20. When the body of the deceased emperor had been laid out, and placed in a coffin, Jovianus, at that time the chief officer of the guard, was ordered to attend it with royal pomp to Constantinople, to be buried among his relations.

21. While he was proceeding on the vehicle which bore the remains, samples of the military provisions were brought to him as an offering, as is usual in the case of princes; and the public animals were paraded before him; and a concourse of people came out to meet him as was usual; which, with other similar demonstrations, seemed to portend to Jovianus, as the superintendent of his funeral, the attainment of the empire, but an authority only curtailed and shadowy.

BOOK XXII

ARGUMENT.

I. From fear of Constantius Julian halts in Dacia, and secretly consults the augurs and soothsayers.-II. When he hears of Constantius's death he passes through Thrace, and enters Constantinople, which he finds quiet; and without a battle becomes sole master of the Roman empire.-III. Some of the adherents of Constantius are condemned, some deservedly, some wrongfully.IV. Julian expels from the palace all the eunuchs, barbers, and cooks-A statement of the vices of the eunuchs about the palace, and the corrupt state of military discipline.-V. Julian openly professes his adherence to the pagan worship, which he had hitherto concealed; and lets the Christian bishops dispute with one another. VI. How he compelled some Egyptian litigants, who modestly sought his intervention, to return home.-VII. At Constantinople he often administers justice in the senate-house; he arranges the affairs of Thrace, and receives anxious embassies from foreign nations.-VIII. A description of Thrace, and of the Sea of Marmora, and of the regions and nations contiguous to the Black Sea.-IX. Having enlarged and beautified Constantinople, Julian goes to Antioch; on his road he joins the citizens of Nicomedia moving to restore their city; and at Ancyra presides in the court of justice.-X. He winters at Antioch, and presides in the court of justice; and oppresses no one on account of his religion.-XI. George, bishop of Alexandria, with two others, is dragged through the streets by the Gentiles of Alexandria, and

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PROCEEDINGS OF JULIAN.

277 torn to pieces and burnt, without any one being punished for this action.-XII. Julian prepares an expedition against the Persians, and, in order to know beforehand the result of the war, he consults the oracles; and sacrifices innumerable victims, devoting himself wholly to soothsaying and augury.-XIII. He unjustly attributes the burning of the temple of Apollo at Daphne to the Christians, and orders the great church at Antioch to be shut up. -XIV. He sacrifices to Jupiter on Mount Casius-Why he writes the Misopogon in his anger against the citizens of Antioch.XV. A description of Egypt; mention of the Nile, the crocodile, the ibis, and the pyramids.-XVI. Description of the five provinces of Egypt, and of their famous cities.

I.

A.D. 361.

§ 1. WHILE the variable events of fortune were bringing to pass these events in different parts of the world, Julian, amid the many plans which he was revolving while in Illyricum, was continually consulting the entrails of victims and watching the flight of birds in his eagerness to know the result of what was about to happen.

2. Aprunculus Gallus, an orator and a man of skill as a soothsayer, who was afterwards promoted to be governor of Narbonne, announced these results to him, being taught beforehand by the inspection of a liver, as he affirmed, which he had seen covered with a double skin. And while Julian was fearing that he was inventing stories to correspond with his desires, and was on that account out of humour, he himself beheld a far more favourable omen, which clearly predicted the death of Constantius. For at the same moment that that prince died in Cilicia, the soldier who, as he was going to mount his horse, had supported him with his right hand, fell down, on which Julian at once exclaimed, in the hearing of many persons, that he who had raised him to the summit had fallen.

3. But he did not change his plans, but remained within the border of Dacia, still being harassed with many fears. Nor did he think it prudent to trust to conjectures, which might perhaps turn out contrary to his expectations.

II.

§ 1. BUT while he was thus in suspense, the ambassadors, Theolaiphus and Aligildus, who had been despatched to

him to announce the death of Constantius, suddenly ar rived, adding that that prince with his last words had named him as his successor in his dignity.

2. As soon as he learnt this, being delighted at his deliverance from the turmoils of war and its consequent disorders, and fully relying on the prophecies he had received, having besides often experienced the advantages of celerity of action, he issued orders to march to Thrace. Therefore speedily advancing his standards, he passed over the high ground occupied by the Succi, and marched towards the ancient city of Eumolpias, now called Philippopolis, all his army following him with alacrity.

3. For they now saw that the imperial power which they were on their way to seize, in the face of imminent danger, was in a measure beyond their hopes put into their hands by the course of nature. And as report is wont marvellously to exaggerate events, a rumour got abroad that Julian, formidable both by sea and land, had entered Heraclea, called also Perinthus, borne over its unresisting walls on the chariot of Triptolemus, which from its rapid movements the ancients, who loved fables, had stated to be drawn by flying serpents and dragons.

4. When he arrived at Constantinople, people of every age and sex poured forth to meet him, as though he were some one dropped from heaven. On the eleventh of December he was received with respectful duty by the senate, and by the unanimous applause of the citizens, and was escorted into the city by vast troops of soldiers and civilians, marshalled like an army, while all eyes were turned on him, not only with the gaze of curiosity, but with great admiration.

5. For it seemed to them like a dream, that a youth in the flower of his age, of slight body, but renowned for great exploits, after many victories over barbarian kings and nations, having passed from city to city with unparalleled speed, should now, by an accession of wealth and power as rapid as the spread of fire, have become the unresisted master of the world; and the will of God itself having given him the empire, should thus have obtained it without any injury to the state.

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SEVERITIES OF JULIAN.

279

III.

1. His first step was to give to Secundus Sallustius, whom he promoted to be prefect of the prætorium, being well assured of his loyalty, a commission to conduct some important investigations, joining with him as colleagues Mamertinus, Arbetio, Agilo, and Nevitta, and also Jovinus, whom he had recently promoted to the command of the cavalry in Illyricum.

2. They all went to Chalcedon, and in the presence of the chiefs and tribunes, the Jovian and Herculian legions, they tried several causes with too much rigour, though there were some in which it was undeniable that the accused were really guilty.

3. They banished Palladius, the master of the ceremonies, to Britain, though there was but a suspicion that he had prejudiced Constantius against Gallus, while he was master of the ceremonies under that prince as Cæsar.

4. They banished Taurus, who had been prefect of the prætorium, to Vercelli, who, to all persons capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, will appear very excusable in respect to the act for which he was condemned. For his offence was only that, fearing a violent disturbance which had arisen, he fled to the protection of his prince. And the treatment inflicted on him could not be read without great horror, when the preamble of the public accusation began thus:-"In the consulship of Taurus and Florentius, Taurus being brought before the criers-"

5. Pentadius also was destined for a similar sentence; the charge against him being that, having been sent on a mission by Constantius, he had made notes of the replies given by Gallus when he was examined on several subjects before he was put to death. But as he defended himself with justice, he was at last discharged.

6. With similar iniquity, Florentius, at that time master of the ceremonies, the son of Nigrinianus, was banished to Boæ, an island on the coast of Dalmatia. The other Florentius, who had been prefect of the prætorium, and was then consul, being alarmed at the sudden change in the aspect of affairs, in order to save himself from danger,

hid himself and his wife for some time, and never returned during Julian's life; still he was, though absent, condemned to death.

7. In the same way, Evagrius, the comptroller of the private demesnes of the emperor, and Saturninus, late superintendent of the palace, and Cyrinus, late secretary, were all banished. But Justice herself seems to have mourned over the death of Ursulus, the treasurer, and to accuse Julian of ingratitude to him. For when, as Cæsar, he was sent to the west, with the intent that he was to be kept in great poverty, and without any power of making presents to any of his soldiers, in order to make them less inclined to favour any enterprise which he might conceive, this same Ursulus gave him letters to the superintendent of the Gallic treasury, desiring him to give the Cæsar whatever he might require.

8. After his death, Julian, feeling that he was exposed to general reproach and execration, thinking that an unpardonable crime could be excused, affirmed that the man had been put to death without his being aware of it, pretending that he had been massacred by the fury of the soldiers, who recollected what he had said (as we mentioned before) when he saw the destruction of Amida.

9. And therefore it seemed to be through fear, or else from a want of understanding what was proper, that he appointed Arbetio, a man always vacillating and arrogant, to preside over these investigations, with others of the chief officers of the legions present for the look of the thing, when he knew that he had been one of the chief enemies to his safety, as was natural in one who had borne a distinguished share in the successes of the civil war.

10. And though these transactions which I have mentioned vexed those who wished him well, those which came afterwards were carried out with a proper vigour and severity.

11. It was only a deserved destiny which befel Apodemius, who had been the chief steward, and whose cruel machinations with respect to the deaths of Silvanus and Gallus we have already mentioned, and Paulus, the secretary, surnamed "The Chain," men who are never spoken of without general horror, and who were now sentenced to be burnt alive.