The Empire'. 
209 
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Heraelea, all Constantinople poured out to meet him. It 
was in the thirty-second year of his age, that he 
acquired the undisturbed possession of the Roman world; 
and from the moment of his ascending the throne, he seems 
to have given himself up wholly to the duties of his station. 
He neither suffered his body nor his mind to be relaxed by 
sensual indulgences. He alike disdained the amusements of 
the theatre and the circus; and wrapped himself up in pagan 
philosophy, with which his mind had been early imbued. 
Though of low stature and unpleasing aspect, he was well 
made, active, and uncommonly expert in all his exercises. 
His memory was excellent, and he possessed much pene¬ 
tration and presence of mind. 
One of the first and most necessary acts of the government 
of Julian, was the reformation of the imperial court, in 
which he acted with indiscriminating severity, making no 
benevolent exceptions for the age, services, or poverty of 
the domestics of the late emperor’s family; but, by a single 
edict, reducing the palace to a desert. 
Having corrected the abuses, he next set about punishing 
the crimes of his predecessor’s reign. A court of inquiry 
was instituted for this purpose, which, in its ferocious zeal, 
sometimes included the innocent in the sentence of the 
guilty ; but the condemnation and death of Eusebius, who 
had long abused the favour of Constantius, was generally 
regarded as an act of justice. 
Julian discarded also the whole army of spies and in¬ 
formers which Constantius had kept in pay, esteeming it 
unworthy of him to indulge suspicion, or to be always on 
the watch for crime. He seemed to possess a love of free¬ 
dom ; and though his apostacy has tarnished the lustre of 
his character, he was not wholly destitute of liberality, 
even to those who opposed his favourite prejudices. 
However, though Julian was not intolerant, he shewed 
some partiality for the adherents and the converts to poly¬ 
theism. Though he overlooked the merit of Christian con¬ 
stancy, he nobly rewarded those Gentiles who had preferred 
their gods to the favour of his immediate predecessors; nor 
was he indifferent to the claims of the Christians who be¬ 
came proselytes to the ancient religion of the state. The 
natural temper of the soldiery, made his conquest over their 
religious tenets easy; and the weight of an army in the 
scale of despotism, rendered the pious seduction of impor¬ 
tance. The legions of Gaul devoted themselves to the faith 
as well the fortunes of Julian, and assisted with fervent de¬ 
votion and voracious appetite, at the sacrifices which were 
repeatedly offered of whole hecatombs of oxen. 
The restoration of the ancient temple of Jerusalem, 
attracted the ambitious mind of the emperor; who, in his en¬ 
mity to Christianity, flattered himself, that the completion of 
the undertaking would be, at least, to furnish a specious argu¬ 
ment against the faith of prophecy, and the truth of reve¬ 
lation. To accomplish this design, he employed one 
of his ablest generals, named Alypius; and ordered the 
governor of Palestine to lend his most strenuous support 
in restoring the work of Solomon to its pristine beauty. 
The Jews too, in hopes of obtaining a permanent settle¬ 
ment in the country that was still dear to them, flocked 
together from every part of the empire, and contributed 
both their fortune and their labour, to accelerate the wished - 
for event; but from reasons which have never been clearly 
made out the work made no progress. 
Julian having settled the internal policy of the empire, and 
heing possessed of the full powers both of body and mind, 
was desirous to signalize his reign by some splendid mili¬ 
tary achievements. Sapor presented an object worthy of 
his arms, and therefore he determined to chastise this 
haughty Persian, who had so long braved the power and 
majesty of Rome. 
Accordingly, a considerable army was levied, and the 
generals appointed, with which Julian set out from Constan¬ 
tinople ; and, marching through Asia Minor, reached An¬ 
tioch, a city with whose effeminate amusements and licen¬ 
tious manners the emperor was soon disgusted, as the in¬ 
habitants were with theausteritv of his behavjour. The Syrian 
M E. The Empire. 
Greeks even ventured to turn his person and pursuits into 
ridicule, and the streets resounded with songs and libels 
against the stoical apostate. Julian, however, with great, 
good humour, in return composed an ironical confession of 
his own faults, and a severe invective against the effeminate 
manners of Antioch; a performance which still remains, 
at once a monument of the wit and resentment of the 
emperor. 
At this town, as well as others which he passed through 
in the Persian expedition, Julian practised a variety of su¬ 
perstitious rites to propitiate the gods, and to discover the 
issue of the war. For this latter purpose, it is said, that he 
barbarously sacrificed young maidens, in order to consult 
their palpitating entrails; a crime so detestable, that it is 
difficult to believe the prejudiced Christian writers who 
assert it. It is certain, however, that he made offerings, and 
burnt incense to the olympian and to the infernal gods. 
But, while he thus sought support from supernatural 
means, he seems to have neglected those which were ob¬ 
vious and ready for forwarding his arms. With an ill- 
judged haughtiness, he rejected the offer made by the 
Saracens, to march in conjunction with him against the 
Persians. 
After various skirmishes, sieges, and toilsome marches, 
frequently made in opposition to the opinion of his best 
officers, he turned from the banks of the Tigris, where his 
fleet could supply provisions ; and with a singular infatua¬ 
tion caused the ships to be burnt, lest they should fall into 
the hands of his enemies during his absence. 
Trusting to the guides of the country, who had promised 
to conduct him by a short and easy route, he set out with 
his army ; but the fire, which was to consume the fleet, had 
scarcely begun to blaze, before the guides were discovered 
to be traitors to his cause. In vain did the Romans now 
attempt to extinguish the conflagration ; the whole fleet was 
destroyed in spite of their exertions. Julian hastened, as the 
only alternative, to meet the enemies ; who, on their part, 
advanced, but were beaten. They fled, and the imperial 
army pursuing them, soon found themselves in a ruined and 
desert country, from which it was impossible to draw sub¬ 
sistence. Still, however, they pressed on, hoping to arrive 
in more fertile regions; but the further they advanced the 
more melancholy was their prospect; while the Persians 
incessantly harrassed their march, and thousands perished 
by drought. 
But the necessity of the case compelled the emperor to 
pursue his march through a mountainous country, the hills 
of which had been secretly occupied by the Persians. An 
alarm that his rear was suddenly attacked, brought back the 
astonished emperor. Without his cuirass, and defended 
only by a shield which he had snatched from a soldier, he was 
exposed to a shower of missile weapons. A javelin, after 
razing the skin of his arm, transpierced the ribs, and stuck 
with its point in his liver. He fell senseless from his horse, 
and was borne to his tent. As the blood flowed copiously 
from the wound, it is said that he caught some of it in his 
hand, and sprinkling it towards the sun, exclaimed, “ O 
Galilean, thou hast conquered !” If this act really took 
place, it seems to imply a meditated defiance of heaven ; but 
it can scarcely be credited. He soon after expired, in the 
thirty-third year of his age, after a short reign of one year 
and eight months. A. D. 3G3. 
The death of Julian, in whom the race of Constantius 
Chlorus became extinct, left the empire without a master and 
without an heir. The situation of a famished army, encom¬ 
passed by a host of barbarians, shortened the moments of 
grief and deliberation ; and after the remains of the empe¬ 
ror were decently embalmed, in order to be interred at Tar¬ 
sus, the various officers of the army were summoned to assist 
in a military council. The merits of Sallust were unani¬ 
mously allowed; but the venerable prsefect, alleging his 
infirmities, strenuously declined the purple. While they 
debated, a few voices saluted Jovian, then in no higher rank 
than first domestic, with the titles of emperor and Augustus: 
the acclamation was repeated by the guards; and the new 
prince. 
