stream which separated two mighty and hostile empires. The custom

of ancient discipline required a military oration; and Julian

embraced every opportunity of displaying his eloquence. He

animated the impatient and attentive legions by the example of

the inflexible courage and glorious triumphs of their ancestors.

He excited their resentment by a lively picture of the insolence

of the Persians; and he exhorted them to imitate his firm

resolution, either to extirpate that perfidious nation, or to

devote his life in the cause of the republic. The eloquence of

Julian was enforced by a donative of one hundred and thirty

pieces of silver to every soldier; and the bridge of the Chaboras

was instantly cut away, to convince the troops that they must

place their hopes of safety in the success of their arms. Yet the

prudence of the emperor induced him to secure a remote frontier,

perpetually exposed to the inroads of the hostile Arabs. A

detachment of four thousand men was left at Circesium, which

completed, to the number of ten thousand, the regular garrison of

that important fortress. 43

4012 (return) [ Kirkesia the Carchemish of the Scriptures.—M.]

41 (return) [ Latissimum flumen Euphraten artabat. Ammian. xxiii.

3 Somewhat higher, at the fords of Thapsacus, the river is four

stadia or 800 yards, almost half an English mile, broad.

(Xenophon, Anabasis, l. i. p. 41, edit. Hutchinson, with Foster’s

Observations, p. 29, &c., in the 2d volume of Spelman’s

translation.) If the breadth of the Euphrates at Bir and Zeugma

is no more than 130 yards, (Voyages de Niebuhr, tom. ii. p. 335,)

the enormous difference must chiefly arise from the depth of the

channel.]

42 (return) [ Munimentum tutissimum et fabre politum, Abora (the

Orientals aspirate Chaboras or Chabour) et Euphrates ambiunt

flumina, velut spatium insulare fingentes. Ammian. xxiii. 5.]

43 (return) [ The enterprise and armament of Julian are described

by himself, (Epist. xxvii.,) Ammianus Marcellinus, (xxiii. 3, 4,

5,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 108, 109, p. 332, 333,) Zosimus,

(l. iii. p. 160, 161, 162) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. l,) and John

Malala, (tom. ii. p. 17.)]

From the moment that the Romans entered the enemy’s country, 44

the country of an active and artful enemy, the order of march was

disposed in three columns. 45 The strength of the infantry, and

consequently of the whole army was placed in the centre, under

the peculiar command of their master-general Victor. On the

right, the brave Nevitta led a column of several legions along

the banks of the Euphrates, and almost always in sight of the

fleet. The left flank of the army was protected by the column of

cavalry. Hormisdas and Arinthæus were appointed generals of the

horse; and the singular adventures of Hormisdas 46 are not

undeserving of our notice. He was a Persian prince, of the royal

race of the Sassanides, who, in the troubles of the minority of

Sapor, had escaped from prison to the hospitable court of the

great Constantine. Hormisdas at first excited the compassion, and

at length acquired the esteem, of his new masters; his valor and

fidelity raised him to the military honors of the Roman service;

and though a Christian, he might indulge the secret satisfaction

of convincing his ungrateful country, that an oppressed subject

may prove the most dangerous enemy. Such was the disposition of

the three principal columns. The front and flanks of the army

were covered by Lucilianus with a flying detachment of fifteen

hundred light-armed soldiers, whose active vigilance observed the

most distant signs, and conveyed the earliest notice, of any

hostile approach. Dagalaiphus, and Secundinus duke of Osrhoene,

conducted the troops of the rear-guard; the baggage securely

proceeded in the intervals of the columns; and the ranks, from a

motive either of use or ostentation, were formed in such open

order, that the whole line of march extended almost ten miles.

The ordinary post of Julian was at the head of the centre column;

but as he preferred the duties of a general to the state of a

monarch, he rapidly moved, with a small escort of light cavalry,

to the front, the rear, the flanks, wherever his presence could

animate or protect the march of the Roman army. The country which

they traversed from the Chaboras, to the cultivated lands of

Assyria, may be considered as a part of the desert of Arabia, a

dry and barren waste, which could never be improved by the most

powerful arts of human industry. Julian marched over the same

ground which had been trod above seven hundred years before by

the footsteps of the younger Cyrus, and which is described by one

of the companions of his expedition, the sage and heroic

Xenophon. 47 “The country was a plain throughout, as even as the

sea, and full of wormwood; and if any other kind of shrubs or

reeds grew there, they had all an aromatic smell, but no trees

could be seen. Bustards and ostriches, antelopes and wild asses,

48 appeared to be the only inhabitants of the desert; and the

fatigues of the march were alleviated by the amusements of the

chase.” The loose sand of the desert was frequently raised by the

wind into clouds of dust; and a great number of the soldiers of

Julian, with their tents, were suddenly thrown to the ground by

the violence of an unexpected hurricane.

44 (return) [ Before he enters Persia, Ammianus copiously

describes (xxiii. p. 396-419, edit. Gronov. in 4to.) the eighteen

great provinces, (as far as the Seric, or Chinese frontiers,)

which were subject to the Sassanides.]

45 (return) [ Ammianus (xxiv. 1) and Zosimus (l. iii. p. 162,

163) rately expressed the order of march.]

46 (return) [ The adventures of Hormisdas are related with some

mixture of fable, (Zosimus, l. ii. p. 100-102; Tillemont, Hist.

des Empereurs tom. iv. p. 198.) It is almost impossible that he

should be the brother (frater germanus) of an _eldest_ and

_posthumous_ child: nor do I recollect that Ammianus ever gives

him that title. * Note: St. Martin conceives that he was an elder

brother by another mother who had several children, ii. 24—M.]

47 (return) [ See the first book of the Anabasis, p. 45, 46. This

pleasing work is original and authentic. Yet Xenophon’s memory,

perhaps many years after the expedition, has sometimes betrayed

him; and the distances which he marks are often larger than

either a soldier or a geographer will allow.]

48 (return) [ Mr. Spelman, the English translator of the

Anabasis, (vol. i. p. 51,) confounds the antelope with the

roebuck, and the wild ass with the zebra.]

The sandy plains of Mesopotamia were abandoned to the antelopes

and wild asses of the desert; but a variety of populous towns and

villages were pleasantly situated on the banks of the Euphrates,

and in the islands which are occasionally formed by that river.

The city of Annah, or Anatho, 49 the actual residence of an

Arabian emir, is composed of two long streets, which enclose,

within a natural fortification, a small island in the midst, and

two fruitful spots on either side, of the Euphrates. The warlike

inhabitants of Anatho showed a disposition to stop the march of a

Roman emperor; till they were diverted from such fatal

presumption by the mild exhortations of Prince Hormisdas, and the

approaching terrors of the fleet and army. They implored, and

experienced, the clemency of Julian, who transplanted the people

to an advantageous settlement, near Chalcis in Syria, and

admitted Pusæus, the governor, to an honorable rank in his

service and friendship. But the impregnable fortress of Thilutha

could scorn the menace of a siege; and the emperor was obliged to

content himself with an insulting promise, that, when he had

subdued the interior provinces of Persia, Thilutha would no

longer refuse to grace the triumph of the emperor. The

inhabitants of the open towns, unable to resist, and unwilling to

yield, fled with precipitation; and their houses, filled with

spoil and provisions, were occupied by the soldiers of Julian,

who massacred, without remorse and without punishment, some

defenceless women. During the march, the Surenas, 4911 or Persian

general, and Malek Rodosaces, the renowned emir of the tribe of

Gassan, 50 incessantly hovered round the army; every straggler

was intercepted; every detachment was attacked; and the valiant

Hormisdas escaped with some difficulty from their hands. But the

Barbarians were finally repulsed; the country became every day

less favorable to the operations of cavalry; and when the Romans

arrived at Macepracta, they perceived the ruins of the wall,

which had been constructed by the ancient kings of Assyria, to

secure their dominions from the incursions of the Medes. These

preliminaries of the expedition of Julian appear to have employed

about fifteen days; and we may compute near three hundred miles

from the fortress of Circesium to the wall of Macepracta. 51

49 (return) [ See Voyages de Tavernier, part i. l. iii. p. 316,

and more especially Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, tom. i. lett.

xvii. p. 671, &c. He was ignorant of the old name and condition

of Annah. Our blind travellers _seldom_ possess any previous

knowledge of the countries which they visit. Shaw and Tournefort

deserve an honorable exception.]

4911 (return) [ This is not a title, but the name of a great

Persian family. St. Martin, iii. 79.—M.]

50 (return) [ Famosi nominis latro, says Ammianus; a high

encomium for an Arab. The tribe of Gassan had settled on the edge

of Syria, and reigned some time in Damascus, under a dynasty of

thirty-one kings, or emirs, from the time of Pompey to that of

the Khalif Omar. D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 360.

Pococke, Specimen Hist. Arabicæ, p. 75-78. The name of Rodosaces

does not appear in the list. * Note: Rodosaces-malek is king. St.

Martin considers that Gibbon has fallen into an error in bringing

the tribe of Gassan to the Euphrates. In Ammianus it is Assan. M.

St. Martin would read Massanitarum, the same with the Mauzanitæ

of Malala.—M.]

51 (return) [ See Ammianus, (xxiv. 1, 2,) Libanius, (Orat.

Parental. c. 110, 111, p. 334,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 164-168.) *

Note: This Syriac or Chaldaic has relation to its position; it

easily bears the signification of the division of the waters. M.

St. M. considers it the Missice of Pliny, v. 26. St. Martin, iii.

83.—M.]

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · 第 24 / 79 章

The vain and ambitious mind of Julian might aspire to restore the