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THE emperor having extorted immense sums of money from the
Christians, hastening his expedition against the Persians, arrived
at Antioch in Syria. There, desiring to show the citizens how much
he affected glory, he unduly depressed the prices of commodities;
neither taking into account the circumstances of that time, nor
reflecting how much the presence of an army inconveniences the
population of the provinces, and of necessity lessens the supply of
provisions to the cities. The merchants and retailers therefore left
off trading, being unable to sustain the losses which the imperial
edict entailed upon them; consequently the necessaries failed. The
Antiochians not bearing the insult, -- for they are a people
naturally impatient with insult, -instantly broke forth into
invectives against Julian; caricaturing his beard also, which was a
very long one, and saying that it ought to be cut off and manufactured
into ropes. They added that the bull which was impressed upon his
coin, was a symbol of his having desolated the world. For the
emperor, being excessively superstitious, was continually sacrificing
bulls on the altars of his idols; and had ordered the impression of a
bull and altar to be made on his coin. Irritated by these scoffs, he
threatened to punish the city of Antioch, and returned to Tarsus in
Cilicia, giving orders that preparations should be made for his speedy
departure thence. Whence Libanius the sophist took occasion to
compose two orations, one addressed to the emperor in behalf of the
Antiochians, the other to the inhabitants of Antioch on the
emperor's displeasure. It is however affirmed that these compositions
were merely written, and never recited in public. Julian abandoning
his former purpose of revenging himself on his satirists by injurious
deeds, expended his wrath in reciprocating their abusive taunts; for
he wrote a pamphlet against them which he entitled Antiochicus, or
Misopogon, thus leaving an indelible stigma upon that city and its
inhabitants. But we must now speak of the evils which he brought upon
the Christians at Antioch.
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