A.D. 363. DIFFICULT SITUATION OF JULIAN. 211 69 march and combat; and the progress of the army was suspended by the precautions of a slow and dangerous retreat in the presence of an active enemy. Every day, every hour, as the supply diminished, the value and price of subsistence increased in the Roman camp. Julian, who always contented himself with such food as a hungry soldier would have disdained, distributed, for the use of the troops, the provisions of the Imperial household, and whatever could be spared from the sumpter-horses of the tribunes and generals. But this feeble relief served only to aggravate the sense of the public distress; and the Romans began to entertain the most gloomy apprehensions that, before they could reach the frontiers of the empire, they should all perish, either by famine or by the sword of the barbarians. 90 eyes Julian is mortally wounded. While Julian struggled with the almost insuperable difficulties of his situation, the silent hours of the night were still devoted to study and contemplation. Whenever he closed his in short and interrupted slumbers, his mind was agitated with painful anxiety: nor can it be thought surprising that the Genius of the empire should once more appear before him, covering with a funereal veil his head and his horn of abundance, and slowly retiring from the Imperial tent. The monarch started from his couch, and, stepping forth to refresh his wearied spirits with the coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery meteor, which shot athwart the sky, and suddenly vanished. Julian was convinced that he had seen the menacing countenance of the god of war;91 the council which he summoned, of Tuscan Haruspices, unanimously pronounced that he should abstain from action; but, on this occasion, necessity and reason were more prevalent than superstition; and the trumpets sounded at the break of day. The army marched through a hilly country; and the hills had been secretly occupied by the Persians. Julian led the van with the skill and attention of a .91 "In Mark Antony's retreat, an attic choenix sold for fifty drachma, or, in other words, a pound of flour for twelve or fourteen shillings; barley bread was sold for its weight in silver. It is impossible to peruse the interesting narrative of Plutarch (tom. v. p. 102–116 [c. 45]) without perceiving that Mark Antony and Julian were pursued by the same enemies and involved in the same distress. 90 Ammian. xxiv. 8, xxv. 1. Zosimus, 1. iii. [c. 27, seq.] p. 184, 185, 186. Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 134, 135, p. 357, 358, 359. The sophist of Antioch appears ignorant that the troops were hungry. 91 Ammian. xxv. 2. Julian had sworn in a passion, nunquam se Marti sacra facturum (xxiv. 6). Such whimsical quarrels were not uncommon between the gods and their insolent votaries; and even the prudent Augustus, after his fleet had been twice shipwrecked, excluded Neptune from the honours of public processions See Hume's Philosophical Reflections. Essays, vol. ii. p. 418. 92 They still retained the monopoly of the vain but lucrative science, which had been invented in Hetruria; and professed to derive their knowledge of signs and omens from the ancient books of Tarquitius, a Tuscan sage. 212 JULIAN MORTALLY WOUNDED CHAP. XXIV consummate general; he was alarmed by the intelligence that his rear was suddenly attacked. The heat of the weather had tempted him to lay aside his cuirass; but he snatched a shield from one of his attendants, and hastened, with a sufficient reinforcement, to the relief of the rear guard. A similar danger recalled the intrepid prince to the defence of the front; and, as he galloped between the columns, the centre of the left was attacked, and almost overpowered, by a furious charge of the Persian cavalry and elephants. This huge body was soon defeated, by the well-timed evolution of the light infantry, who aimed their weapons, with dexterity and effect, against the backs of the horsemen, and the legs of the elephants. The barbarians fled: and Julian, who was foremost in every danger, animated the pursuit with his voice and gestures. His trembling guards, scattered and oppressed by the disorderly throng of friends and enemies, reminded their fearless sovereign that he was without armour; and conjured him to decline the fall of the impending ruin. As they exclaimed, 93 As they exclaimed,93 a cloud of darts and arrows was discharged from the flying squadrons; and a javelin, after razing the skin of his arm, transpierced the ribs, and fixed in the inferior part of the liver. Julian attempted to draw the deadly weapon from his side; but his fingers were cut by the sharpness of the steel, and he fell senseless from his horse. His guards flew to his relief; and the wounded emperor was gently raised from the ground, and conveyed out of the tumult of the battle into an adjacent tent. The report of the melancholy event passed from rank to rank; but the grief of the Romans inspired them with invincible valour, and the desire of revenge. The bloody and obstinate conflict was maintained by the two armies till they were separated by the total darkness of the night. The Persians derived some honour from the advantage which they obtained against the left wing, where Anatolius, master of the offices, was slain, and the præfect Sallust very narrowly escaped. But the event of the day was adverse to the barbarians. They abandoned the field; their two generals, Meranes and Nohordates,94 fifty nobles or satraps, and a multitude of their bravest soldiers [were slain]:a and the success of the Romans, if Julian had survived, might have been improved into a decisive and useful victory. 93 Clamabant hinc inde candidati (see the note of Valesius) quos disjecerat terror, ut fugientium molem tanquam ruinam male compositi culminis declinaret. Ammian. XXV. 3. 94 Sapor himself declared to the Romans that it was his practice to comfort the families of his deceased satraps by sending them, as a present, the heads of the guards and officers who had not fallen by their master's side. Libanius, de nece Julian. ulcis. c. xiii. p. 163. The words in brackets are not in the 4to. edition; but it would seem that these words or something equivalent were accidentally omitted, as the text is nearly A.D. 363. 66 The death of Julian, A.D. 363, June 26. The first words that Julian uttered, after his recovery from the fainting fit into which he had been thrown by loss of blood, were expressive of his martial spirit. He called for his horse and arms, and was impatient to rush into the battle. His remaining strength was exhausted by the painful effort; and the surgeons, who examined his wound, discovered the symptoms of approaching death. He employed the awful moments with the firm temper of a hero and a sage; the philosophers who had accompanied him in this fatal expedition compared the tent of Julian with the prison of Socrates; and the spectators, whom duty, or friendship, or curiosity, had assembled round his couch, listened with respectful grief to the funeral oration of their dying emperor.95 "Friends and "fellow-soldiers, the seasonable period of my departure is now arrived, and I discharge, with the cheerfulness of a ready debtor, "the demands of nature. I have learned from philosophy how "much the soul is more excellent than the body; and that the "separation of the nobler substance should be the subject of joy, "rather than of affliction. I have learned from religion that an "early death has often been the reward of piety;96 and I accept, as a favour of the gods, the mortal stroke that secures me from "the danger of disgracing a character which has hitherto been "supported by virtue and fortitude. I die without remorse, as I "have lived without guilt. I am pleased to reflect on the innocence "of my private life; and I can affirm with confidence that the supreme authority, that emanation of the Divine Power, has been preserved in my hands pure and immaculate. Detesting the corrupt and destructive maxims of despotism, I have considered the happiness of the people as the end of government. Submitting my "actions to the laws of prudence, of justice, and of moderation, I "have trusted the event to the care of Providence. Peace was the "object of my counsels, as long as peace was consistent with the "public welfare; but when the imperious voice of my country "summoned me to arms, I exposed my person to the dangers of war, "with the clear fore-knowledge (which I had acquired from tne art 66 66 66 66 95 The character and situation of Julian might countenance the suspicion that he had previously composed the elaborate oration, which Ammianus heard, and has transcribed. The version of the Abbé de la Bléterie is faithful and elegant. I have followed him in expressing the Platonic idea of emanations, which is darkly insinuated in the original. 96 Herodotus (1. i. c. 31) has displayed that doctrine in an agreeable tale. Yet the Jupiter (in the 16th book of the Iliad), who laments with tears of blood the death of Sarpedon his son, had a very imperfect notion of happiness or glory beyond the grave. translation of the following passage of Ammianus: " Quinquaginta tum Persa rum optimates et satrapa cum plebe maxima ceciderunt, inter has turbas Merena et Nohodare, potissimis ducibus, interfectis" (l. xxv. c. 3).—S. 214 66 66 66 DEATH OF JULIAN CHAP. XXIV. "of divination) that I was destined to fall by the sword. I now offer my tribute of gratitude to the Eternal Being, who has not suffered "me to perish by the cruelty of a tyrant, by the secret dagger of "conspiracy, or by the slow tortures of lingering disease. He has "given me, in the midst of an honourable career, a splendid and glorious departure from this world; and I hold it equally absurd, "equally base, to solicit, or to decline, the stroke of fate.-Thus "much I have attempted to say; but my strength fails me, and I "feel the approach of death.-I shall cautiously refrain from any "word that may tend to influence your suffrages in the election of an emperor. My choice might be imprudent or injudicious; and "if it should not be ratified by the consent of the army, it might be "fatal to the person whom I should recommend. I shall only, as a "good citizen, express my hopes that the Romans may be blessed "with the government of a virtuous sovereign." After this discourse, which Julian pronounced in a firm and gentle tone of voice, he distributed, by a military testament," the remains of his private fortune; and making some inquiry why Anatolius was not present, he understood, from the answer of Sallust, that Anatolius was killed; and bewailed, with amiable inconsistency, the loss of his friend. At the same time he reproved the immoderate grief of the spectators; and conjured them not to disgrace, by unmanly tears, the fate of a prince who in a few moments would be united with heaven and with the stars.98 The spectators were silent; and Julian entered into a metaphysical argument with the philosophers Priscus and Maximus on the nature of the soul. The efforts which he made, of mind as well as body, most probably hastened his death. His wound began to bleed with fresh violence: his respiration was embarrassed by the swelling of the veins: he called for a draught of cold water, and, as soon as he had drunk it, expired without pain, about the hour of midnight. Such was the end of that extraordinary man, in the thirty-second year of his age, after a reign of one year and about eight months from the death of Constantius. In his last moments he displayed, perhaps with some ostentation, the love of virtue and of fame, which had been the ruling passions of his life.99 97 The soldiers who made their verbal or nuncupatory testaments upon actual service (in procinctû) were exempted from the formalities of the Roman law. See Heineccius Antiquit. Jur. Roman. tom. i. p. 504) and Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxvii.). 98 This union of the human soul with the divine ætherial substance of the universe is the ancient doctrine of Pythagoras and Plato, but it seems to exclude any personal or conscious immortality. See Warburton's learned and rational observations. Divine Legation, vol. ii. p. 199-216. 99 The whole relation of the death of Julian is given by Ammianus (xxv. 3), an intelligent spectator. Libanius, who turns with horror from the scene, has supplied A.D. 363. CHOICE OF A SUCCESSOR. Jovian, June 27. 216 The triumph of Christianity, and the calamities of the empire, may, in some measure, be ascribed to Julian himself, who Election of had neglected to secure the future execution of his designs the emperor by the timely and judicious nomination of an associate and A.D. 363, successor. But the royal race of Constantius Chlorus was reduced to his own person; and if he entertained any serious thoughts of investing with the purple the most worthy among the Romans, he was diverted from his resolution by the difficulty of the choice, the jealousy of power, the fear of ingratitude, and the natural presumption of health, of youth, and of prosperity. His unexpected death left the empire without a master, and without an heir, in a state of perplexity and danger which, in the space of fourscore years, had never been experienced, since the election of Diocletian. In a government which had almost forgotten the distinction of pure and noble blood, the superiority of birth was of little moment; the claims of official rank were accidental and precarious; and the candidates who might aspire to ascend the vacant throne could be supported only by the consciousness of personal merit, or by the hopes of popular favour. But the situation of a famished army, encompassed on all sides by an host of barbarians, shortened the moments of grief and deliberation. In this scene of terror and distress, the body of the deceased prince, according to his own directions, was decently embalmed; and, at the dawn of day, the generals convened a military senate, at which the commanders of the legions, and the officers both of cavalry and infantry, were invited to assist. Three or four hours of the night had not passed away without some secret cabals; and when the election of an emperor was proposed, the spirit of faction began to agitate the assembly. Victor and Arinthæus collected the remains of the court of Constantius; the friends of Julian attached themselves to the Gallic chiefs Dagalaiphus and Nevitta; and the most fatal consequences might be apprehended from the discord of two factions, so opposite in their some circumstances (Orat. Parental. c. 136-140, p. 359-362). The calumnies of Gregory, and the legends of more recent saints, may now be silently despised." • A very remarkable fragment of Eunapius describes, not without spirit, the struggle between the terror of the army on account of their perilous situation, and their grief for the death of Julian."Even the vulgar felt that they would soon provide a general, but such a general as Julian they would never find, even though a god in the form of man—λαròs 9iós. Julian, who, with a mind equal to the divinity, triumphed over the evil propensities of human nature, who held commerce with immaterial beings while yet in the material body-who condescended to rule because a ruler was necessary to the welfare of mankind." Mai, Nov. Coll. ii. 261. Eunapius, ed. Niebuhr, p. 69.-The Arròs us, to which Julian is thus advantageously compared, is manifestly, as M. Mai observes, a bitter sneer at the Incarnate Deity of the Christians. The fragment is followed by an indignant comment by some Chris. tian writer. Ibid.-M. |