Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/659

Rh JULIANUS. !iid a private life at Athens (a. d. 355). Athens was then the centre of Greek learning, and there .1 ulian spent a short but delightful period in in- tercourse with the most celebrated philosophers, scholars, and artists of the time, and in the society of a company of young men who were devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, and among whom was Gregory Nazianzen, who became afterwards so celebrated as a Christian orator. Among those learned men Julian was not the least in renown, and he attracted universal attention both by his talents and his knowledge. The study of Greek literature and philosophy was his principal and favourite pursuit. He had been brought up by Greeks and among Greeks, and his predilection for whatever was Greek was of course very natural ; but he did not neglect Latin literature, and we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi, 5), that he had a fair knowledge of the Latin language, which was then still spoken at the court of Con- stantinople. While Julian lived in happy retire- ment at Athens, the emperor was bent down by the weight of public affairs, and the empire being exposed to the invasions of the Persians in the east, and of the Germans and Sarmatians in the west and the north, he followed the advice of Eusebia, in opposition to his eunuchs, in conferring the rank of Caesar upon Julian, who was accordingly re- called from Athens and summoned to Milan, where Constantius was residing. Julian obeyed reluc- tantly : the Greek Minerva had more charms for him than the Roman Jupiter, and he was too well acquainted with the mythology of his ancestors not to know that even the embraces of Jupiter are sometimes fatal. On the 6th of November, A. d. 355, Julian was solemnly proclaimed Caesar, and received, as a guarantee of the emperor's sincerity, the hand of his sister Helena, who was the youngest child of Constantino the Great. At the same time he was invested with the government of the provinces bej'ond the Alps, but some time elapsed before he set out for Gaul, where he was to reside, and during this time he began to accus- tom himself to behave with that composure and artificial dignity which suited a person of his exalted station, but which corresponded so little with his taste and habits. When he first entered upon public life he was timid and clumsy, and he Tised afterwards to laugh at his own awkwardness on those occasions. The internal peace of Gaul was still suffering from the consequences of the revolt of Sylvanus, and her frontiers were assailed by the Germans, who had crossed the Rhine, burnt Strassburg, Treves, Cologne, and many other flourishing cities, and made devastating inroads into the midland provinces of Gaul. Accustomed to the quiet occupations of a scholar, Julian seemed little fitted for the command in the field, but he found an experienced lieutenant in the person of the veteran general Sallustius, and the wisdom he had learned in the schools of Greece was not merely theoretical philosophy, but virtue : tempe- rate to the extreme, he despised the luxuries of a Roman court, and his food and bed were not better than those of a common soldier. In his adminis- tration he was just and forbearing; and never dis- couraged by adversity nor inflated by success, he showed himself worthy to reign over others, be- cause he could reign over himself. Julian arrived in Gaul late in A. D. 355, and, after having stayed the winter at Vienna (Vienne JULIANUS. 645 in Dauphin^), he set out in the spring of 35b' to drive the barbarians back over the Rhine. In this campaign he fought against the Alemanni, the invaders of Southern Gaul. He made their first acquaintance near Rheims, and paid dearly for it : they fell unexpectedly upon his rear, and two legions were cut to pieces. But as he nevertheless advanced towards the Rhine, it seems that the principal disadvantage of his defeat was only a loss of men. In the following spring (357 ) he intended to cross the Rhine, and to penetrate into the country of the Alemanni ; and he ^would have executed his plan but for the strange conduct of the Roman general Barbatio, who was on his march from Italy with an army of 25,000, or perhaps 30,000 men, in order to effect his junction with Julian. A sufficient number of boats was collected at Basel for the purpose of throwing a bridge over the Rhine, and provisions were kept there for supporting his troops, but Barbatio re- mained inactive on the left bank, and proved his treacherous designs by burning both the ships and the provisions. In consequence of this, Julian was compelled to adopt the defensive, and the Ale- manni, headed by their king Chnodomarius, crossed the Rhine, and took up a position near Strassburg (August, A. D. 357). Their army was 35,000 strong : Julian had only 1 3,000 veterans ; but he did not decline the engagement, and, after a terrible conflict, he gained a decisive victory, which was chiefly owing to the personal valour of the young prince. Six thousand of the barba- rians remained on the field, perhaps as many were slain in their flight or drowned in the Rhine, and their king Chnodomarius was made prisoner. The loss of the Romans in this memorable battle is stated by Ammianus Marcellinus to have been only 243 privates and four officers ; but this is not credible. Chnodomarius was well treated by Julian, who sent him to the court of Constantius. [Chnodomarius.] Immediately after this victory Julian invaded the territory of the Alemanni on the right bank of the Rhine, but more for the purpose of exhibit- ing his power than of making any permanent conquests, for he advanced only a few miles, and then returned and led his troops against the Franks, who had conquered the tract between the Scheldt, the Maas, and the Lower Rhine. Some of the Frankish tribes he drove back into Germany, and others he allowed to remain in Gaul, on con- dition of their submitting to the Roman authority. Upon this he invaded Germany a second time, in 358, and a third time in 359, in order to make the Alemanni desist from all further attempts upon Gaul, and he not only succeeded, but returned with 20,000 Romans, whom the Alemanni had taken, and whom he compelled them to give up. The peace of Gaul being now established, Julian exerted himself to rebuild the cities that had been ruined on the frontiers of Gennany : among those rebuilt and fortified by him were Bingen, Ander- nach, Bonn, and Neuss, and, without doubt, Cologne also, as this city had been likewise laid in ashes by the Germans. As the constant inroads of the barbarians had interrupted all agricultural pursuits in those districts, there was a great scarcity of corn, but Julian procured an abundant supply by sending six hundred barges to England, which came back with a sufficient quantity for both grinding and sowing. The minimum of the quau'- TT 3