Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

230

JOVIAN PROCLAIMS UNIVERSAL TOLERATION.

CHAP. XXV.

his departure from Antioch, he assured Jovian that his orthodox devotion would be rewarded with a long and peaceful reign. Athanasius had reason to hope that he should be allowed either the merit of a successful prediction, or the excuse of a grateful though ineffectual prayer.7

Jovian proclaims universal toleration.

The slightest force, when it is applied to assist and guide the natural descent of its object, operates with irresistible weight; and Jovian had the good fortune to embrace the religious opinions which were supported by the spirit of the times, and the zeal and numbers of the most powerful sect. Under his reign Christianity obtained an easy and lasting victory; and as soon as the smile of royal patronage was withdrawn, the genius of Paganism, which had been fondly raised and cherished by the arts of Julian, sunk irrecoverably in the dust. In many cities the temples were shut or deserted; the philosophers, who had abused their transient favour, thought it prudent to shave their beards and disguise their profession; and the Christians rejoiced that they were now in a condition to forgive or to revenge the injuries which they had suffered under the preceding reign. The consternation of the Pagan world was dispelled by a wise and gracious edict of toleration, in which Jovian explicitly declared that, although he should severely punish the sacrilegious rites of magic, his subjects might exercise, with freedom and safety, the ceremonies of the ancient worship. The memory of this law has been preserved by the orator Themistius, who was deputed by the senate of Constantinople to express their loyal devotion for the new emperor. Themistius expatiates on the clemency of the Divine Nature, the facility of human error, the rights of conscience, and the independence of the mind, and, with some eloquence, inculcates the principles of philosophical toleration, whose aid Superstition herself, in the hour of her distress, is not ashamed to implore. He justly observes that in the recent changes both religions had been alternately disgraced by the seeming acquisition of worthless proselytes, of those votaries of the reigning purple who could pass, without a reason and without a blush, from the church to the temple, and from the altars of Jupiter to the sacred table of the Christians. 10

7 See the observations of Valesius and Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 38) on the original letter of Athanasius, which is preserved by Theodoret (1. iv. c. 3). In some MSS. this indiscreet promise is omitted; perhaps by the catholics, jealous of the prophetic fame of their leader.

Athanasius (apud Theodoret, 1. iv. c. 3) magnifies the number of the orthodox, who composed the whole world, πάρεξ ὀλίγων τῶν τὰ ̓Αρείου φρονούντων. This assertion was verified in the space of thirty or forty years.

Socrates, 1. iii. c. 24. Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iv. p. 131) and Libanius (Orat. Parentalis, c. 148, p. 369) express the living sentiments of their respective factions. 10 Themistius, Orat. v. p. 63-71, edit. Harduin, Paris, 1684. The Abbé de la Bléterie judiciously remarks (Hist. de Jovien, tom. i. p. 199) that Sozomen has

His progress

Antioch,

October.

In the space of seven months the Roman troops, who were now returned to Antioch, had performed a march of fifteen hundred miles, in which they had endured all the hardships from of war, of famine, and of climate. Notwithstanding their A.D. 363, services, their fatigues, and the approach of winter, the timid and impatient Jovian allowed only to the men and horses a respite of six weeks. The emperor could not sustain the indiscreet and malicious raillery of the people of Antioch. He was impatient to possess the palace of Constantinople, and to prevent the ambition. of some competitor who might occupy the vacant allegiance of Europe; but he soon received the grateful intelligence that his authority was acknowledged from the Thracian Bosphorus to the Atlantic ocean. By the first letters which he despatched from the camp of Mesopotamia, he had delegated the military command of Gaul and Illyricum to Malarich, a brave and faithful officer of the nation of the Franks, and to his father-in-law, Count Lucillian, who had formerly distinguished his courage and conduct in the defence of Nisibis. Malarich had declined an office to which he thought himself unequal, and Lucillian was massacred at Rheims, in an accidental mutiny of the Batavian cohorts.12 But the moderation of Jovinus, master-general of the cavalry, who forgave the intention of his disgrace, soon appeased the tumult and confirmed the uncertain minds of the soldiers. The oath of fidelity was administered and taken with loyal acclamations, and the deputies of the Western armies 13 saluted their new sovereign as he descended from Mount Taurus to the city of Tyana, in Cappadocia. From Tyana he continued his hasty march to Ancyra, capital of the province of Galatia, where Jovian assumed, with his infant son, the name and ensigns of the consulship.14 Dadastana,15 an A.D. 364, obscure town, almost at an equal distance between Ancyra January 1. and Nice, was marked for the fatal term of his journey and his life. forgot the general toleration; and Themistius the establishment of the catholic religion. Each of them turned away from the object which he disliked, and wished to suppress the part of the edict the least honourable, in his opinion, to the emperor Jovian.

1 Οἱ δὲ ̓Αντιοχεῖς οὐχ ἡδέως διέκειντο πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀλλ' ἐπίσκωπτον αὐτὸν ᾠδαῖς καὶ παρῳδίαις xai Tois xahovμivos paucos (famosis libellis). Johan. Antiochen. in Excerpt. Valesian. p. 845. The libels of Antioch may be admitted on very slight evidence.

12 Compare Ammianus (xxv. 10), who omits the name of the Batavians, with Zosimus (1. iii. [c. 35] p. 197), who removes the scene of action from Rheims to Sirmium. 13 Quos capita scholarum ordo castrensis appellat. Ammian. xxv. 10, and Vales. ad locum.

14 Cujus vagitus, pertinaciter reluctantis, ne in curuli sella veheretur ex more, id quod mox accidit portendebat. [Amm. 1. c.] Augustus and his successors respectfully solicited a dispensation of age for the sons or nephews whom they raised to the consulship. But the curule chair of the first Brutus had never been dishonoured by an infant.

15 The Itinerary of Antoninus fixes Dadastana 125 Roman miles from Nice, 117 from Ancyra (Wesseling, Itinerar. p. 142). The pilgrim of Bordeaux, by omitting some stages, reduces the whole space from 242 to 181 miles. Wesseling, p. 574.

232

Death of
Jovian,
Feb. 17.

[blocks in formation]

But

After indulging himself with a plentiful, perhaps an intemperate supper, he retired to rest, and the next morning the emperor Jovian was found dead in his bed. The cause of this sudden death was variously understood. By some it was ascribed to the consequences of an indigestion, occasioned either by the quantity of the wine or the quality of the mushrooms which he had swallowed in the evening. According to others, he was suffocated in his sleep by the vapour of charcoal, which extracted from the walls of the apartment the unwholesome moisture of the fresh plaster. 16 the want of a regular inquiry into the death of a prince whose reign and person were soon forgotten appears to have been the only circumstance which countenanced the malicious whispers of poison and domestic guilt.17 The body of Jovian was sent to Constantinople to be interred with his predecessors, and the sad procession was met on the road by his wife Charito, the daughter of Count Lucillian, who still wept the recent death of her father, and was hastening to dry her tears in the embraces of an Imperial husband. Her disappointment and grief were embittered by the anxiety of maternal tenderness. Six weeks before the death of Jovian, his infant son had been placed in the curule chair, adorned with the title of Nobilissimus and the vain ensigns of the consulship. Unconscious of his fortune, the royal youth, who from his grandfather assumed the name of Varronian, was reminded only by the jealousy of the government that he was the son of an emperor. Sixteen years afterwards he was still alive; but he had already been deprived of an eye, and his afflicted mother expected, every hour, that the innocent victim would be torn from her arms, to appease with his blood the suspicions of the reigning prince.18 After the death of Jovian the throne of the Roman world remained ten days 19 without a master. The ministers and generals still continued to meet in council, to exercise their respective functions, to maintain the public order, and peaceably to conduct the army to the city of Nice in Bithynia, which was chosen

Vacancy of the throne,

February 17-26.

16 See Ammianus (xxv. 10), Eutropius (x. 18 [9]), who might likewise be present; Jerom (tom. i. p. 26 [tom. i. p. 341 ed. Vallars.] ad Heliodorum), Orosius (vii. 31), Sozomen (1. vi. c. 6), Zosimus (1. iii. [c. 35] p. 197, 198), and Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiii. [c. 14] p. 28, 29). We cannot expect a perfect agreement, and we shall not discuss minute differences.

17 Ammianus, unmindful of his usual candour and good sense, compares the death of the harmless Jovian to that of the second Africanus, who had excited the fears and resentment of the popular faction.

18 Chrysostom, tom. i. p. 336-349, edit. Montfaucon. The Christian orator attempts to comfort a widow by the examples of illustrious misfortunes; and observes, that, of nine emperors (including the Cæsar Gallus) who had reigned in his time, only two (Constantine and Constantius) died a natural death. Such vague consolations have never wiped away a single tear.

19 Ten days appear scarcely sufficient for the march and election. But it may be observed-1. That the generals might command the expeditious use of the public

for the place of the election.20 In a solemn assembly of the civil and military powers of the empire, the diadem was again unanimously offered to the præfect Sallust. He enjoyed the glory of a second refusal; and, when the virtues of the father were alleged in favour of his son, the præfect, with the firmness of a disinterested patriot, declared to the electors that the feeble age of the one, and the unexperienced youth of the other, were equally incapable of the laborious duties of government. Several candidates were proposed, and, after weighing the objections of character or situation, they were successively rejected: but as soon as the name of Valentinian was pronounced, the merit of that officer united the suffrages of the whole assembly, and obtained the sincere approbation of Sallust himself. Valentinian 21 was the son of Count Gratian, a native of Cibalis, in Pannonia, who from an obscure condition had raised himself, Election by matchless strength and dexterity, to the military com- of Valen mands of Africa and Britain, from which he retired with an tinian. ample fortune and suspicious integrity. The rank and services of Gratian contributed, however, to smooth the first steps of the promoposts for themselves, their attendants, and messengers. 2. That the troops, for the ease of the cities, marched in many divisions; and that the head of the column might arrive at Nice, when the rear halted at Ancyra.

and character

20 Ammianus, xxvi. 1; Zosimus, 1. iii. [c. 36] p. 198; Philostorgius, 1. viii. c. 8; and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 334. Philostorgius, who appears to have obtained some curious and authentic intelligence, ascribes the choice of Valentinian to the præfect Sallust, the master-general Arintheus, Dagalaiphus count of the domestics, and the patrician Datianus, whose pressing recommendations from Ancyra had a weighty influence in the election.

21 Ammianus (xxx. 7, 9) and the younger Victor [Epit. c. 45] have furnished the portrait of Valentinian, which naturally precedes and illustrates the history of his reign.b

re attentius examinata hunc Secundum deprehendi alium esse a Salustio," &c. Vol. iii. p. 523, ed. Cant.-S.

"Not the præfect Sallust, but Secundus (Zsxoúvdou Te Tou krágxov). Gibbon seems to have been misled by a note of Godefroy: Valois says, "Gothofredus in an- b Symmachus, in a fragment of an notationibus ad hunc locum, notat hunc oration published by M. Mai, describes Secundum Præfectum Prætorio eundem Valentinian as born among the snows of esse cum Salustio; et olim quidem ita Illyria, and habituated to military labour senseram in Annot. ad lib. 22, Amm. amid the heat and dust of Libya: genitus Marc. p. 266, meamque opinionem secutus in frigoribus, educatus in solibus. Symm. est Gothofr. in dicto loco. Verum postea Orat. Frag. edit. Niebuhr, p. 5.-M. The following table exhibits the members of the family:Gratianus. |

Marina or Severa VALENTINIANUS I. = Justina,
Imp. b. 321, ob. 375.

[blocks in formation]

widow of
Magnentius.

VALENTINIANUS II.
Imp. b. 371, slain 392.

VALENS,

Imp. b. 329, slain 378.

-S.

226

REFLECTIONS ON THE DEATH

CHAP. XXIV. ruin of their altars, the other celebrated the marvellous deliverance of the church. The Christians applauded, in lofty and ambiguous strains, the stroke of divine vengeance which had been so long suspended over the guilty head of Julian. They acknowledged that the death of the tyrant, at the instant he expired beyond the Tigris, was revealed to the saints of Egypt, Syria, and Cappadocia;131 and instead of suffering him to fall by the Persian darts, their indiscretion ascribed the heroic deed. to the obscure hand of some mortal or immortal champion of the faith.132 Such imprudent declarations were eagerly adopted by the malice or credulity of their adversaries,133 who darkly insinuated or confidently asserted that the governors of the church had instigated and directed the fanaticism of a domestic assassin,134 Above sixteen years after the death of Julian, the charge was solemnly and vehemently urged in a public oration addressed by Libanius to the emperor Theodosius. His suspicions are unsupported by fact or argument, and we can only esteem the generous zeal of the sophist of Antioch for the cold and neglected ashes of his friend.135

and funeral of Julian.

It was an ancient custom in the funerals, as well as in the triumphs of the Romans, that the voice of praise should be corrected by that of satire and ridicule, and that, in the midst of the splendid pageants which displayed the glory of the living or of the dead, their imperfections should not be concealed from the eyes of the world.136 This custom was practised in the funeral of Julian. The comedians, who resented his contempt and aversion for the theatre, exhibited, with the applause of a Christian audience, the lively

but he is well satisfied that the real sufferings of Julian will far exceed the fabulous torments of Ixion or Tantalus.

131 Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 549) has collected these visions. Some saint or angel was observed to be absent in the night on a secret expedition, &c. 132 Sozomen (1. vi. 2) applauds the Greek doctrine of tyrannicide: but the whole passage, which a Jesuit might have translated, is prudently suppressed by the president Cousin.

133 Immediately after the death of Julian an uncertain rumour was scattered, telo cecidisse Romano. It was carried by some deserters to the Persian camp; and the Romans were reproached as the assassins of the emperor by Sapor and his subjects (Ammian. xxv. 6; Libanius de ulciscendà Juliani nece, c. xiii. p. 162, 163). It was urged, as a decisive proof, that no Persian had appeared to claim the promised reward (Liban. Orat. Parent. c. 141, p. 363). But the flying horseman who darted the fatal javelin might be ignorant of its effect, or he might be slain in the same action. Ammianus neither feels nor inspires a suspicion.

134 Ὅστις ἐντολὴν πληρῶν τῷ σφῶν αὐτῶν ἄρχοντι. This dark and ambiguous expression may point to Athanasius, the first without a rival of the Christian clergy (Libanius de uleis. Jul. nece, c. 5, p. 149. La Bléterie, Hist. de Jovien, tom. i. p. 179).

135 The orator (Fabricius, Biblioth. Græc. tom. vii. p. 145-179) scatters suspicions, demands an inquiry, and insinuates that proofs might still be obtained. He ascribes the success of the Huns to the criminal neglect of revenging Julian's death.

136 At the funeral of Vespasian, the comedian who personated that frugal emperor anxiously inquired how much it cost?-Fourscore thousand pounds (centies).-Give me the tenth part of the sum, and throw my body into the Tiber. Sueton. in Vespasian. c. 19, with the notes of Casaubon and Gronovius.

« ForrigeFortsett »