|
THE Emperor Constantius died on the frontiers of Cilicia on the
3d of November, during the consulate of Taurus and Florentius;
Julian leaving the western parts of the empire about the 11th of
December following, under the same consulate, came to
Constantinople, where he was proclaimed emperor. And as I must
needs speak of the character of this prince who was eminently
distinguished for his learning, let not his admirers expect that I
should attempt a pompous rhetorical style, as if it were necessary to
make the delineation correspond with the dignity of the subject: for my
object being to compile a history of the Christian religion, it is
both proper in order to the being better understood, and consistent
with my original purpose, to maintain a humble and unaffected style.
However, it is proper to describe his person, birth, education, and
the manner in which he became possessed of the sovereignty; and in
order to do this it will be needful to enter into some antecedent
details. Constantine who gave Byzantium his own name, had two
brothers named Dalmatius and Constantius, the offspring of the same
father, but by a different mother. The former of these had a son who
bore his own name: the latter had two sons, Gallus and Julian. Now
as on the death of Constantine who founded Constantinople, the
soldiery had put the younger brother Dalmatius to death, the lives of
his two orphan children were also endangered: but a disease which
threatened to be fatal preserved Gallus from the violence of his
father's murderers; while the tenderness of Julian's age -- for he
was only eight years old at the time -- protected him. The
emperor's jealousy toward them having been gradually subdued, Gallus
attended the schools at Ephesus in Ionia, in which country
considerable hereditary possessions had been left them. And Julian,
when he was grown up, pursued his studies at Constantinople, going
constantly to the palace, where the schools then were, in plain
clothes, under the superintendence of the eunuch Mardonius. In
grammar Nicocles the Lacaedemonian was his instructor; and Ecebolius
the Sophist, who was at that time a Christian, taught him rhetoric:
for the emperor had made the provision that he should have no pagan
masters, lest he should be seduced to the pagan superstitions. For
Julian was a Christian at the beginning. His proficiency in
literature soon became so remarkable, that it began to be said that he
was capable of governing the Roman empire; and this popular rumor
becoming generally diffused, greatly disquieted the emperor's mind,
so that he had him removed from the Great City to Nicomedia,
forbidding him at the same time to frequent the school of Libanius the
Syrian Sophist. For Libanius having been driven at that time from
Constantinople, by a combination of the educators there, had retired
to Nicomedia, where he opened a school. Here he gave vent to his
indignation against the educators in the treatise he composed regarding
them. Julian was, however, interdicted from being his auditor,
because Libanius was a pagan in religion: nevertheless he privately,
procured his orations, which he not only greatly admired, but also
frequently and with close study perused. As he was becoming very
expert in the rhetorical art, Maximus the philosopher arrived at
Nicomedia (not the Byzantine, Euclid's father) but the
Ephesian, whom the emperor Valentinian afterwards caused to be
executed as a practicer of magic. This took place later; at that time
the only thing that attracted him to Nicomedia was the fame of
Julian. From him [Julian] received, in addition to the principles
of philosophy, his own religious sentiments, and a desire to possess
the empire. When these things reached the ears of the emperor,
Julian, between hope and fear, became very anxious to lull the
suspicions which had been awakened, and therefore began to assume the
external semblance of what he once was in reality. He was shaved to
the very skin, and pretended to live a monastic life: and while in
private he pursued his philosophical studies, in public he read the
sacred writings of the Christians, and moreover was constituted a
reader in the church of Nicomedia. Thus by these specious pretexts he
succeeded in averting the emperor's displeasure. Now he did all this
from fear, but he by no means abandoned his hope; telling his friends
that happier times were not far distant, when he should possess the
imperial sway. In this condition of things his brother Gallus having
been created Caesar, on his way to the East came to Nicomedia to see
him. But when not long after this Gallus was slain, Julian was
suspected by the emperor; wherefore he directed that a guard should be
set over him: he soon, however, found means of escaping from them,
and fleeing from place to place he managed to be in safety. At last
the Empress Eusebia having discovered his retreat, persuaded the
emperor to leave him uninjured, and permit him to go to Athens to
pursue his philosophical studies. From thence -to be brief -- the
emperor recalled him, and after created him Caesar; in addition to
this, uniting him in marriage to his own sister Helen, he sent him
against the barbarians. For the barbarians whom the Emperor
Constantius had engaged as auxiliary forces against the tyrant
Magnentius, having proved of no use against the usurper, were
beginning to pillage the Roman cities. And inasmuch as he was young
he ordered him to undertake nothing without consulting the other
military chiefs.
Now these generals having obtained such authority, became lax in their
duties, and the barbarians in consequence strengthened themselves.
Julian perceiving this allowed the commanders to give themselves up to
luxury and revelling, but exerted himself to infuse courage into the
soldiery, offering a stipulated reward to any one who should kill a
barbarian. This measure effectually weakened the enemy and at the same
time conciliated to himself the affections of the army. It is reported
that as he was entering a town a civic crown which was suspended between
two pillars fell upon his head, which it exactly fitted: upon which
all present gave a shout of admiration, regarding it as a presage of
his one day becoming emperor. Some have affirmed that Constantius
sent him against the barbarians, in the hope that he would perish in an
engagement with them. I know not whether those who say this speak the
truth; but it certainly is improbable that he should have first
contracted so near an alliance with him, and then have sought his
destruction to the prejudice of his own interests. Let each form his
own judgment of the matter. Julian's complaint to the emperor of the
inertness of his military officers procured for him a coadjutor in the
command more in sympathy with his own ardor; and by their combined
efforts such an assault was made upon the barbarians, that they sent
him an embassy, assuring him that they had been ordered by the
emperor's letters, which were produced, to march into the Roman
territories. But he cast the ambassador into prison, and vigorously
attacking the forces of the enemy, totally defeated them; and having
taken their king prisoner, he sent him alive to Constantius.
Immediately after this brilliant success he was proclaimed emperor by
the soldiers; and inasmuch as there was no imperial crown at hand, one
of his guards took the chain which he wore about his own neck, and
bound it around Julian's head. Thus Julian became emperor: but
whether he subsequently conducted himself as became a philosopher, let
my readers determine. For he neither entered into communication with
Constantius by an embassy, nor paid him the least homage in
acknowledgment of past favors; but constituting other governors over
the provinces, he conducted everything just as it pleased him.
Moreover, he sought to bring Constantius into contempt, by reciting
publicly in every city the letters which he had written to the
barbarians; and thus having rendered the inhabitants of these places
disaffected, they were easily induced to revolt from Constantius to
himself. After this he no longer wore the mask of Christianity, but
everywhere opened the pagan temples, offering sacrifice to the idols;
and designating himself 'Pontifex Maximus,' gave permission to such
as would to celebrate their superstitious festivals. In this manner he
managed to excite a civil war against Constantius; and thus, as far
as he was concerned, he would have involved the empire in all the
disastrous consequences of a war. For this philosopher's aim could
not have been attained without much bloodshed: but God, in the
sovereignty of his own councils, checked the fury of these antagonists
without detriment to the state, by the removal of one of them. For
when Julian arrived among the Thracians, intelligence was brought him
that Constantius was dead; and thus was the Roman empire at that time
preserved from the intestine strife that threatened it. Julian
forthwith made his public entry into Constantinople; and considered
with himself how he might best conciliate the masses and secure popular
favor. Accordingly he had recourse to the following measures: he knew
that Constantius had rendered himself odious to the defenders of the
homoousian faith by having driven them from the churches, and
proscribed their bishops. He was also aware that the pagans were
extremely discontented because of the prohibitions which prevented their
sacrificing to their gods, and were very anxious to get their temples
opened, with liberty to exercise their idolatrous rites. In fact, he
was sensible that while both these classes secretly entertained
rancorous feelings against his predecessor, the people in general were
exceedingly exasperated by the violence of the eunuchs, and especially
by the rapacity of Eusebius the chief officer of the imperial
bed-chamber. Under these circumstances he treated all parties with
subtlety: with some he dissimulated; others he attached to himself by
conferring obligations upon them, for he was fond of affecting
beneficence; but to all in common he manifested his own predilection
for the idolatry of the heathens. And first in order to brand the
memory of Constantius by making him appear to have been cruel toward
his subjects, he recalled the exiled bishops, and restored to them
their confiscated estates. He next commanded the suitable agents to
see that the pagan temples should be opened without delay. Then he
directed that such individuals as had been victims of the extortionate
conduct of the eunuchs, should receive back the property of which they
had been plundered. Eusebius, the chief of the imperial
bed-chamber, he punished with death, not only on account of the
injuries he had inflicted on others, but because he was assured that it
was through his machinations that his brother Gallus had been killed.
The body of Constantius he honored with an imperial funeral, but
expelled the eunuchs, barbers, and cooks from the palace. The
eunuchs he dispensed with, because they were unnecessary in consequence
of his wife's decease, as he had resolved not to marry again; the
cooks, because he maintained a very simple table; and the barbers,
because he said one was sufficient for a great many persons. These he
dismissed for the reasons given; he also reduced the majority of the
secretaries to their former condition, and appointed for those who were
retained a salary befitting their office. The mode of public traveling
and conveyance of necessaries he also reformed, abolishing the use of
mules, oxen, and asses for this purpose, and permitting horses only
to be so employed. These various retrenchments were highly lauded by
some few, but strongly reprobated by all others, as tending to bring
the imperial dignity into contempt, by stripping it of those appendages
of pomp and magnificence which exercise so powerful an influence over
the minds of the vulgar. Not only so, but at night he was
accustomed, to sit up composing orations which he afterwards delivered
in the senate: though in fact he was the first and only emperor since
the time of Julius Caesar who made speeches in that assembly. To
those who were eminent for literary attainments, he extended the most
flattering patronage, and especially to those who were professional
philosophers; in consequence of which, abundance of pretenders to
learning of this sort resorted to the palace from all quarters, wearing
their palliums, being more conspicuous for their costume than their
erudition. These impostors, who invariably adopted the religious
sentiments of their prince, were all inimical to the welfare of the
Christians; and Julian himself, whose excessive vanity prompted him
to deride all his predecessors in a book which he wrote entitled The
Caesars, was led by the same haughty disposition to compose treatises
against the Christians also. The expulsion of the cooks and barbers
is in a manner becoming a philosopher indeed, but not an emperor; but
ridiculing and caricaturing of others is neither the part of the
philosopher nor that of the emperor: for such personages ought to be
superior to the influence of jealousy and detraction. An emperor may
be a philosopher in all that regards moderation and self-control; but
should a philosopher attempt to imitate what might become an emperor,
he would frequently depart from his own principles. We have thus
briefly spoken of the Emperor Julian, tracing his extraction,
education, temper of mind, and the way in which he became invested
with the imperial power.
|
|