peror's pardon for what they had done, and even the revocation of the order which had occasioned their revolt. The only answer they made, was "that if he wished to live, he must "consent to reign;" and then elevating him on a shield, they placed a military collar on his head, by way of a diadem; while Julian betrayed every symptom of chagrin and grief at the investiture he had received, though it is probable that a great part of it was affected.

Having accepted the dignity of Augustus, he was determined to support it; but yet wished by every method of conciliation with Constantius, to save his country from the horrors of a civil war. For this purpose, he penned, in his own name and that of the army, a very respectful epistle, acknowledging the supremacy of Constantius, and the irregularity of his own election, and conceding every thing, except the sovereignty of the provinces beyond the Alps with all their appendant royalties, which he claimed in full right.

Preparations for war accompanied the negociations for peace. As soon as the season of the year permitted, Julian took the field against the Attuarii, a tribe of the Franks who had ravaged the frontiers of the empire, and penetrating into their country, conquered them with great loss, and fixed his winter quarters at Vienna.

When the ambassadors of Julian, who had experienced many delays in their journey to the east, were introduced to the presence of Constantius, they found him in great agitation, and violently incensed against their master. The death of Helena had dissolved the domestic connection between them, and the empress Eusebia,

the

the constant patroness of Julian, was likewise no more. The emperor was therefore left to follow the impulses of his own passions, and the artful suggestions of his ministers. He informed Julian, that the only conditions on which either he or his adherents could hope for pardon, was to renounce the rank of Augustus, and to acknowledge himself a dependent on the supreme head of the empire.

The

Irritated at receiving such humiliating terms, Julian now resolved boldly to commit his life and fortune to the chance of a civil war. haughty epistle of Constantius was read before a military audience: and the faint proposal of Julian to resign the purple, if he could obtain the consent of his electors, was drowned in the repeated acclamations. The assembly was dismissed; and a message being returned to Constantius full of contempt, hatred, and resentment, Julian publicly declared that he commit◄ ted his safety to the immortal gods, and thus renounced the religion as well as the friendship of the son of Constantine.

The circumstances of the emperor of Gaul required vigorous and immediate exertions. He discovered that the barbarians had been invited to invade his provinces, and he had also the forces of Constantius to contend with. WhereA. D. fore assembling his army in the vicinity. 361. of Basil, he speedily detached ten thou

sand men under Nevitta, through Rhætia and Noricum; an equal number, led by Jovius and Jovinus, were ordered to follow the course of the highways through the Alps and the northern confines of Italy, and both detach ments to join their sovereign under the walls of Sirmium.

Meanwhile

Meanwhile Julian, with three thousand vo lunteers, plunged into the recesses of the Marcian forest, and emerging between Ratisbon and Vienna, seized a fleet of light vessels; and committing himself and his followers to the rapid stream of the Danube, in eleven days landed within a few miles of Sirmium.

His two generals having carried all before them, soon effected a junction with their master at the appointed rendezvous, from whence Julian dispatched an apology for his conduct to the principal cities of the empire, trusting to his arguments as well as his arms. With the duplicity of an hypocrite, rather than the effrontery of a daring apostate, he took care to word his manifestoes according to the prevailing religion of the people he addressed. He likewise assisted at christian service, and pagan sacrifices, in order to conciliate opposite interests; and by his policy united with his prowess, had made considerable progress towards establishing himself, not only a partner but para- A.D. mount in the empire, when he was in- 361. formed of the almost sudden death of

Constantius.

That prince having disengaged himself from the Persians by a hasty peace, had advanced precipitately against his rival, when a fever, occasioned by the agitation of his mind, or the fatigues of his journey, obliged him to halt at Mopsucrene, a little town about twelve miles beyond Tarsus; where, after a short illness, Constantius breathed his last, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. In person he was diminutive, but capable of exertion when occasion required: he was tem

perate, but extremely uxorious; and, in a word, inherited the defects without the abilities of his father. In religion, he was rather a sectary than a Christian.

The eunuchs who surrounded the court of Constantinople, made a feeble attempt to prolong their power, by electing another emperor suited to their own taste; but their intrigues were rejected by the army, and two officers of rank were dispatched to assure Julian, that every sword in the empire would be drawn at his command.

That prince, impatient to visit his new capital, and the place of his birth, hastened his march; and when he reached Heraclea, all Constantinople poured out to meet and behold the hero who had vanquished the barbarians of Germany, and traversed in successful career the whole continent of Europe. It was in the A. D. thirty-second year of his age, that he ac361. quired the undisturbed possession of the

Roman world; and from the moment of his ascending the throne, he seems to have given himself up wholly to the duties of his station. He neither suffered his body nor his mind to be relaxed by sensual indulgences: a hasty dinner succeeded a morning spent in business; his supper was still more light, and, after a short interval of rest, he was awakened by the entrance of fresh secretaries who had slept the preceding day. He alike disdained the amusements of the theatre and the circus; and wrapped himself up in pagan philosophy, with which his mind had been early imbued. Though of low stature and unpleasing aspect, he was well made, active, and uncommonly expert in all his exercises. His

memory

memory was excellent, and he possessed much penetration and presence of mind.

One of the first and most necessary acts of the government of Julian, was the reformation of the imperial court, in which he acted with indiscriminating severity, making no benevolent exceptions for the age, services, or poverty of the domestics of the late emperor's family; but, by a single edict, reduced the palace to a desert. Having corrected the abuses, he next set about punishing the crimes of his predecessor's reign. A court of enquiry was instituted for this purpose, which, in its ferocious zeal, sometimes included the innocent in the sentence of the guilty; but the condemnation and death of Eusebius, who had long abused the favour of Constantius, was generally regarded as an act of justice.

Julian discarded also the whole army of spies and informers which Constantius had kept in pay, esteeming it unworthy of him to indulge suspicion, or to be always on the watch for crime. He seemed to possess a love of freedom; and though his apostacy has tarnished the lustre of his character, he was not wholly destitute of liberality, even to those who opposed his favourite prejudices. An anecdote of Julian, which confirms this opinion of him, is worthy of being recorded.

A father had disinherited his son in consequence of his having renounced Christianity for paganism. Julian ordered them both into his presence, when he thus addressed the father: "I think nothing more unreasonable than the use of force where religion is concerned. "Allow your son to follow one different from yours, as I do you to profess one different p 2

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