Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/661

Rh JULIANUS. Julian, m which he proclaimed a perfect toleration of all parties. He was not, however, impartial in his conduct towards the Christians, since he pre- ferred pagans as his civil and military officers, forbade the Christians to teach rhetoric and gram- mar in the schools, and, in order to annoy them, allowed the Jews to rebuild their great teuiple at Jerusalem*, and compelled the followers of Jesus to pa}' money towards the erection of pagan temples, and, in some instances, to assist in building them. Had Julian lived longer he would have seen that his apostacy was not followed by those effects, either religious or political, which he flattered himself would take place : he would have learnt that paganism, as he understood it, was not the religion of the great mass of pagans, and that paganism, as it actually existed, was a rotten institution, desti- tute of all religious and moral discipline ; and he would have witnessed that, however divided the Christians were, there was something better and healthier in Christianity than futile subjects for sul)t!e controversies. Soon after his accession Julian set out for Antioch, where he remained some time busy in organising a powerful army for the invasion, and perhaps subjugation, of Persia, The people of Antioch received him coolly : they were Christians, but also the most frivolous and luxurious people in the East, and they despised the straightforward and somewhat rustic manners of an emperor who had formed his character among stern Celts and Germans. At Antioch Julian made the acquaint- ance of the orator Libanius ; but the latter was unable to reconcile the emperor to the sort of life which prevailed in that splendid city. He there- fore withdrew to Tarsus in Cilicia, where he took up his wniter- quarters. In the following spring (March, 363) he set out for Persia. The different corps of his army met at Hierapolis, where they passed the Euphrates on a bridge of boats, and thence moved to Carrhae, now Harran, a town in Mesopotamia about fifty miles E. N. E. from Hierapolis. Julian's plan was to march upon Ctesiphon, but in order to deceive the Persian king, Sapor, he despatched Procopius and Sebas- tianus with 30,000 men against Nisibis (east of Carrhae), while he himself wheeled suddenly round to the south, following the course of the Euphrates on its left or Mesopotamian side. Procopius and Sebastianus were to join Arsaces Tiranus, king of Armenia, and Julian expected to effect a junction with their united forces in the environs of Ctesi- phon ; but the treachery of Arsaces prevented the accomplishment of his plan, as is mentioned below [Compare Vol. I. p. 363, b.]. While Julian marched along the Euphrates in a south-eastern direction, he was accompanied by a fleet of 1100 ships, fifty of which were well-armed galleys, and the rest barges, carrying a vast supply of provisions and military stores. At Circesium, situated on the confluence of the Chaboras, now the Khabur, with the Euphrates, he arrived at the Persian frontier, which ran along the lower part of the Chaboras, and he fntered the Persian territory on the 7th of April, 363, at the head of an army of 65,000 veterans. The bridge of the Chaboras was broken rupted the Jews in this work, see the judicious re- marks in Lardner's Jewish and Heatlien Testimonies, vol. 'y. JULIANUS. W7 down behind them by his orders, to convince tfie soldiers that a retreat was no plan of their master. From Circesium he continued marching along the Euphrates till he came to that narrow neck of land which separates the Euphrates from the Tigris in the latitude of Ctesiphon. This portion of the route lies partly through a dreary desert, where the Romans experienced some trifling losses from the light Persian horse, who hovered round them, and occasionally picked up stragglers or assailed the rear or tlie van. Previous to crossing the neck of land, Julian besieged, stormed, and burned Peri- sabor, a large town on the Euphrates ; and whiie crossing that tract, he was delayed some time under the walls of Maogamalcha, which he like- wise took after a short siege and razed to the ground. Julian now accomplished a most difficult and extraordinary task : he conveyed his whole fleet across the above-mentioned neck of land, b)' an ancient canal called Nahar-Malcha, which, how- ever, he was obliged to deepen before he could trust his ships in such a passage ; and, as the canal joined the Tigris below Ctesiphon, he looked for and found an old cut, dug by Trajan, from Colche to a place somewhat above Ctesiphon, which, however, he was likewise compelled to make deeper and broader, so that at last his fleet run safely out into the Tigris. The canal of Nahar- Malcha is now called the canal of Saklawiyeh, or Isa ; it joins the Tigris a little below Baghdad, and it still affords a communication between the two rivers. Through a very skilful manoeuvre, he brought over his army on the left bank of the Tigris, — a passage not only extremely difficult on account of the rapid current of the Tigris, but rendered still more so through the stout resistance of a Persian army, which, however, was routed and pursued to the walls of Ctesiphon. The city would have been entered by the Roman's together with the fugitive Persians, but for the death of their leader, Victor. Julian was now looking out for the arrival of Procopius and Sebastianus, and the main army of the Armenian king, Arsaces or Tiranus. He was sadly disappointed: his lieutenants did not arrive, and Tiranus arranged for a body of his Armenians to desert which had joined the Romans previously, and which now secretly withdrew from the Roman camp at Ctesiphon. Julian neverthe- less began the siege of that vast city, which was defended by the flower of the Persian troops, king Sapor, with the main body of his army, not having yet arrived from the interior of Persia. Unable to take the city, and desirous of dispersing the king's army, Julian imprudently followed the advice of a Persian nobleman of great distinction, who appeared in the Roman camp under the pretext of being persecuted by Sapor, and who recommended the emperor to set out in search of the Persian king. In doing so, Julian would have been compelled to abandon his fleet on the Tigris to the attacks of a hostile and infuriated populace : this he avoided by setting fire to his ships, — the best thing he could have done, if his march into the interior of Persia had been dictated by absolute necessity ; but as he was not obliged to leave the city, even suc- cess would not have compensated for the loss of 1200 ships. In proportion as the Romans ad- vanced eastward, the country became more and more barren, and Sapor remained invisible. The treachery of the Persian noble was discovered after his secret flight, and Julian was obliged to retreat T T 4
 * Respecting the alleged miracle Avhich inter-