Paris and Antioch; and, as foon as Julian perceived that his moderate and refpectful behaviour. ferved only to irritate the pride of an implacable adversary, he boldly refolved to commit his life and fortune to the chance of a civil war. He gave a public and military audience to the quæftor Leonas: the haughty epiftle of Conftantius was read to the attentive multitude; and Julian protested, with the most flattering deference, that he was ready to refign the title of Auguftus, if he could obtain the confent of those whom he acknowledged as the authors of his elevation. The faint propofal was impetuously filenced; and the acclamations of " Julian Au guftus, continue to reign, by the authority of "the army, of the people, of the republic, " which you have faved," thundered at once from every part of the field, and terrified the pale ambaffador of Conftantius. A part of the letter was afterwards read, in which the emperor arraigned the ingratitude of Julian, whom he had invested with the honours of the purple ; whom he had educated with fo much care and tenderness; whom he had preserved in his infancy, when he was left a helpless orphan; "an "orphan!" interrupted Julian, who juftified his caufe by indulging his paffions: "Does the af"faffin of my family reproach me that I was left an orphan? He urges me to revenge "those injuries which I have long ftudied to "forget." The affembly was difmiffed; and Leonas, who, with fome difficulty had been protected C 3 С НА Р. XXII. CHAP. protected from the popular fury, was fent back XXII. to his mafter, with an epistle, in which Julian Julian'prepares to attack Conftantius. expreffed, in a ftrain of the moft vehement eloquence, the fentiments of contempt, of hatred, and of refentment, which had been fuppreffed and embittered by the diffimulation of twenty years. After this meffage, which might be confidered as a fignal of irreconcileable war, Julian, who, fome weeks before, had celebrated the Christian festival of the Epiphany 22, made a public declaration that he committed the care of his fafety to the IMMORTAL GODS; and thus publicly renounced the religion, as well as the friendship, of Conftantius 23. The fituation of Julian required a vigorous and immediate refolution. He had difcovered, from intercepted letters, that his adverfary, facrificing the intereft of the ftate to that of the 22 Feriarum die quem celebrantes menfe Januario, Chriftiani Epiphania dictitant, progreffus in eorum ecclefiam, folemniter numine orato difceffit. Ammian. xxii. 2. Zonaras obferves, that it was on Christmas-day, and his affertion is not inconfiftent; fince the churches of Egypt, Afia, and perhaps Gaul, celebrated on the fame day (the sixth of January), the nativity and the baptism of their Saviour. The Romans, as ignorant as their brethren of the real date of his birth, fixed the folemn feftival to the 25th of December, the Brumalia, or winter folftice, when the Pagans annually celebrated the birth of the Sun. See Bingham's Antiquities of the Chriftian Church, 1. xx. c. 4. and Beaufobre Hit. Critique du Manicheifme, tom. ii. p. 690—700. 23 The public and fecret negociations between Conftantius and Julian, mufe be extracted with fome caution, from Julian himself (Orat. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286.), Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 51. p. 276.), Ammianus (xx. 9.), Zofimus (l. iii. p. 154.), and even Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiii. p. 20, 21, 22.), who, on this occafion, appears to have poffeffed and used some valuable materials. monarch, XXII. monarch, had again excited the Barbarians to CHAP. invade the provinces of the Weft. The position of two magazines, one of them collected on the banks of the lake of Constance, the other formed at the foot of the Cottian Alps, seemed to indicate the march of two armies; and the fize of those magazines, each of which confifted of fix hundred thousand quarters of wheat, or rather flour, was a threatening evidence of the strength and numbers of the enemy, who prepared to furround him. But the Imperial legions were still in their distant quarters of Afia; the Danube was feebly guarded; and if Julian could occupy, by a fudden incurfion, the important provinces of Illyricum, he might expect that a people of foldiers would refort to his ftandard, and that the rich mines of gold and filver would contribute to the expences of the civil war. He propofed this bold enterprise to the affembly of the foldiers; infpired them with a juft confidence in their general, and in themselves; and exhorted them to maintain their reputation, of being terrible to the enemy, moderate to their fellowcitizens, and obedient to their officers. His fpirited difcourfe was received with the loudest acclamations, and the fame troops which had taken up arms against Conftantius, when he fummoned them to leave Gaul, now declared with 24 Three hundred myriads, or three millions of medimni, a cornmeasure familiar to the Athenians, and which contained fix Roman modii. Julian explains, like a foldier and a statesman, the danger of his fituation, and the neceffity and advantages of an offenfive war (ad S. P. Q Athen. p. 286, 287.). XXII. CHAP. alacrity, that they would follow Julian to the fartheft extremities of Europe or Afia. The oath of fidelity was administered; and the foldiers, clashing their fhields, and pointing their drawn fwords to their throats, devoted themfelves, with horrid imprecations, to the fervice of a leader whom they celebrated as the deliverer of Gaul, and the conqueror of the Germans 25. This folemn engagement, which feemed to be dictated by affection, rather than by duty, was fingly opposed by Nebridius, who had been admitted to the office of Prætorian præfect. That faithful minister, alone and unaflifted, afferted the rights of Conftantius in the midst of an armed and angry multitude, to whofe fury he had almoft fallen an honourable, but useless, facrifice. After lofing one of his hands by the stroke of a sword, he embraced the knees of the prince whom he had offended. Julian covered the præfect with his Imperial mantle, and protecting him from the zeal of his followers, difmiffed him to his own house, with lefs refpect than was perhaps due to the virtue of an enemy The high office of Nebridius was bestowed on Salluft; and the provinces of Gaul, which were now delivered from the intolerable oppreffion of taxes, enjoyed the mild and equitable administration of the friend of Julian, who was permitted to practise those 26 25 See his oration, and the behaviour of the troops, in Am. mian. xxi. 5. 26 He fternly refused his hand to the suppliant præfect, whom he fent into Tufcany (Ammian. xxi. 5.). Libanius, with favage fury, infults Nebridius, applauds the foldiers, and almost cenfures the humanity of Julian (Orat. Parent. c. 53. p. 278.). virtues virtues which he had inftilled into the mind of C H AP. his pupil 27. XXII. His march from the The hopes of Julian depended much less on the number of his troops, than on the celerity Rhine into of his motions. In the execution of a daring Illyricum. enterprise, he availed himself of every precaution, as far as prudence could fuggeft; and where prudence could no longer accompany his steps, he trusted the event to valour and to fortune. In the neighbourhood of Bafil he affembled and divided his army 28. One body, which confifted of ten thousand men, was directed, under the command of Nevitta, general of the cavalry, to advance through the midland parts of Rhætia and Noricum. A fimilar divifion of troops, under the orders of Jovius and Jovinus, prepared to follow the oblique courfe of the highways, through the Alps and the northern confines of Italy. The inftructions to the generals were conceived with energy and precifion: to haften their march in clofe and compact columns, which, according to the difpofition of the ground, might readily be changed into any order of battle; to fecure themselves against the surprises of the night by strong posts and vigilant guards; to prevent resistance by their unexpected arrival; to elude 27 Ammian. xxi. 8. In this promotion, Julian obeyed the law which he publicly imposed on himfelf. Neque civilis quifquam judex nec militaris rector, alio quodam præter merita fuffragante, ad potiorum veniat gradum (Ammian. xx. 5.). Absence did not weaken his regard for Salluft, with whofe name (A. D. 363.) he honoured the consulship. 28 Ammianus (xxi. 8.) ascribes the same practice, and the same motive, to Alexander the Great, and other skilful generals. examin |