XXII. CHAP. manner, the confirmation of the title of Auguftus. He acknowledges the irregularity of his own election, while he juftifies, in fome measure, the refentment and violence of the troops which had extorted his reluctant confent. He allows the fupremacy of his brother Conftantius; and engages to fend him an annual prefent of Spanish horses, to recruit his army with a felect number of Barbarian youths, and to accept from his choice a Prætorian præfect of approved difcretion and fidelity. But he referves for himself the nomination of his other civil and military officers, with the troops, the revenue, and the fovereignty of the provinces beyond the Alps. He admonishes the emperor to confult the dictates of juftice; to diftruft the arts of thofe venal flatterers, who fubfift only by the difcord of princes; and to embrace the offer of a fair and honourable treaty, equally advantageous to the republic, and to the house of Conftantine. In this negociation Julian claimed no more than he already poffeffed. The delegated authority which he had long exercised over the provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was ftill obeyed under a name more independent and auguft. The foldiers and the people rejoiced in a revolution which was not ftained even with the blood of the guilty. Florentius was a fugitive; Lupicinus a prifoner. The perfons who were difaffected to the new government were difarmed and fecured; and the vacant offices were diftributed, according to the recommendation of merit, by a prince, XXII. His fourth prince, who defpifed the intrigues of the palace, CHAP. and the clamours of the foldiers. The negociations of peace were accompanied and fupported by the moft vigorous preparations for war. The army, which Julian held in rea and diness for immediate action, was recruited augmented by the diforders of the times. The cruel perfecution of the faction of Magnentius had filled Gaul with numerous bands of outlaws and robbers. They cheerfully accepted the offer of a general pardon from a prince whom they could truft, fubmittted to the restraints of military difcipline, and retained only their implacable hatred to the perfon and government of Conftantius 17. As foon as the feafon of the year permitted Julian to take the field, he appeared at the head of his legions; threw a bridge over the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Cleves; and prepared to chaftife the perfidy of the Attuarii, a tribe of Franks, who prefumed that they might ravage, with impunity, the frontiers of a divided empire. The difficulty, as well as glory, of this enterprize, confifted in a laborious march ; and Julian had conquered, as foon as he could penetrate into a country, which former 16 See the first transactions of his reign, in Julian-ad S. P. Q Athen. p. 285, 286., Ammianus, xx. 5. 8. Liban. Orat. Parent. C. 49, 50. p. 273-275 17 Liban. Orat. Parent. c. 50. p. 275, 276. A ftrange disorder, fince it continued above seven years. In the factions of the Greek republics, the exiles amounted to 20,000 perfons; and Ifocrates affures Philip, that it would be easier to raise an army from the vagabonds than from the cities. See Hume's Effays, tom. i. p. 426, 427. and th expediyond the Rhine, tions be A.D. 369, 361. VOL. IV. C princes CHAP. princes had confidered as inacceffible. After he carefully visited the fortifications along the Rhine 13 Julian (Epift. xxxviii. p. 414.) gives a fhort defcription of Vefontio, or Befançan: a rocky peninfula almost encircled by the river Donx; once a magnificent city, filled with temples, &c. now reduced to a small town, emerging however from its ruins. 19 Vadomair entered into the Roman fervice, and was promoted from a Barbarian kingdom to the military rank of duke of Phenicia. He ftill retained the fame artful character (Ammian. xxi. 4.); but, under the reign of Valens, he fignalifed his valour in the Armenian war (xxix. 1.). Before Before the Barbarians were recovered from their amazement, the emperor appeared in arms on the banks of the Rhine, and, once more croffing the river, renewed the deep impreffions of terror and refpect which had been already made by four preceding expeditions 20. CHA P. XXII. treaty and tion of A.D. 361, declara war, The ambaffadors of Julian had been inftructed Fruitless to execute, with the utmost diligence, their important commiffion. But, in their paffage through Italy and Illyricum, they were detained by the tedious and affected delays of the provincial governors; they were conducted by flow journies from Conftantinople to Cæfarea in Cappadocia ; and when at length they were admitted to the prefence of Conftantius, they found that he had already conceived, from the dispatches of his own officers, the most unfavourable opinion of the conduct of Julian, and of the Gallic army. The letters were heard with impatience; the trembling meffengers were difmiffed with indignation and contempt; and the looks, the gef tures, the furious language of the monarch, expreffed the diforder of his foul. The domeftic connection, which might have reconciled the brother and the hufband of Helena, was recently diffolved by the death of that princess, whose pregnancy had been feveral times fruitlefs, and was at laft fatal to herfelf ". The empress Eu 20 Ammian. xx. 10. xxi. 3, 4. Zofimus, 1. iii. p. 155. febia 21 Her remains were fent to Rome, and interred near thofe of her fifter Conftantina, in the suburb of the Via Nomentana. Amznian, xxl. 1. Libanius has compofed a very weak apology to justify C 2 XXII. CHAP. febia had preferved to the last moment of her life the warm, and even jealous, affection which fhe had conceived for Julian; and her mild influence might have moderated the refentment of a prince, who, fince her death, was abandoned to his own paffions, and to the arts of his eunuchs. But the terror of a foreign invasion obliged him to fufpend the punishment of a private enemy; he continued his march towards the confines of Perfia, and thought it fufficient to fignify the conditions which might entitle Julian and his guilty followers to the clemency of their offended fovereign. He required, that the prefumptuous Cæfar fhould exprefsly renounce the appellation and rank of Auguftus, which he had accepted from the rebels; that he fhould defcend to his former ftation of a limited and dependent minister; that he fhould veft the powers of the state and army in the hands of thofe officers who were appointed by the Imperial court; and that he should trust his fafety to the affurances of pardon, which were announced by Epictetus, a Gallic bishop, and one of the Arian favourites of Conftantius. Several months were ineffectually confumed in a treaty which was negociated at the distance of three thousand miles between justify his hero from a very abfurd charge; of poisoning his wife and rewarding her physician with his mother's jewels. (See the feventh of feventeen new orations, published at Venice 1754, from a MS. in St. Mark's library, p. 117-127.) Elpidius, the Prætorian præfect of the Eaft, to whose evidence the accufer of Julian appeals, is arraigned by Libanius, as effeminate and ungrateful; yet the religion of Elpidius is praised by Jerom (tom. i. p. 243.), and his humanity by Ammianus (xxi. 6.). |