Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/660

Rh 646 JULIANUS. tity of com thus exported from England has been calculated at 120,000 quarters, and it has been justly observed that the state of agriculture in this country nniust have been in an advanced condition, since so much corn could be exported nearly alto- gether at the same time. Julian bestowed the same care upon the other provinces of Gaul, and the country evidently recovered under his admi- nistration, although the power with which he was invested was by no means extensive enough to check the system of rapacity and oppression which characterises the government of the later Roman emperors. His usual residence was Paris : he caused the large island in the Seine, which is now called rile de la Cite, and whereupon stood ancient Paris or Lutetia, to be surrounded by a stone wall and towers, and he built the Thermae Juliani, a palace with baths, the extensive remains of which, " les thermes de Julien," are still visible in the Rue de la Harpe, between the palace of Cluny and the School of Medicine. While Julian became more and more popular in the provinces entrusted to his administration, and his fame was spreading all over the empire, Con- stantius once more gave way to the suggestions of jealousy and distrust, and believed that Julian aimed at popularity in order to gain for himself the supreme authority. It happened that in a. d. 360 the eastern provinces were again threatened by the Persians. Constantius commanded Julian to send to the frontiers of Persia four of his best legions and a number of picked soldiers from his other troops, apparently that he might be able to apprehend him, which it was impossible to do •while he was surrounded by so many thousands of devoted warriors. This order surprised Julian in April 360 : to obey it was to expose Gaul to new inroads of the Germans, and Britain to the ra- vages of the Scots and Picts, whose incursions had assumed such a dangerous character that Julian had just despatched Lupicinus to defend the island ; but to disobey the order was open revolt. His soldiers also were unwilling to march into Asia ; but Julian, notwithstanding the dangers that awaited hira, resolved to obey, and endeavoured to persuade his troops to submit quietly to the will of their master. His endeavours were in vain. In the night large bodies of soldiers surprised the palace of Julian, and proclaimed him emperor. He had hid himself in his apartments ; but they soon dis- covered him, dragged him, though respectfully, before the assembled troops, and compelled him to accept the crown. Upon this he despatched Pen- tadius and Eutherius with a conciliatory message to Constantius, in which, however, he positively demanded to be acknowledged as Augustus, and to be invested with the supreme authority in those provinces over which he had ruled as Caesar, viz. Gaul, Spain, and Britain. The conditions of Julian •were haughtily declined ; and after a considerable time had elapsed in fruitless negotiations, which Julian employed in making two more expeditions beyond the Rhine against the Franks and the Alemanni, he at last resolved to wage open war, and to march upon Constantinople. His army was numerous and well disciplined, and the frontier along the Rhine in an excellent state of defence : his troops, who had refused leaving Gaul without him, now joyfully left it with him. Meanwhile, Constantius likewise collected a strong army, and gave directions for the defence of his capital from JULIANUS. Antioch, from whence he had superintended the Persian war. Informed of his plans, Julian re- solved to thwart tliem by quickness and energy. At Basel on the Rhine he divided his army into two corps: one, commanded by Novitta, was to march through Rhaetia and Noricum ; the other, under the orders of Jovius and Jovinus, was to cross the Alps and march through the north-eastern comer of Italy : both divisions were to unite at Sirmium, a town on the Savus, now Save. Julian, at the head of a small but chosen body of 3000 veterans, plunged into the wildernesses of the Marcian, now Black Forest ; and for some time the rival of Constantius seemed to be lost in those dark glens whence issue the sources of the Danube. But when Novitta, Jovius and Jovinus arrived at Sirmium, they be- held, to their joy and astonishment, the active Julian with his band, who had descended the Danube and had already defeated the extreme out- posts of Lucilian, the lieutenant of Constantius in those regions. From Sirmium Julian moved upon Constanti- nople : the officers of Constantius fled before him, but the inhabitants received him with acclamations of joy ; and at Athens, Rome, and other important cities, he was either publicly or privately acknow- ledged as emperor, having previously sent expla- natory letters to the authorities of those distant places. Informed of the unexpected appearance of Julian on the Danube, Constantius set out from Syria to defend his capital ; and a terrible civil war threatened to desolate Italy and the East, when Constantius suddenly died at Mopsocrene in Cilicia, on the third of November, a. d. 361, leaving the whole empire to the undisputed posses- sion of Julian. On the 11th of December follow- ing, Julian made his triumphal entrance into Con- stantinople. Shortly afterwards the mortal remains of Constantius arrived in the Golden Horn, and were buried by Julian in tlie church of the Holy Apostles with great solemnity and magnificence. While Julian thus gave a Christian burial to the body of his rival, he had long ceased to be a Christian himself. According to Julian's own statement (Epist. ii.). he was a Christian up to his twentieth year ; and the manner in which he praises his tutor, Mardonius, seems to imply that Mardonius and the philosopher Maximus first caused him to love the religion of the ancient Greeks, without, however, precisely estranging him from the Christian religion, which seems to have been the effect of his study of the ancient Greek philo- sophers. The vile hypocrisy of the base and cruel Constantius, the conviction of Julian that Con- stantino the Great had at first protected, and after- wards embraced, Christianity from mere political motives, the persecuting spirit manifested equally by the Orthodox and Arians against one another, — • had also a great share in the conversion of Julian. During ten years he dissembled his apostacy, which was, however, known to many of his friends, and early suspected by his own brother Gallus ; and it was not till he had succeeded to the throne that he publicly avowed himself a pagan. Our space does not allow us to enter into the details of his apostacy, and we must refer the reader to the sources cited below. His apostacy was no sooner known than the Christians feared a cruel persecution, and the heathens hoped that paganism would be forced upon all who were not heathens ; but they were both disappointed by an edict of