Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/380

 S62 THE DECLINE AND FALL ^y'^^* ^^^^ affections of the strangers, as well as citizens, with '__ whom he conversed. Some of his fellow students might perhaps examine his behaviour with an eye of preju- dice and aversion; but Julian established, in the schools of Athens, a general prepossession in favour of his vir- tues and talents, which was soon diffused over the Ro- man world ^ Recalled to Whilst his hours were passed in studious retirement, ' ^"* the empress, resolute to achieve the generous design which she had undertaken, was not unmindfvd of the care of his fortune. The death of the late Caesar had left Constantius invested with the sole command, and oppressed by the accumulated weight of a mighty em- pire. Before the wounds of civil discord could be healed, the provinces of Gaul were overwhelmed by a deluge of barbarians. The Sarmatians no longer respected the barrier of the Danube. The impunity of rapine had increased the boldness and numbers of the wild Isaurians : those robbers descended from their craggy mountains to ravage the adjacent country, and had even presumed, though without success, to besiege the important city of Seleucia, which was defended by a gar- rison of three Roman legions. Above all, the Persian monarch, elated by victory, again threatened the peace of Asia; and the presence of the emperor was indis- pensably required, both in the west and in the east. For the first time, Constantius sincerely acknowledged, that his single strength was unequal to such an extent of care and of dominion ^. Insensible to the voice of flattery, which assured him that his all-powerful virtue, and celestial fortune, would still continue to triumph f Libanius and Gregory Nazianzen have exhausted the arts as well as the powers of their eloquence, to represent Julian as the first of heroes, or the worst of tyrants. Gregory was his fellow student at Athens; and the symptoms, which he so tragically describes, of the future wickedness of the apostate, amount only to some bodily imperfections, and to some peculiari- ties in his speech and manner. He protests, however, that he then foresaw and foretold the calamities of the church and state : Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 121, 122. B Succumbere tot necessitatibus tamque crebris unum se quod nunquam fecerat aperte demonstrans. Ammian. 1. xv. c. 8. He then expresses, in their own words, the flattering assurances of the courtiers.