ing violence of his torture should prove too much for his feeble limbs, so that he would expose numbers to be implicated in the accusations of atrocious crimes. But the result proved quite different to what had been expected.

2. For remembering a dream in which he had been for bidden, while asleep, as he affirmed, to accuse any innocent person, though he should be tortured till he was brought to the very point of death, he neither informed against, nor even named any one; but, with reference to the usurpation of Silvanus, he invariably asserted that he had been driven to contemplate that act, not out of ambition, but from sheer necessity; and he proved this assortion by evident argu

ments.

3. For he adduced one important excuse, which was established by the testimony of many persons, that, five days before he assumed the ensigns of imperial authority, he addressed the soldiers, while distributing their pay to them, in the name of Constantius, exhorting them to prove always brave and loyal. From which it was plain that if he had then been thinking of seizing on a loftier fortune, he would have given them this money as if it had proceeded from himself.

4. After Proculus, Pomenius was condemned and put to death; he who, as we have mentioned before,' when the Treveri had shut their gates against Cæsar Decentius, was chosen to defend that people. After him, Asclepiodotus, and Luto, and Maudio, all Counts, were put to death, and many others also, the obdurate cruelty of the times seeking for these and similar punishments with avidity.

VII.

§ 1. WHILE the fatal disturbances of the state multiplied these general slaughters, Leontius, who was the governor of Rome itself, gave many proofs of his deserving the character of an admirable judge; being prompt in hearing cases, rigidly just in deciding them, and merciful by nature, although, for the sake of maintaining lawful authority, he appeared to some people to be severe. He was also of a somewhat amorous temperament.

2. The first pretext for exciting any sedition against him

In one of the lost books of this history.

was a most slight and trumpery one. For when an order had been issued to arrest a charioteer, named Philoromus, the whole populace followed him, as if resolved to defend something of their own, and with terrible violence assailed the prefect, presuming him to be timorous. But he remained unmoved and upright, and sending his officers among the crowd, arrested some and punished them, and then, without any one venturing to oppose him, or even to murmur, condemned them to banishment.

3. A few days later the populace again became excited to its customary frenzy, and alleging as a grievance tho scarcity of wine, assembled at the well-known place called Septemzodium, where the Emperor Marcus built the Nymphæum,' an edifice of great magnificence. To that place the prefect went forthwith, although he was earnestly entreated by all his household and civil officers not to trust himself among an arrogant and threatening multitude, now in a state of fury equal to any of their former commotions; but he, unsusceptible of fear, went right onwards, though many of his attendants deserted him, when they saw him hastening into imminent danger.

4. Therefore, sitting in a carriage, with every appearance of confidence, he looked with fierce eyes at the countenance of the tumultuous mobs thronging towards him from all quarters, and agitating themselves like serpents. And after suffering many bitter insults, at last, when he had recognized one man who was conspicuous among all the rest by his vast size and red hair, he asked him whether his name was Petrus Valvomeres, as he had heard it was; and when the man replied in a defiant tone that it was so, Leontius, in spite of the outcrics of many around, ordered him to be seized as one who had long since been a notorious ringleader of the disaffected, and having his hands bound behind him, commanded him to be suspended on a rack.

5. And when he was seen in the air, in vain imploring

The Nymphæum was a templo sacred to the Nymphs, deriving its name of Septemzodium, or Septizonium (which it shared with more than one other building at Rome), from tho seven rows of pillars, ono above the other, and each row lessening both in circuit and in height. with which the exterior was embellished. Another temple of this kind was built by Septimius Severus.

the aid of his fellow-tribesmen, the whole mob, which a little while before was so closely packed, dispersed at once over the different quarters of the city, so as to offer no hindrance to the punishment of this seditious leader, who after having been thus tortured-with as little resist ance as if he had been in a secret dungeon of the court -was transported to Picenum, where, on a subsequent occasion, having offered violence to a virgin of high rank, ho was condemned to death by the judgment of l'atruinus, a noble of consular dignity.

6. While Leontius governed the city in this manner, Liberius, a priest of the Christian law, was ordered by Constantins to be brought before the council, as one who had resisted the commands of the emperor, and the decrees of many of his own colleagues, in an affair which I will explain briefly.

7. Athanasius was at that time bishop of Alexandria; and as he was a man who sought to magnify hi nself above his profession, and to mix himself up with affairs which did not belong to his province, as continual reports made known, an assembly of many of his sect ret together -a synod, as they call it-and deprived him of the right of administering the sacraments, which he previously enjoyed.

8. For it was said that he, being very deeply skilled in the arts of prophecy and the interpretation of auguries and omens, had very often predicted coming events. And to these charges were added others very inconsistent with the laws of the religion over which he presided.

9. So Liberius, being of the same opinion with those who condemned these practices, was ordered, by the sentence of the emperor, to expel Athanasius from his priestly seat; but this he firmly refused to do, reiterating the assertion that it was the extremity of wickedness to condemn a man who had neither been brought before any court nor been heard in his defence, in this openly resisting the commands of the emperor.

10. For that prince, being always unfavourable to Athanasius, although he knew that what he ordered had in fact taken effect, yet was exceedingly desirous that it should be confirmed by that authority which the bishops of the Eternal City enjoy, as being of higher rank. And as he did not succeed in this, Liberius was removed by

night; a measure which was not effected without great difficulty, through the fear which his enemies had of the people, among whom he was exceedingly popular.

VIII.

§ 1. THESE events, then, took place at Rome, as I have
already mentioned.
But Constantius was agitated by
frequent intelligence which assured him that the Gauls
were in a lamentable condition, since no adequate resist-
ance could be made to the barbarians who were now
carrying their devastations with fire and sword over the
whole country. And after deliberating a long time, in
great anxiety, what force ho could employ to repel these
dangers (himself remaining in Italy, as he thought it very
dangerous to remove into so remote a country), he at last
determined on a wise plan, which was this: to associate
with himself in the cares of the empire his cousin Julian,
whom he had some time before summoned to court, and
who still retained the robe he had worn in the Greek
schools.

2. And when, oppressed by the heavy weight of impending calamities, he had confessed to his dearest friends that by himself he was unequal to the burden of such weighty and numerous difficulties-a thing which he had never felt before-they, being trained to excessive flattery, tried to fill him with foolish ideas, affirming that there was nothing in the world so difficult but what his preeminent virtue and his good fortune, equal to that of the gods, would be able to overcome, as it always hitherto had done. And many of them added further, being stung by their consciousness of guilt, that henceforth he ought to beware of conferring the title of Cæsar on any one, enumerating the deeds which had been done in the time of Gallus.

3. They therefore opposed his design resolutely, and it was supported by no one but the queen, who, whether it was that she feared a journey to a distant country, or that, from her own natural wisdom, she saw the best course for the common good, urged him that a relation like Julian ought to be preferred to every one else. Accordingly,

after many undecided deliberations and long discussions, his resolution was at last taken decidedly, and having discarded all further vain debate, he resolved on associating Julian with him in the empire.

4. He was therefore summoned; and when he had arrived, on a fixed day, the whole of his fellow-comrades who were in the city were ordered to attend, and a tribunal was erected on a lofty scaffolding, surrounded by the eagles and standards. And Augustus, mounting it, and holding Julian by the right hand, made this conciliatory specch

5. "We stand here before you, most excellent defenders of the republic, to avenge with one unanimous spirit the common dangers of the state. And how I propose to provide for it I will briefly explain to you, as impartial judges.

6. "After the death of those rebellious tyrants whom rage and madness prompted to engage in the enterprises which they undertook, the barbarians, as if they meant to sacrifice unto their wicked manes with Roman blood, having violated the peace and invaded the territories of the Gauls, are encouraged by this consideration, that our empire, being spread over very remote countries, causes us to be beset with great difficulties.

7. "If, then, your decision and mine are mutual to encounter this evil, already progressing beyond the barriers which were opposed to it, while there is still time to check it, the necks of these haughty nations will learn to. humble their pride, and the borders of the empire will remain inviolate. It remains for you to give, by your strength, prosperous effect to the hopes which I entertain.

8. "You all know my cousin Julian, whom I here present to you; a youth endeared to us by his modesty as well as by his relationship; a youth of virtue already proved, and of conspicuous industry and energy. Him I have deter mined to raise to the rank of Caesar, and hope, if this seems expedient to you, to have my decision confirmed by your consent."

9. He was proceeding to say more, but was prevented by the whole assembly interrupting him with friendly shouts, declaring that his decision was the judgment of the Supreme Deity, and not of any human mind; with