to interrogate him concerning the administration of the Eaft. The Cæfar funk under the weight of shame and guilt, confeffed all the criminal actions, and all the treasonable defigns with which he was charged; and by imputing them to the advice of his wife, exafperated the indignation of Conftantius, who reviewed with partial prejudice the minutes of the examination. The emperor was eafily convinced, that his own fafety was incompatible with the life of his coufin: the fentence of death was figned, difpatched, and executed; and the nephew of Conftantine, with his hands tied behind his back, was beheaded in prifon like the vileft malefactor Those who are inclined to palliate the cruelties of Conftantius, affert that he foon relented, and endeavoured to recall the bloody mandate; but that the fecond meffenger entrusted with the reprieve, was detained by the eunuchs, who dreaded the unforgiving temper of Gallus, and were defirous of re- uniting to their empire the wealthy provinces of the Eaft".

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Befides the reigning emperor, Julian alone furvived, of all the numerous pofterity of Conftantius Chlorus. The misfortune of his royal birth involved him in the disgrace of Gallus. From his retirement in the happy country of lonia, he was conveyed under a ftrong guard to the court of Milan; where he languished above feven months, in the continual apprehenfion of fuffering the fame ignominious death, which was daily inflicted, almost before his eyes, on the friends and adherents of his perfecuted family.

СНАР..
XIX.

The danger and

efcape of

Julian.

XIX.

CHAP. His looks, his gestures, his filence, were scrutinized with malignant curiofity, and he was perpetually affaulted by enemies, whom he had never offended, and by arts to which he was a ftranger". But in the school of adverfity, Julian infenfibly acquired the virtues of firmnefs and difcretion. He defended his honour, as well as his life, against the enfnaring fubtleties of the eunuchs, who endeavoured to extort fome declaration of his fentiments: and whilft he cautiously fuppreffed his grief and refentment, he nobly difdained to flatter the tyrant, by any feeming approbation of his brother's murder. Julian most devoutly afcribes his miraculous deliverance to the protection of the Gods, who had exempted his innocence from the fentence of deftruction pronounced by their justice against the impious houfe of Conftantine". As the most effectual inftrument of their providence, he gratefully acknowledges the fteady and generous friendship of the emprefs Eufebia ", a woman of beauty and merit, who, by the afcendant which she had gained over the mind of her husband, counterbalanced, in fome measure, the powerful confpiracy of the eunuchs. By the interceffion of his patronefs, Julian was admitted into the Imperial prefence he pleaded his caufe with a decent freedom, he was heard with favour; and, notwithstanding the efforts of his enemies, who urged the danger of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus, the milder fentiment of Eufebia prevailed in the council. But the effects of a fecond in

terview were dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was advised to withdraw for a while into the neighbourhood of Milan, till the emperor thought proper to affign the city of Athens for the place of his honourable exile. As he had difcovered, from his earliest youth, a propenfity, or rather paffion, for the language, the manners, the learning, and the religion of the Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure an order fo agreeable to his wishes. Far from the tumult of arms, and the treachery of courts, he spent fix months amidst the groves of the academy, in a free intercourfe with the philofophers of the age, who ftudied to cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to inflame the devotion of their royal pupil. Their labours were not unfuccefsful; and Julian inviolably preferved for Athens that tender regard, which feldom fails to arife in a liberal mind, from the recollection of the place where it has discovered and exercised its growing powers. The gentleness and affability of manners, which his temper fuggefted and his fituation impofed, infenfibly engaged the affections of the ftrangers, as well as citizens, with whom he converfed. Some of his fellow-ftudents might perhaps examine his behaviour with an eye of prejudice and averfion; but Julian eftablished, in the schools of Athens, a general prepoffeffion in favour of his virtues and talents, which was foon diffused over the Roman world ".

Whilft his hours were paffed in ftudious re- Recalled to tirement, the emprefs, refolute to atchieve the Milan,

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СНАР. generous defign which she had undertaken, was not unmindful of the care of his fortune. The death of the late Cæfar had left Conftantius invefted with the fole command, and oppreffed by the accumulated weight of a mighty empire. Before the wounds of civil difcord could be healed, the provinces of Gaul were overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians. The Sarmatians no longer refpected the barrier of the Danube. The impunity of rapine had increased the boldness and numbers of the wild Ifaurians: thofe robbers defcended from their craggy mountains to ravage the adjacent country, and had even prefumed, though without fuccefs, to befiege the important city of Seleucia, which was defended by a garrifon of three Roman legions. Above all, the Perfian monarch, elated by victory, again threatened the peace of Afia, and the prefence of the emperor was indifpenfably required, both in the Weft, and in the Eaft. For the first time, Conftantius fincerely acknowledged, that his fingle ftrength was unequal to fuch an extent of care and of dominion". Infenfible to the voice of flattery, which affured him that his all-powerful virtue, and celeftial fortune, would ftill continue to triumph over every obftacle, he liftened with complacency to the advice of Eufebia, which gratified his indolence, without offending his fufpicious pride. As she perceived that the remembrance of Gallus dwelt on the emperor's mind, she artfully turned his attention to the oppofite characters of the two brothers, which from their infancy

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infancy had been compared to thofe of Domitian CHA P. and of Titus ". She accustomed her husband to confider Julian as a youth of a mild unambitious difpofition, whofe allegiance and gratitude might be fecured by the gift of the purple, and who was qualified to fill, with honour, a fubordinate ftation, without afpiring to difpute the commands, or to shade the glories, of his fovereign and benefactor. After an obftinate, though fecret struggle, the oppofition of the favourite eunuchs fubmitted to the afcendency of the emprefs; and it was refolved that Julian, after celebrating his nuptials with Helena, fifter of Conftantius, should be ap pointed, with the title of Cæfar, to reign over the countries beyond the Alps ".

Although the order which recalled him to court was probably accompanied by fome intimation of his approaching greatnefs, he appeals to the people of Athens to witnefs his tears of undiffembled forrow, when he was reluctantly torn away from his beloved retirement ". He trembled for his life, for his fame, and even for his virtue; and his fole confidence was derived from the perfuafion, that Minerva inspired all his actions, and that he was protected by an invifible guard of angels, whom for that purpofe she had borrowed from the Sun and Moon. He approached, with horror, the palace of Milan; nor could the ingenuous youth conceal his indignation, when he found himfelf accofted with falfe and fervile respect by the affaffins of his family. Eufebía, rejoicing in the fuccefs of her benevolent fchemes, Vol. III.

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