Note 026 As Octavianus advanced to the banquet of the Caesars, his colour changed like that of the Camelion; pale at first, then red, afterwards black he at last assumed the mild livery of Venus and the graces (Caesars, p. 309). This image employed by Julian, in his ingenious fiction, is just and elegant; but when he considers this change of character as real, and ascribes it to the power of philosophy, he does too much honour to philosophy, and to Octavianus.

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Note to Chapter 3 of DECLINE & FALL by Gibbon