Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/403

 OF THE ROMAN ExMPIRE. .385 legions, destitute of pay and provisions, of arms and CHAP, discipline, trembled at the approach, and even at the. " ' ' name, of the barbarians. Under these melancholy circumstances, an unexpe- Conduct of rienced youth was appointed to save and to govern the " "*"* provinces of Gaul, or rather, as he expresses it himself, to exhibit the vain image of imperial greatness. The retired scholastic educiition of Julian, in which he had been more conversant with books than with arms, with the dead than with the living, left him in profound ignorance of the practical arts of war and government ; and when he awkwardly repeated some military exer- cise M'hich it was necessary for him to learn, he ex- claimed with a sigh, " O Plato, Plato, what a task for a philosopher !" Yet even this speculative philosophy, which men of business are too apt to despise, had filled the mind of Julian with the noblest precepts and the most shining examples ; had anunated him with the love of virtue, the desire of /ame, and the contempt of death. The habits of taniperance recommended in the schools, are stili more essential in the severe disci- pline of a camp. The simple wants of nature regu- lated the measure of his food and sleep. I^lejecting with disdain the delicacies provided for his table, he satisfied his appetite with the coarse and common fare which was allotted to the meanest soldiers. Durinof the rigour of a Gallic winter, he never suffered a fire in his bedchamber ; and after a short and interrupted slumber, he frequently rose in the middle of the night from a carpet spread on the floor, to despatch any urgent business, to visit his rounds, or to steal a few moments for the prosecution of his favourite studies ". The precepts of eloquence, which he had hitherto practised on fancied topics of declamation, were more usefully applied to excite or to assuage the passions of embraced, are displayed by Ammianus, (xvi. 5.) who professes to praise, and by Julian himself, who affects to ridicule, (.Misopogon. p. 340.) a con- duct, which, in a prince of the house of Constantine, might justly excite the surprise of mankind. VOL. II. C C
 * The private life of Julian in Gaul, and the severe discipline which he