Constantius Sole Emperor —Elevation and Death of Gallus—Danger and Elevation of Julian—Sarmatian and Persian Wars—Victories of Julian in Gaul
Power of the eunuchs
THE divided provinces of the empire were again united by the
victory of Constantius; but as that feeble prince was
destitute of personal merit either in peace or war; as he
feared his generals, and distrusted his ministers; the
triumph of his arms served only to establish the reign of
the eunuchs over the Roman world. Those unhappy beings, the
ancient production of Oriental jealousy and despotism,(1) were introduced into Greece and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury.(2) Their progress was rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, (3) were gradually admitted into the families of matrons, of senators, and of the emperors themselves. (4) Restrained by the severe edicts
of Domitian and Nerva,(5) cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced to an humble station by the prudence of Constantine, (6) they multiplied in the palaces of his degenerate sons, and insensibly acquired the knowledge, and at length the direction, of the secret councils of
Constantius. The aversion and contempt which mankind has so
uniformly entertained for that imperfect species appears to
have degraded their character, and to have rendered them
almost as incapable as they were supposed to be of
conceiving any generous sentiment, or of performing any
worthy action.(7) But the eunuchs were skilled in the arts of flattery and intrigue; and they alternately governed the mind of Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and his
vanity.(8) Whilst he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance of public prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the complaints of the injured provinces; to
accumulate immense treasures by the sale of justice and of honours; to disgrace the most important dignities by the promotion of those who had purchased at their hands the powers of oppression; (9) and to gratify their resentment against the few independent spirits who arrogantly refused to solicit the protection of slaves. Of these slaves the most distinguished was the chamberlain Eusebius, who ruled the monarch and the palace with such absolute sway, that Constantius, according to the sarcasm of an impartial historian, possessed some credit with this haughty favourite. (10) By his artful suggestions, the emperor was persuaded to subscribe the condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime to the long list of unnatural murders which pollute the honour of the house of Constantine.
Education of Gallus and Julian
When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and Julian, were
saved from the fury of the soldiers, the former was about
twelve, and the latter about six, years of age; and, as the
eldest was thought to be of a sickly constitution, they
obtained with the less difficulty a precarious and dependent
life from the affected pity of Constantius, who was sensible
that the execution of these helpless orphans would have been
esteemed, by all mankind, an act of the most deliberate
cruelty.(11) Different cities of Ionia and Bithynia were
assigned for the places of their exile and education; but as
soon as their growing years excited the jealousy of the
emperor, he judged it more prudent to secure those unhappy
youths in the strong castle of Macellum, near Caesarea. The
treatment which they experienced during a six years'
confinement was partly such as they could hope from a
careful guardian, and partly such as they might dread from a
suspicious tyrant.(12) Their prison was an ancient palace,
the residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the situation was
pleasant, the building stately, the enclosure spacious. They
pursued their studies, and practised their exercises, under
the tuition of the most skilful masters; and the numerous
household appointed to attend, or rather to guard, the
nephews of Constantine, was not unworthy of the dignity of
their birth. But they could not disguise to themselves that they were deprived of fortune, of freedom, and of safety; secluded from the society of all whom they could trust or esteem, and condemned to pass their melancholy hours in the company of slaves devoted to the commands of a tyrant who
had already injured them beyond the hope of reconciliation. At length, however, the emergencies of the state compelled the emperor, or rather his eunuchs, Gallus declared Caesar, A.D. 351, March 5 to invest Gallus, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, with the title of Caesar, and to cement this political connection by his marriage with the princess Constantina. After a formal interview, in which the two princes mutually engaged their faith never to undertake anything to the prejudice of each other, they repaired without delay to their respective stations. Constantius continued his march towards the West, and Gallus fixed his
residence at Antioch; from whence, with a delegated authority, he administered the five great dioceses of the eastern praefecture.(13) In this fortunate change, the new Caesar was not unmindful of his brother Julian, who obtained the honours of his rank, the appearances of liberty, and the restitution of an ample patrimony.(14)
Cruelty and impudence of Gallus
The writers the most indulgent to the memory of Gallus, and
even Julian himself, though he wished to cast a veil over
the frailties of his brother, are obliged to confess that
the Caesar was incapable of reigning. Transported from a
prison to a throne, he possessed neither genius nor
application, nor docility to compensate for the want of
knowledge and experience. A temper naturally morose and
violent, instead of being corrected, was soured by solitude
and adversity; the remembrance of what he had endured
disposed him to retaliation rather than to sympathy; and the
ungoverned sallies of his rage were often fatal to those who
approached his person, or were subject to his power.(15)
Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as
one of the infernal furies tormented with an insatiate
thirst of human blood.(16) Instead of employing her influence
to insinuate the mild counsels of prudence and humanity, she
exasperated the fierce passions of her husband; and as she
retained the vanity, though she had renounced the gentleness
of her sex, a pearl necklace was esteemed an equivalent
price for the murder of an innocent and virtuous nobleman.(17) The cruelty of Gallus was sometimes displayed in the
undissembled violence of popular or military executions: and
was sometimes disguised by the abuse of law and the forms of
judicial proceedings. The private houses of Antioch, and the
palaces of public resort, were besieged by spies and
informers; and the Caesar himself, concealed in a plebeian
habit, very frequently condescended to assume that odious
character. Every apartment of the palace was adorned with
the instruments of death and torture, and a general
consternation was diffused through the capital of Syria. The
prince of the East, as if he had been conscious how much he
had to fear, and how little he deserved to reign, selected
for the objects of his resentment the provincials accused of
some imaginary treason, and his own courtiers; whom with
more reason he suspected of incensing, by their secret
correspondence, the timid and suspicious mind of
Constantius. But he forgot that he was depriving himself of
his only support, the affection of the people; whilst he
furnished the malice of his enemies with the arms of truth,
and afforded the emperor the fairest pretence of exacting
the forfeit of his purple and of his life.(18)
Massacre of the Imperial ministers, A.D. 354
As long as the civil war suspended the fate of the Roman
world, Constantius dissembled his knowledge of the weak and
cruel administration to which his choice had subjected the
East; and the discovery of some assassins, secretly
despatched to Antioch by the tyrant of Gaul, was employed to
convince the public that the emperor and the Caesar were
united by the same interest, and pursued by the same
enemies.(19) But when the victory was decided in favour of
Constantius, his dependent colleague became less useful and
less formidable. Every circumstance of his conduct was
severely and suspiciously examined, and it was privately
resolved either to deprive Gallus of the purple, or at least
to remove him from the indolent luxury of Asia to the
hardships and dangers of a German war. The death of
Theophilus, consular of the provinces of Syria, who in a
time of scarcity had been massacred by the people of
Antioch, with the connivance and almost at the instigation
of Gallus, was justly resented, not only as an act of wanton
cruelty, but as a dangerous insult on the supreme majesty of
Constantius. Two ministers of illustrious rank, Domitian the
Oriental praefect, and Montius, quaestor of the palace, were
empowered by a special commission to visit and reform the
state of the East. They were instructed to behave towards
Gallus with moderation and respect, and, by the gentlest
arts of persuasion, to engage him to comply with the
invitation of his brother and colleague. The rashness of the
praefect disappointed these prudent measures, and hastened
his own ruin as well as that of his enemy. On his arrival at
Antioch, Domitian passed disdainfully before the gates of
the palace; and, alleging a slight pretence of
indisposition, continued several days in sullen retirement,
to prepare an inflammatory memorial, which he transmitted to
the Imperial court. Yielding at length to the pressing
solicitations of Gallus, the praefect condescended to take
his seat in council; but his first step was to signify a
concise and haughty mandate, importing that the Caesar
should immediately repair to Italy, and threatening that he
himself would punish his delay or hesitation by suspending
the usual allowance of his household. The nephew and
daughter of Constantine, who could ill brook the insolence
of a subject, expressed their resentment by instantly
delivering Domitian to the custody of a guard. The quarrel
still admitted of some terms of accommodation. They were
rendered impracticable by the imprudent behaviour of
Montius, a statesman whose art and experience were
frequently betrayed by the levity of his disposition.(20) The
quaestor reproached Gallus, in haughty language, that a
prince who was scarcely authorised to remove a municipal
magistrate should presume to imprison a Praetorian praefect;
convoked a meeting of the civil and military officers, and
required them, in the name of their sovereign, to defend the
person and dignity of his representatives. By this rash
declaration of war the impatient temper of Gallus was
provoked to embrace the most desperate counsels. He ordered
his guards to stand to their arms, assembled the populace of
Antioch, and recommended to their zeal the care of his
safety and revenge. His commands were too fatally obeyed.
They rudely seized the praefect and the quaestor, and, tying
their legs together with ropes, they dragged them through
the streets of the city, inflicted a thousand insults and a
thousand wounds on these unhappy victims, and at last
precipitated their mangled and lifeless bodies into the
stream of the Orontes.(21)
Dangerous situation of Gallus
After such a deed, whatever might have been the designs of
Gallus, it was only in a field of battle that he could
assert his innocence with any hope of success. But the mind
of that prince was formed of an equal mixture of violence
and weakness. Instead of assuming the title of Augustus,
instead of employing in his defence the troops and treasures
of the East, he suffered himself to be deceived by the
affected tranquillity of Constantius, who, leaving him the
vain pageantry of a court, imperceptibly recalled the
veteran legions from the provinces of Asia. But as it still
appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in his capital, the slow
and safer arts of dissimulation were practised with success.
The frequent and pressing epistles of Constantius were
filled with professions of confidence and friendship,
exhorting the Caesar to discharge the duties of his high
station, to relieve his colleague from a part of the public
cares, and to assist the West by his presence, his counsels,
and his arms. After so many reciprocal injuries, Gallus had
reason to fear and to distrust. But he had neglected the
opportunities of flight and of resistance; he was seduced by
the flattering assurances of the tribune Scudilo, who, under
the semblance of a rough soldier, disguised the most artful
insinuation; and he depended on the credit of his wife
Constantina till the unseasonable death of that princess
completed the ruin in which he had been involved by her
impetuous passions.(22)
His disgrace and death, A.D. 354, December
After a long delay the reluctant Caesar set forwards on his
journey to the Imperial court. From Antioch to Hadrianople
he traversed the wide extent of his dominions with a
numerous and stately train; and, as he laboured to conceal
his apprehensions from the world, and perhaps from himself,
he entertained the people of Constantinople with an
exhibition of the games of the circus. The progress of the
journey might, however, have warned him of the impending
danger. In all the principal cities he was met by ministers
of confidence, commissioned to seize the offices of
government, to observe his motions, and to prevent the hasty
sallies of his despair. The persons despatched to secure the
provinces which he left behind passed him with cold
salutations or affected disdain; and the troops whose
station lay along the public road were studiously removed on
his approach, lest they might be tempted to offer their
swords for the service of a civil war.(23) After Gallus had
been permitted to repose himself a few days at Hadrianople
he received a mandate, expressed in the most haughty and
absolute style, that his splendid retinue should halt in
that city, while the Caesar himself, with only ten
post-carriages, should hasten to the Imperial residence at
Milan. In this rapid journey the profound respect which was
due to the brother and colleague of Constantius was
insensibly changed into rude familiarity; and Gallus, who
discovered in the countenances of the attendants that they
already considered themselves as his guards, and might soon
be employed as his executioners, began to accuse his fatal
rashness, and to recollect with terror and remorse the
conduct by which he had provoked his fate. The dissimulation
which had hitherto been preserved was laid aside at Petovio
in Pannonia. He was conducted to a palace in the suburbs,
where the general Barbatio, with a select band of soldiers,
who could neither be moved by pity nor corrupted by rewards,
expected the arrival of his illustrious victim. In the close
of the evening he was arrested, ignominiously stripped of
the ensigns of Caesar, and hurried away to Pola, in Istria,
a sequestered prison, which had been so recently polluted
with royal blood. The horror which he felt was soon
increased by the appearance of his implacable enemy the
eunuch Eusebius, who, with the assistance of a notary and a
tribune, proceeded to interrogate him concerning the
administration of the East. The Caesar sunk under the weight
of shame and guilt, confessed all the criminal actions and
all the treasonable designs with which he was charged; and,
by imputing them to the advice of his wife, exasperated the
indignation of Constantius, who reviewed with partial
prejudice the minutes of the examination. The emperor was
easily convinced that his own safety was incompatible with
the life of his cousin: the sentence of death was signed,
despatched, and executed; and the nephew of Constantine,
with his hands tied behind his back, was beheaded in prison,
like the vilest malefactor. (24) Those who are inclined to
palliate the cruelties of Constantius assert that he soon
relented, and endeavoured to recall the bloody mandate; but
that the second messenger, intrusted with the reprieve, was
detained by the eunuchs, who dreaded the unforgiving temper
of Gallus, and were desirous of reuniting to their empire
the wealthy provinces of the East.(25)
The danger and escape of Julian
Besides the reigning emperor, Julian alone survived of all
the numerous posterity of Constantius Chlorus. The
misfortune of his royal birth involved him in the disgrace
of Gallus. From his retirement in the happy country of Ionia
he was conveyed, under a strong guard, to the court of
Milan, where he languished above seven months in the
continual apprehension of suffering the same ignominious
death which was daily inflicted, almost before his eyes, on
the friends and adherents of his persecuted family. His
looks, his gestures, his silence, were scrutinised with
malignant curiosity, and he was perpetually assaulted by
enemies whom he had never offended, and by arts to which he
was a stranger. (26) But in the school of adversity Julian
insensibly acquired the virtues of firmness and discretion.
He defended his honour, as well as his life, against the
ensnaring subtleties of the eunuchs, who endeavoured to
extort some declaration of his sentiments; and whilst he
cautiously suppressed his grief and resentment, he nobly
disdained to flatter the tyrant by any seeming approbation
of his brother's murder. Julian most devoutly ascribes his
miraculous deliverance to the protection of the gods, who
had exempted his innocence from the sentence of destruction
pronounced by their justice against the impious house of
Constantine.(27) As the most effectual instrument of their
providence, he gratefully acknowledges the steady and
generous friendship of the empress Eusebia,(28) a woman of
beauty and merit, who, by the ascendant which she had gained
over the mind of her husband, counterbalanced in some
measure the powerful conspiracy of the eunuchs. By the
intercession of his patroness Julian was admitted into the
Imperial presence: he pleaded his cause with a decent
freedom; he was heard with favour; and, notwithstanding the
efforts of his enemies, who urged the danger of sparing an
avenger of the blood of Gallus, the milder sentiment of
Eusebia prevailed in the council. But the effects of a
second interview were dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was
advised to withdraw for a while into the neighbourhood of
Milan, till the emperor thought proper to assign the city of He is sent to Athens, A.D. 355, May Athens for the place of his honourable exile. As he had discovered from his earliest youth a propensity, or rather passion, for the language, the manners, the learning, and the religion of the Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure an order so agreeable to his wishes. Far from the tumult of arms and the treachery of courts, he spent six months amidst the groves of the Academy, in a free intercourse with the philosophers of the age, who studied to cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to inflame the devotion of their royal pupil. Their labours were not unsuccessful; and Julian inviolably preserved for Athens that tender regard which seldom fails to arise in a liberal mind from the recollection of the place where it has discovered and exercised its growing powers. The gentleness and affability of manners which his temper suggested and his situation imposed, insensibly engaged the affections of the strangers, as well as citizens, with whom he conversed. Some of his fellow-students might perhaps examine his behaviour with an eye of prejudice and aversion; but Julian established in the schools of Athens a general prepossession in favour of his virtues and talents, which was soon diffused over the Roman world.(29)
Recalled to Milan,
Whilst his hours were passed in studious retirement, the
empress, resolute to achieve the generous design which she
had undertaken, was not unmindful of the care of his
fortune. The death of the late Caesar had left Constantius
invested with the sole command, and oppressed by the
accumulated weight, of a mighty empire. Before the wounds of
civil discord could be healed, the provinces of Gaul were
overwhelmed by a deluge of barbarians. The Sarmatians no
longer respected the barrier of the Danube. The impunity of
rapine had increased the boldness and numbers of the wild
Isaurians; those robbers descended from their craggy
mountains to ravage the adjacent country, and had even
presumed, though without success, to besiege the important
city of Seleucia,. which was defended by a garrison of three
Roman legions. Above all, the Persian monarch, elated by
victory, again threatened the peace of Asia; and the
presence of the emperor was indispensably required both in
the West and in the East. For the first time Constantius
sincerely acknowledged that his single strength was unequal
to such an extent of care and dominion.(30) Insensible to the
voice of flattery, which assured him that his all-powerful
virtue and celestial fortune would still continue to triumph
over every obstacle, he listened with complacency to the
advice of Eusebia, which gratified his indolence, without
offending his suspicious pride. As she perceived that the
remembrance of Gallus dwelt on the emperor's mind, she
artfully turned his attention to the opposite characters of
the two brothers, which from their infancy had been compared
to those of Domitian and of Titus.(31) She accustomed her
husband to consider Julian as a youth of a mild, unambitious
disposition, whose allegiance and gratitude might be secured
by the gift of the purple, and who was qualified to fill
with. honour a subordinate station, without aspiring to
dispute the commands or to shade the glories of his
sovereign and benefactor, After an obstinate though secret
struggle, the opposition of the favourite eunuchs submitted
to the ascendancy of the empress; and it was resolved that
Julian, after celebrating his nuptials with Helena, sister
of Constantius, should be appointed, with the title of
Caesar, to reign over the countries beyond the Alps.(32)
Although the order which recalled him to court was probably accompanied by some intimation of his approaching greatness he appeals to the people of Athens to witness his tears of undissembled sorrow, when he was reluctantly torn away from his beloved retirement.(33) He trembled for his life, for his fame, and even for his virtue; and his sole confidence was derived from the persuasion that Minerva inspired all his actions, and that he was protected by an invisible guard of angels, whom for that purpose she had borrowed from the Sun and Moon. He approached with horror the palace of Milan; nor could the ingenuous youth conceal his indignation when he found himself accosted with false and servile respect by the assassins of his family. Eusebia, rejoicing in the success of her benevolent schemes, embraced him with the tenderness of a sister, and endeavoured, by the most soothing caresses, to dispel his terrors and reconcile him to his fortune. But the ceremony of shaving his beard, and his awkward demeanour when he first exchanged the cloak of a Greek philosopher for the military habit of a Roman prince, amused during a few days the levity of the Imperial court.(34)
The emperors of the age of Constantine no longer deigned to consult with the senate in the choice of a colleague; but they were anxious that their nomination should be ratified by the consent of the army. On this solemn occasion the guards, with the other troops whose stations were in the neighbourhood of Milan, appeared under arms; and Constantius ascended his lofty tribunal, holding by the hand his cousin Julian, who entered the same day into the twenty-fifth year of his age. (35) In a studied speech, conceived and delivered with dignity, the emperor represented the various dangers which threatened the prosperity of the republic, the necessity of naming a Caesar for the administration of the West, and his own intention, if it was agreeable to their wishes, of rewarding with the honours of the purple the promising virtues of the nephew of Constantine. The approbation of the soldiers was testified by a respectful murmur: they gazed on the manly countenance of Julian, and observed with pleasure that the fire which sparkled in his eyes was tempered by a modest blush on being thus exposed for the first time to the public view of mankind. As soon as the ceremony of his investiture had been performed, Constantius addressed him with the tone of authority which his superior age and station permitted him to assume; and, exhorting the new Caesar to deserve, by heroic deeds, that sacred and immortal name, the emperor gave his colleague the strongest assurances of a friendship which should never be impaired by time, nor interrupted by their separation into the most distant climates. As soon as the speech was ended, the troops, as a token of applause, clashed their shields against their knees; (36) while the officers who surrounded the tribunal expressed, with decent reserve, their sense of the merits of the representative of Constantius.
and declared Caesar, A.D. 355, Nov. 6.
The two princes returned to the palace in the same chariot;
and, during the slow procession, Julian repeated to himself
a verse of his favourite Homer, which he might equally apply
to his fortune and to his fears.(37) The four and twenty days
which the Caesar spent at Milan after his investiture, and
the first months of his Gallic reign, were devoted to a
splendid but severe captivity; nor could the acquisition of
honour compensate for the loss of freedom.(38) His steps were
watched, his correspondence was intercepted; and he was
obliged, by prudence, to decline the visits of his most
intimate friends. Of his former domestics four only were
permitted to attend him - two pages, his physician, and his
librarian; the last of whom was employed in the care of a
valuable collection of books, the gifts of the empress, who
studied the inclinations as well as the interest of her
friend. In the room of these faithful servants an household
was formed, such, indeed, as became the dignity of a Caesar;
but it was filled with a crowd of slaves, destitute, and
perhaps incapable, of any attachment for their new master,
to whom, for the most part, they were either unknown or
suspected. His want of experience might require the
assistance of a wise council, but the minute instructions
which regulated the service of his table, and the
distribution of his hours, were adapted to a youth still
under the discipline of his preceptors rather than to the
situation of a prince intrusted with the conduct of an
important war. If he aspired to deserve the esteem of his
subjects, he was checked by the fear of displeasing his
sovereign; and even the fruits of his marriage-bed were
blasted by the jealous artifices of Eusebia(39) herself, who, on this occasion alone, seems to have been unmindful of the tenderness of her sex and the generosity of her character. The memory of his father and of his brothers reminded Julian of his own danger, and his apprehensions were increased by the recent and unworthy fate of Sylvanus. Fatal end of Sylvanus, A.D. 355, September. In the summer which preceded his own elevation that general had been chosen to deliver Gaul from the tyranny of the barbarians;
but Sylvanus soon discovered that he had left his most dangerous enemies in the Imperial court. A dexterous informer, countenanced by several of the principal ministers, procured from him some recommendatory letters; and, erasing the whole of the contents, except the signature, filled up the vacant parchment with matters of high and treasonable import. By the industry and courage of his friends the fraud was, however, detected, and in a great council of the civil and military officers, held in the presence of the emperor himself, the innocence of Sylvanus was publicly acknowledged. But the discovery came too late; the report of the calumny, and the hasty seizure of his estate, had already provoked the indignant chief to the rebellion of which he was so unjustly accused. He assumed the purple at his headquarters of Cologne, and his active powers appeared to menace Italy with an invasion and Milan with a siege. In this emergency Ursicinus, a general of equal rank, regained, by an act of treachery, the favour which he had lost by his eminent services in the East. Exasperated, as he might speciously allege, by injuries of a similar nature, he hastened with a few followers to join the standard, and to betray the confidence, of his too credulous friend. After a reign of only twenty-eight days Sylvanus was assassinated: the soldiers who, without any criminal intention, had blindly followed the example of their leader,
immediately returned to their allegiance; and the flatterers of Constantius celebrated the wisdom and felicity of the monarch who had extinguished a civil war without the hazard of a battle.(40)
Constantius visits Rome, A.D. 357, April 28.
The protection of the Rhaetian frontier, and the persecution
of the Catholic church, detained Constantius in Italy above
eighteen months after the departure of Julian. Before the
emperor returned into the East he indulged his pride and
curiosity in a visit to the ancient capital.(41) He proceeded
from Milan to Rome along the Aemilian and Flaminian ways;
and as soon as he approached within forty miles of the city,
the march of a prince who had never vanquished a foreign
enemy assumed the appearance of a triumphal procession. His
splendid train was composed of all the ministers of luxury;
but in a time of profound peace he was encompassed by the
glittering arms of the numerous squadrons of his guards and
cuirassiers. Their streaming banners of silk, embossed with
gold, and shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the
person of the emperor. Constantius sat alone in a lofty car
resplendent with gold and precious gems; and, except when he
bowed his head to pass under the gates of the cities, he
affected a stately demeanour of inflexible, and, as it might
seem, of insensible gravity. The severe discipline of the
Persian youth had been introduced by the eunuchs into the
Imperial palace; and such were the habits of patience which
they had inculcated, that, during a slow and sultry march,
he was never seen to move his hand towards his face, or to
turn his eyes either to the right or to the left. He was
received by the magistrates and senate of Rome; and the
emperor surveyed, with attention, the civil honours of the
republic and the consular images of the noble families. The
streets were lined with an innumerable multitude. Their
repeated acclamations expressed their joy at beholding,
after an absence of thirty-two years, the sacred person of
their sovereign; and Constantius himself expressed, with
some pleasantry, his affected surprise that the human race
should thus suddenly be collected on the same spot. The son
of Constantine was lodged in the ancient palace of Augustus:
he presided in the senate, harangued the people from the
tribunal which Cicero had so often ascended, assisted with
unusual courtesy at the games of the circus, and accepted
the crowns of gold, as well as the panegyrics, which had
been prepared for this ceremony by the deputies of the
principal cities. His short visit of thirty days was
employed in viewing the monuments of art and power which
were scattered over the seven hills and the interjacent
valleys. He admired the awful majesty of the Capitol, the
vast extent of the baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, the
severe simplicity of the Pantheon, the massy greatness of
the amphitheatre of Titus, the elegant architecture of the
theatre of Pompey and the Temple of Peace, and, above all,
the stately structure of the Forum and column of Trajan;
acknowledging that the voice of fame, so prone to invent and
to magnify, had made an inadequate report of the metropolis
of the world. The traveller who has contemplated the ruins
of ancient Rome may conceive some imperfect idea of the
sentiments which they must have inspired when they reared
their heads in the splendour of unsullied beauty.
A new obelisk
The satisfaction which Constantius had received from this
journey excited him to the generous emulation of bestowing
on the Romans some memorial of his own gratitude and
munificence. His first idea was to imitate the equestrian
and colossal statue which he had seen in the Forum of
Trajan; but, when he had maturely weighed the difficulties
of the execution, (42) he chose rather to embellish the
capital by the gift of an Egyptian obelisk. In a remote but
polished age, which seems to have preceded the invention of
alphabetical writing, a great number of these obelisks had
been erected, in the cities of Thebes and Heliopolis, by the
ancient sovereigns of Egypt, in a just confidence that the
simplicity of their form, and the hardness of their
substance, would resist the injuries of time and violence.
(43) Several of these extraordinary columns had been
transported to Rome by Augustus and his successors as the
most durable monuments of their power and victory;(44) but
there remained one obelisk which, from its size or sanctity,
escaped for a long time the rapacious vanity of the
conquerors. It was designed by Constantine to adorn his new
city;(45) and, after being removed by his order from the
pedestal where it stood before the Temple of the Sun at
Heliopolis, was floated down the Nile to Alexandria. The
death of Constantine suspended the execution of his purpose,
and this obelisk was destined by his son to the ancient
capital of the empire. A vessel of uncommon strength and
capaciousness was provided to convey this enormous weight of
granite, at least an hundred and fifteen feet in length,
from the banks of the Nile to those of the Tiber. The
obelisk of Constantius was landed about three miles from the
city, and elevated, by the efforts of art and labour, in the
great circus of Rome.(46)
The Quadian and Sarmatian war, A.D. 357,358,359.
The departure of Constantius from Rome was hastened by the
alarming intelligence of the distress and danger of the
Illyrian provinces. The distractions of civil war, and the
irreparable loss which the Roman legions had sustained in
the battle of Mursa, exposed those countries, almost without
defence, to the light cavalry of the barbarians; and
particularly to the inroads of the Quadi, a fierce and
powerful nation, who seem to have exchanged the institutions
of Germany for the arms and military arts of their Sarmatian
allies.(47) The garrisons of the frontier were insufficient
to check their progress; and the indolent monarch was at
length compelled to assemble, from the extremities of his
dominions, the flower of the Palatine troops, to take the
field in person, and to employ a whole campaign, with the
preceding autumn and the ensuing spring, in the serious
prosecution of the war. The emperor passed the Danube on a
bridge of boats, cut in pieces all that encountered his
march, penetrated into the heart of the country of the
Quadi, and severely retaliated the calamities which they had
inflicted on the Roman province. The dismayed barbarians
were soon reduced to sue for peace: they offered the
restitution of his captive subjects as an atonement for the
past, and the noblest hostages as a pledge of their future
conduct. The generous courtesy which was shown to the first
among their chieftains who implored the clemency of
Constantius encouraged the more timid, or the more
obstinate, to imitate their example; and the Imperial camp
was crowded with the princes and ambassadors of the most
distant tribes, who occupied the plains of the Lesser
Poland, and who might have deemed themselves secure behind
the lofty ridge of the Carpathian mountains. While
Constantius gave laws to the barbarians beyond the Danube,
he distinguished, with specious compassion, the Sarmatian
exiles, who had been expelled from their native country by
the rebellion of their slaves, and who formed a very
considerable accession to the power of the Quadi. The
emperor, embracing a generous but artful system of policy,
released the Sarmatians from the bands of this humiliating
dependence, and restored them, by a separate treaty, to the
dignity of a nation united under the government of a king,
the friend and ally of the republic. He declared his
resolution of asserting the justice of their cause, and of
securing the peace of the provinces by the extirpation, or
at least the banishment, of the Limigantes, whose manners
were still infected with the vices of their servile origin.
The execution of this design was attended with more
difficulty than glory. The territory of the Limigantes was
protected against the Romans by the Danube, against the
hostile barbarians by the Theiss. The marshy lands which lay
between those rivers, and were often covered by their
inundations, formed an intricate wilderness, pervious only
to the inhabitants, who were acquainted with its secret
paths and inaccessible fortresses. On the approach of
Constantius the Limigantes tried the efficacy of prayers, of
fraud, and of arms; but he sternly rejected their
supplications, defeated their rude stratagems, and repelled
with skill and firmness the efforts of their irregular
valour. One of their most war-like tribes, established in a
small island towards the conflux of the Theiss and the
Danube, consented to pass the river with the intention of
surprising the emperor during the security of an amicable
conference. They soon became the victims of the perfidy
which they meditated. Encompassed on every side, trampled
down by the cavalry, slaughtered by the swords of the
legions, they disdained to ask for mercy; and, with an
undaunted countenance, still grasped their weapons in the
agonies of death. After this victory a considerable body of
Romans was landed on the opposite banks of the Danube; the
Taifalae, a Gothic tribe engaged in the service of the
empire, invaded the Limigantes on the side of the Theiss;
and their former masters, the free Sarmatians, animated by
hope and revenge, penetrated through the hilly country into
the heart of their ancient possessions. A general
conflagration revealed the huts of the barbarians, which
were seated in the depth of the wilderness; and the soldier
fought with confidence on marshy ground, which it was
dangerous for him to tread. In this extremity the bravest of
the Limigantes were resolved to die in arms rather than to
yield: but the milder sentiment, enforced by the authority
of their elders, at length prevailed; and the suppliant
crowd, followed by their wives and children, repaired to the
Imperial camp to learn their fate from the mouth of the
conqueror. After celebrating his own clemency, which was
still inclined to pardon their repeated crimes, and to spare
the remnant of a guilty nation, Constantius assigned for the
place of their exile a remote country, where they might
enjoy a safe and honourable repose. The Limigantes obeyed
with reluctance; but before they could reach, at least
before they could occupy, their destined habitations, they
returned to the banks of the Danube, exaggerating the
hardships of their situation, and requesting, with fervent
professions of fidelity, that the emperor would grant them
an undisturbed settlement within the limits of the Roman
provinces. Instead of consulting his own experience of their
incurable perfidy, Constantius listened to his flatterers,
who were ready to represent the honour and advantage of
accepting a colony of soldiers, at a time when it was much
easier to obtain the pecuniary contributions than the
military service of the subjects of the empire. The
Limigantes were permitted to pass the Danube; and the
emperor gave audience to the multitude in a large plain near
the! modern city of Buda. They surrounded the tribunal, and
seemed to hear with respect an oration full of mildness and
dignity; when one of the barbarians, casting his shoe into
the air, exclaimed with a loud voice, Marha! Marha! a word
of defiance, which was received as the signal of the tumult.
They rushed with fury to seize the person of the emperor;
his royal throne and golden couch were pillaged by these
rude hands; but the faithful defence of his guards, who died
at his feet, allowed him a moment to mount a fleet horse,
and to escape from the confusion. The disgrace which had
been incurred by a treacherous surprise was soon retrieved
by the numbers and discipline of the Romans; and the combat
was only terminated by the extinction of the name and nation
of the Limigantes. The free Sarmatians were reinstated in
the possession of their ancient seats; and although
Constantius distrusted the levity of their character, he
entertained some hopes that a sense of gratitude might
influence their future conduct. He had remarked the lofty
stature and obsequious demeanour of Zizais, one of the
noblest of their chiefs. He conferred on him the title of
King; and Zizais proved that he was not unworthy to reign,
by a sincere and lasting attachment to the interest of his
benefactor, who, after this splendid success, received the
name of Sarmaticus from the acclamations of his victorious
army.(48)
The Persian negotiation, A.D. 358
While the Roman emperor and the Persian monarch, at the
distance of three thousand miles, defended their extreme
limits against the barbarians of the Danube and of the Oxus,
their intermediate frontier experienced the vicissitudes of
a languid war and a precarious truce. Two of the eastern
ministers of Constantius, the Praetorian praefect Musonian,
whose abilities were disgraced by the want of truth and
integrity, and Cassian duke of Mesopotamia, a hardy and
veteran soldier, opened a secret negotiation with the satrap
Tamsapor.(49) These overtures of peace, translated into the
servile and flattering language of Asia, were transmitted to
the camp of the Great King, who resolved to signify, by an
ambassador, the terms which he was inclined to grant to the
suppliant Romans. Narses, whom he invested with that
character, was honourably received in his passage through
Antioch and Constantinople: he reached Sirmium after a long
journey, and, at his first audience, respectfully unfolded
the silken veil which covered the haughty epistle of his
sovereign. Sapor, King of Kings, and Brother of the Sun and
Moon (such were the lofty titles affected by oriental
vanity), expressed his satisfaction that his brother,
Constantius Caesar, had been taught wisdom by adversity. As
the lawful successor of Darius Hystaspes, Sapor asserted
that the river Strymon, in Macedonia, was the true and
ancient boundary of his empire; declaring, however, that, as
an evidence of his moderation, he would content himself with
the provinces of Armenia and Mesopotamia, which had been
fraudulently extorted from his ancestors. He alleged that,
without the restitution of these disputed countries, it was
impossible to establish any treaty on a solid and permanent
basis; and he arrogantly threatened that, if his ambassador
returned in vain, he was prepared to take the field in the
spring, and to support the justice of his cause by the
strength of his invincible arms. Narses, who was endowed
with the most polite and amiable manners, endeavoured, as
far as was consistent with his duty, to soften the harshness
of the message. (50) Both the style and substance were maturely weighed in the Imperial council, and he was
dismissed with the following answer:
"Constantius had a right to disclaim the officiousness of his ministers, who had acted without any specific orders from the throne: he was not, however, averse to an equal and honourable treaty; but it was highly indecent, as well as absurd, to propose to the sole and victorious emperor of the Roman world the same conditions of peace which he had indignantly rejected at the time when his power was contracted within the narrow limits of the East: the chance of arms was uncertain; and Sapor should recollect that, if the Romans had sometimes been vanquished in battle, they had almost always been successful in the event of the war."
A few days after the departure of Narses, three ambassadors were sent to the court of Sapor, who was already returned from the Scythian expedition to his ordinary residence of Ctesiphon. A count, a notary, and a sophist, had been selected for this important commission; and Constantius, who was secretly anxious for the conclusion of the peace, entertained some hopes that the dignity of the first of these ministers, the dexterity of the second, and the rhetoric of the third, (51) would persuade the Persian monarch to abate the rigour of his demands. But the progress of their negotiation was opposed and defeated by the hostile arts of Antoninus, (52) a Roman subject of Syria, who had fled from oppression, and was admitted into the councils of Sapor, and even to the royal table, where, according to the custom of the Persians, the most important business was frequently discussed.(53) The dexterous fugitive promoted his interest by the same conduct which gratified his revenge. He incessantly urged the ambition of his new master to embrace the favourable opportunity when the bravest of the Palatine troops were employed with the emperor in a distant war on the Danube. He pressed Sapor to invade the exhausted and defenceless provinces of the East, with the numerous armies of Persia, now fortified by the alliance and accession of the fiercest barbarians. The ambassadors of Rome retired without success, and a second embassy, of a still more honourable rank, was detained in strict confinement, and threatened either with death or exile.
Invasion of Mesopotamia by Sapor, A.D. 359
The military historian, (54) who was himself despatched to
observe the army of the Persians, as they were preparing to
construct a bridge of boats over the Tigris, beheld from an
eminence the plain of Assyria, as far as the edge of the
horizon, covered with men, with horses, and with arms. Sapor
appeared in the front, conspicuous by the splendour of his
purple. On his left hand, the place of honour among the
Orientals, Grumbates, king of the Chionites, displayed the
stern countenance of an aged and renowned warrior. The
monarch had reserved a similar place on his right hand for
the king of the Albanians, who led his independent tribes
from the shores of the Caspian. The satraps and generals
were distributed according to their several ranks, and the
whole army, besides the numerous train of oriental luxury,
consisted of more than one hundred thousand effective men,
inured to fatigue, and selected from the bravest nations of
Asia. The Roman deserter, who in some measure guided the
councils of Sapor, had prudently advised, that, instead of
wasting the summer in tedious and difficult sieges, he
should march directly to the Euphrates, and press forwards
without delay to seize the feeble and wealthy metropolis of
Syria. But the Persians were no sooner advanced into the
plains of Mesopotamia than they discovered that every
precaution had been used which could retard their progress
or defeat their design. The inhabitants with their cattle
were secured in places of strength, the green forage
throughout the country was set on fire, the fords of the
river were fortified by sharp stakes, military engines were
planted on the opposite banks, and a seasonable swell of the
waters of the Euphrates deterred the barbarians from
attempting the ordinary passage of the bridge of Thapsacus.
Their skilful guide, changing his plan of operations, then
conducted the army by a longer circuit, but through a
fertile territory, towards the head of the Euphrates, where
the infant river is reduced to a shallow and accessible
stream. Sapor overlooked, with prudent disdain, the strength
of Nisibis; but as he passed under the walls of Amida, he
resolved to try whether the majesty of his presence would
not awe the garrison into immediate submission. The
sacrilegious insult of a random dart, which glanced against
the royal tiara, convinced him of his error; and the
indignant monarch listened with impatience to the advice of
his ministers, who conjured him not to sacrifice the success
of his ambition to the gratification of his resentment. The
following day Grumbates advanced towards the gates with a
select body of troops, and required the instant surrender of
the city, as the only atonement which could be accepted for
such an act of rashness and insolence. His proposals were
answered by a general discharge, and his only son, a
beautiful and valiant youth, was pierced through the heart
by a javelin, shot from one of the balistae. The funeral of
the prince of the Chionites was celebrated according to the
rite of his country; and the grief of his aged father was
alleviated by the solemn promise of Sapor, that the guilty
city of Amida should serve as a funeral pile to expiate the
death, and to perpetuate the memory, of his son.
Siege of Amida
The ancient city of Amid or Amida, (55) which sometimes
assumes the provincial appellation of Diarbekir, (56) is
advantageously situate in a fertile plain, watered by the
natural and artificial channels of the Tigris, of which the
least inconsiderable stream bends in a semi-circular form
round the eastern part of the city. The emperor Constantius
had recently conferred on Amida the honour of his own name,
and the additional fortifications of strong walls and lofty
towers. It was provided with an arsenal of military engines,
and the ordinary garrison had been reinforced to the amount
of seven legions, when the place was invested by the arms of
Sapor.(57) His first and most sanguine hopes depended on the
success of a general assault. To the several nations which
followed his standard their respective posts were assigned;
the south to the Vertae; the north to the Albanians; the
east to the Chionites, inflamed with grief and indignation;
the west to the Segestans, the bravest of his warriors, who
covered their front with a formidable line of Indian
elephants.(58) The Persians, on every side, supported their
efforts, and animated their courage; and the monarch
himself, careless of his rank and safety, displayed, in the
prosecution of the siege, the ardour of a youthful soldier.
After an obstinate combat the barbarians were repulsed; they
incessantly returned to the charge; they were again driven
back with a dreadful slaughter, and two rebel legions of
Gauls, who had been banished into the East, signalised their
undisciplined courage by a nocturnal sally into the heart of
the Persian camp. In one of the fiercest of these repeated
assaults, Amida was betrayed by the treachery of a deserter,
who indicated to the barbarians a secret and neglected
staircase, scooped out of the rock that hangs over the
stream of the Tigris. Seventy chosen archers of the royal
guard ascended in silence to the third story of a lofty
tower, which commanded the precipice; they elevated on high
the Persian banner, the signal of confidence to the
assailants, and of dismay to the besieged and if this
devoted band could have maintained their post a few minutes
longer, the reduction of the place might have been purchased
by the sacrifice of their lives. After Sapor had tried,
without success, the efficacy of force and of stratagem, he
had recourse to the slower but more certain operations of a
regular siege in the conduct of which he was instructed by
the skill of the Roman deserters. The trenches were opened
at a convenient distance, and the troops destined for that
service advanced, under the portable cover of strong
hurdles, to fill up the ditch, and undermine the foundations
of the walls. Wooden towers were at the same time
constructed, and moved forwards on wheels, till the
soldiers, who were provided with every species of missile
weapons, could engage almost on level ground with the troops
who defended the rampart. Every mode of resistance which art
could suggest, or courage could execute, was employed in the
defence of Amidas and the works of Sapor were more than once
destroyed by the fire of the Romans. But the resources of a
besieged city may be exhausted. The Persians repaired their
losses and pushed their approaches; a large breach was made
by the battering-ram, and the strength of the garrison,
wasted by the sword and by disease, yielded to the fury of
the assault. The soldiers, the citizens, their wives, their
children, all who had not time to escape through the
opposite gate, were involved by the conquerors in a
promiscuous massacre.
Siege of Singara, A.D. 360
But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the Roman provinces.
As soon as the first transports of victory had subsided,
Sapor was at leisure to reflect that to chastise a
disobedient city he had lost the flower of his troops and
the most favourable season for conquest.(59) Thirty thousand
of his veterans had fallen under the walls of Amida during
the continuance of a siege which lasted seventy-three days;
and the disappointed monarch returned to his capital with
affected triumph and secret mortification. It is more than
probable that the inconstancy of his barbarian allies was
tempted to relinquish a war in which they had encountered
such unexpected difficulties; and that the aged king of the
Chionites, satiated with revenge, turned away with horror
from a scene of action where he had been deprived of the
hope of his family and nation. The strength as well as
spirit of the army with which Sapor took the field in the
ensuing spring was no longer equal to the unbounded views of
his ambition. Instead of aspiring to the conquest of the
East, he was obliged to content himself with the reduction
of two fortified cities of Mesopotamia, Singara and Bezabde;
(60) the one situate in the midst of a sandy desert, the other
in a small peninsula, surrounded almost on every side by the
deep and rapid stream of the Tigris. Five Roman legions, of
the diminutive size to which they had been reduced in the
age of Constantine, were made prisoners, and sent into
remote captivity on the extreme confines of Persia. After
dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror abandoned
that solitary and sequestered place; but he carefully
restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and fixed in that
important post a garrison or colony of veterans, amply
supplied with every means of defence, and animated by high
sentiments of honour and fidelity. Towards the close of the
campaign the arms of Sapor incurred some disgrace by an
unsuccessful enterprise against Virtha, or Tecrit, a strong,
or, as it was universally esteemed till the age of
Tamerlane, an impregnable fortress of the independent Arabs.
(61)
Conduct of the Romans
The defence of the East against the arms of Sapor
required, and would have exercised, the abilities of the
most consummate general; and it seemed fortunate for the
state that it was the actual province of the brave
Ursicinus, who alone deserved the confidence of the soldiers
and people. In the hour of danger Ursicinus(62) was removed
from his station by the intrigues of the eunuchs; and the
military command of the East was bestowed, by the same
influence, on Sabinian, a wealthy and subtle veteran, who
had attained the infirmities, without acquiring the
experience, of age. By a second order, which issued from the
same jealous and inconstant counsels, Ursicinus was again
despatched to the frontier of Mesopotamia, and condemned to
sustain the labours of a war, the honours of which had been
transferred to his unworthy rival. Sabinian fixed his
indolent station under the walls of Edessa; and while he
amused himself with the idle parade of military exercise,
and moved to the sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic dance, the
public defence was abandoned to the boldness and diligence
of the former general of the East. But whenever Ursicinus
recommended any vigorous plan of operations; when he
proposed, at the head of a light and active army, to wheel
round the foot of the mountains, to intercept the convoys of
the enemy, to harass the wide extent of the Persian lines,
and to relieve the distress of Amida; the timid and envious
commander alleged that he was restrained by his positive
orders from endangering the safety of the troops. Amida was
at length taken, its bravest defenders, who had escaped the
sword of the barbarians, died in the Roman camp by the hand
of the executioner; and Ursicinus himself, after supporting
the disgrace of a partial inquiry, was punished for the
misconduct of Sabinian by the loss of his military rank. But
Constantius soon experienced the truth of the prediction
which honest indignation had extorted from his injured
lieutenant, that, as long as such maxims of government were
suffered to prevail, the emperor himself would find it no
easy task to defend his eastern dominions from the invasion
of a foreign enemy. When he had subdued or pacified the
barbarians of the Danube, Constantius proceeded by slow
marches into the East; and after he had wept over the
smoking ruins of Amida, he formed, with a powerful army, the
siege of Bezabde. The walls were shaken by the reiterated
efforts of the most enormous of the battering-rams; the town
was reduced to the last extremity; but it was still defended
by the patient and intrepid valour of the garrison, till the
approach of the rainy season obliged the emperor to raise
the siege, and ingloriously to retreat into his
winter-quarters at Antioch.(63) The pride of Constantius, and
the ingenuity of his courtiers, were at a loss to discover
any materials for panegyric in the events of the Persian
war; while the glory of his cousin Julian, to whose military
command he had intrusted the provinces of Gauls was
proclaimed to the world in the simple and concise narrative
of his exploits.
Invasion of Gaul by the Germans
In the blind fury of civil discord, Constantius had
abandoned to the barbarians of Germany the countries of
Gaul, which still acknowledged the authority of his rival. A
numerous swarm of Franks and Alemanni were invited to cross
the Rhine by presents and promises, by the hopes of spoil,
and by a perpetual grant of all the territories which they
should be able to subdue. (64) But the emperor, who for a
temporary service had thus imprudently provoked the
rapacious spirit of the barbarians, soon discovered and
lamented the difficulty of dismissing these formidable
allies, after they had tasted the richness of the Roman
soil. Regardless of the nice distinction of loyalty and
rebellion, these undisciplined robbers treated as their
natural enemies all the subjects of the empire who possessed
any property which they were desirous of acquiring.
Forty-five flourishing cities, Tongres, Cologne, Treves,
Worms, Spires, Strasburg, etc., besides a far greater number
of towns and villages, were pillaged, and for the most part
reduced to ashes. The barbarians of Germany, still faithful
to the maxims of their ancestors, abhorred the confinement
of walls, to which they applied the odious names of prisons
and sepulchres; and, fixing their independent habitations on
the banks of rivers, the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Meuse,
they secured themselves against the danger of a surprise, by
a rude and hasty fortification of large trees, which were
felled and thrown across the roads. The Alemanni were
established in the modern countries of Alsace and Lorraine;
the Franks occupied the island of the Batavians, together
with an extensive district of Brabant, which was then known
by the appellation of Toxandria, (65) and may deserve to be
considered as the original seat of their Gallic monarchy.(66)
From the sources to the mouth of the Rhine, the conquests of
the Germans extended above forty miles to the west of that
river, over a country peopled by colonies of their own name
and nation; and the scene of their devastations was three
times more extensive than that of their conquests. At a
still greater distance the open towns of Gaul were deserted,
and the inhabitants of the fortified cities, who trusted to
their strength and vigilance, were obliged to content
themselves with such supplies of corn as they could raise on
the vacant land within the enclosure of their walls. The
diminished legions, destitute of pay and provisions, of arms
and discipline, trembled at the approach and even at the
name, of the barbarians.
Conduct of Julian
Under these melancholy circumstances, an inexperienced youth
was appointed to save and to govern the provinces of Gaul,
or rather. as he expresses it himself, to exhibit the vain
image of Imperial greatness. The retired scholastic
education of Julian, in which he had been more conversant
with books than with arms, with the dead than with the
living, left him in profound ignorance of the practical arts
of war and government; and when he awkwardly repeated some
military exercise which it was necessary for him to learn,
he exclaimed with a sigh, "0 Plato, Plato, what a task for a
philosopher!" Yet even this speculative philosophy, which
men of business are too apt to despise, had filled the mind
of Julian with the noblest precepts and the most shining
examples; had animated him with the love of virtue, the
desire of fame, and the contempt of death. The habits of
temperance recommended in the schools are still more
essential in the severe discipline of a camp. The simple
wants of nature regulated the measure of his food and sleep.
Rejecting with disdain the delicacies provided for his
table, he satisfied his appetite with the coarse and common
fare which was allotted to the meanest soldiers. During the
rigour of a Gallic winter he never suffered a fire in his
bedchamber; and after a short and interrupted slumber, he
frequently rose in the middle of the night from a carpet
spread on the floor, to despatch any urgent business, to
visit his rounds, or to steal a few moments for the
prosecution of his favourite studies. (67) The precepts of
eloquence, which he had hitherto practised on fancied topics
of declamation, were more usefully applied to excite or to
assuage the passions of an armed multitude: and although
Julian, from his early habits of conversation and
literature, was more familiarly acquainted with the beauties
of the Greek language, he had attained a competent knowledge
of the Latin tongue. (68) Since Julian was not originally
designed for the character of a legislator or a judge, it is
probable that the civil jurisprudence of the Romans had not
engaged any considerable share of his attention: but he
derived from his philosophic studies an inflexible regard
for justice, tempered by a disposition to clemency, the
knowledge of the general principles of equity and evidence,
and the faculty of patiently investigating the most
intricate and tedious questions which could be proposed for
his discussion. The measures of policy, and the operations
of war, must submit to the various accidents of circumstance
and character, and the unpractised student will often be
perplexed in the application of the most perfect theory. But
in the acquisition of this important science Julian was
assisted by the active vigour of his own genius, as well as
by the wisdom and experience of Sallust, an officer of rank,
who soon conceived a sincere attachment for a prince so
worthy of his friendship; and whose incorruptible integrity
was adorned by the talent of insinuating the harshest truths
without wounding the delicacy of a royal ear.(69)
His first campaign in Gaul, A.D. 356
Immediately after Julian had received the purple at Milan he
was sent into Gaul with a feeble retinue of three hundred
and sixty soldiers. At Vienna, where he passed a painful and
anxious winter, in the hands of those ministers to whom
Constantius had intrusted the direction of his conduct, the
Caesar was informed of the siege and deliverance of Autun.
That large and ancient city, protected only by a ruined wall
and pusillanimous garrison, was saved by the generous
resolution of a few veterans, who resumed their arms for the
defence of their country. In his march from Autun, through
the heart of the Gallic provinces, Julian embraced with
ardour the earliest opportunity of signalising his courage.
At the head of a small body of archers and heavy cavalry, he
preferred the shorter but the more dangerous of two roads;
and sometimes eluding and sometimes resisting the attacks of
the barbarians, who were masters of the field, he arrived
with honour and safety at the camp near Rheims, where the
Roman troops had been ordered to assemble. The aspect of
their young prince revived the drooping spirit of the
soldiers, and they marched from Rheims in search of the
enemy with a confidence which had almost proved fatal to
them. The Alemanni, familiarised to the knowledge of the
country, secretly collected their scattered forces, and,
seizing the opportunity of a dark and rainy day, poured with
unexpected fury on the rearguard of the Romans. Before the
inevitable disorder could be remedied, two legions were
destroyed; and Julian was taught by experience that caution
and vigilance are the most important lessons of the art of
war. In a second and more successful action he recovered and
established his military fame; but as the agility of the
barbarians saved them from the pursuit, his victory was
neither bloody nor decisive. He advanced, however, to the
banks of the Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne, convinced
himself of the difficulties of the war, and retreated on the
approach of winter, discontented with the court, with his
army, and with his own success.(70) The power of the enemy
was yet unbroken; and the Caesar had no sooner separated his
troops, and fixed his own quarters at Sens, in the centre of
Gaul, than he was surrounded and besieged by a numerous host
of Germans. Reduced in this extremity to the resources of
his own mind, he displayed a prudent intrepidity which
compensated for all the deficiencies of the place and
garrison; and the barbarians, at the end of thirty days,
were obliged to retire with disappointed rage.
His second campaign, A.D. 357
The conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted only to his
sword for this signal deliverance, was embittered by the
reflection that he was abandoned, betrayed, and perhaps
devoted to destruction, by those who were bound to assist
him by every tie of honour and fidelity. Marcellus,
master-general of the cavalry in Gaul, interpreting too
strictly the jealous orders of the court, beheld with supine
indifference the distress of Julian, and had restrained the
troops under his command from marching to the relief of
Sens. If the Caesar had dissembled in silence so dangerous
an insult, his person and authority would have been exposed
to the contempt of the world; and if an action so criminal
had been suffered to pass with impunity, the emperor would
have confirmed the suspicions which received a very specious
colour from this conduct towards the princes of the Flavian
family. Marcellus was recalled, and gently dismissed from
his office.(71) In his room Severus was appointed general of the cavalry; an experienced soldier, of approved courage and fidelity, who could advise with respect, and execute with zeal; and who submitted, without reluctance, to the supreme
command which Julian, by the interest of his patroness Eusebia, at length obtained over the armies of Gaul.(72) A very judicious plan of operations was adopted for the
approaching campaign Julian himself, at the head of the
remains of the veteran bands, and of some new levies which
he had been permitted to form, boldly penetrated into the
centre of the German cantonments, and carefully
re-established the fortifications of Saverne, in an
advantageous post which would either check the incursions or
intercept the retreat of the enemy. At the same time
Barbatio, general of the infantry, advanced from Milan with
an army of thirty thousand men, and, passing the mountains,
prepared to throw a bridge over the Rhine, in the
neighbourhood of Basil. It was reasonable to expect that the
Alemanni, pressed on either side by the Roman arms, would
soon be forced to evacuate the provinces of Gaul, and to
hasten to the defence of their native country. But the hopes
of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, or the
envy, or the secret instructions of Barbatio, who acted as
if he had been the enemy of the Caesar, and the secret ally
of the barbarians. The negligence with which he permitted a
troop of pillagers freely to pass, and to return, almost
before the gates of his camp, may be imputed to his want of
abilities; but the treasonable act of burning a number of
boats, and a superfluous stock of provisions, which would
have been of the most essential service to the army of Gaul,
was an evidence of his hostile and criminal intentions. The
Germans despised an enemy who appeared destitute either of
power or of inclination to offend them; and the ignominious
retreat of Barbatio deprived Julian of the expected support,
and left him to extricate himself from a hazardous
situation, where he could neither remain with safety, nor
retire with honour.(73)
Battle of Strasburgh, A.D. 357, August
As soon as they were delivered from the fears of invasion,
the Alemanni prepared to chastise the Roman youth who
presumed to dispute the possession of that country which
they claimed as their own by the right of conquest and of
treaties. They employed three days, and as many nights, in
transporting over the Rhine their military powers. The
fierce Chnodomar, shaking the ponderous javelin which he had
victoriously wielded against the brother of Magnentius, led
the van of the barbarians, and moderated by his experience
the martial ardour which his example inspired.(74) He was
followed by six other kings, by ten princes of regal
extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and by
thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the tribes
of Germany. The confidence derived from the view of their
own strength was increased by the intelligence which they
received from a deserter, that the Caesar, with a feeble
army of thirteen thousand men, occupied a post about
one-and-twenty miles from their camp of Strasburg. With this
inadequate force Julian resolved to seek and to encounter
the barbarian host; and the chance of a general action was
preferred to the tedious and uncertain operation of
separately engaging the dispersed parties of the Alemanni.
The Romans marched in close order, and in two columns; the
cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left; and the day
was so far spent when they appeared in sight of the enemy,
that Julian was desirous of deferring the battle till the
next morning, and of allowing his troops to recruit their
exhausted strength by the necessary refreshments of sleep
and food. Yielding, however, with some reluctance, to the
clamours of the soldiers, and even to the opinion of his
council, he exhorted them to justify by their valour the
eager impatience which, in case of a defeat, would be
universally branded with the epithets of rashness and
presumption. The trumpets sounded, the military shout was
heard through the field, and the two armies rushed with
equal fury to the charge. The Caesar, who conducted in
person his right wing, depended on the dexterity of his
archers and the weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks
were instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light-horse
and of light-infantry, and he had the mortification of
beholding the flight of six hundred of his: most renowned
cuirassiers.(75) The fugitives were stopped and rallied by
the presence and authority of Julian, who, careless of his
own safety, threw himself before them, and urging every
motive of shame and honour, led them back against the
victorious enemy. The conflict between the two lines of
infantry was obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the
superiority of strength and stature, the Romans that of
discipline and temper, and as the barbarians who served
under the standard of the empire united the respective
advantages of both parties, their strenuous efforts, guided
by a skilful leader, at length determined the event of the
day. The Romans lost four tribunes, and two hundred and
forty-three soldiers in this memorable battle of Strasburg,
so glorious to the Caesar, (76) and so salutary to the
afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the Alemanni
were slain in the field, without including those who were
drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed with darts whilst they
attempted to swim across the river.(77) Chnodomar himself was
surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his brave
companions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or
death the fate of their chieftain. Julian received him with
military pomp in the council of his officers, and expressing
a generous pity for the fallen state, dissembled his inward
contempt for the abject humiliation of his captive. Instead
of exhibiting the vanquished king of the Alemanni as a
grateful spectacle to the cities of Gaul, he respectfully
laid at the feet of the emperor this splendid trophy of his
victory. Chnodomar experienced an honourable treatment: but
the impatient barbarian could not long survive his defeat,
his confinement, and his exile.(78)
Julian subdues the Franks, A.D. 358.
After Julian had repulsed the Alemanni from the provinces of
the Upper Rhine, he turned his arms against the Franks, who
were seated nearer to the ocean, on the confines of Gaul and
Germany; and who, from their numbers, and still more from
their intrepid valour, had ever been esteemed the most
formidable of the barbarians.(79) Although they were strongly
actuated by the allurements of rapine, they professed a
disinterested love of war, which they considered as the
supreme honour and felicity of human nature; and their minds
and bodies were so completely hardened by perpetual action,
that, according to the lively expression of an orator, the
snows of winter were as pleasant to them as the flowers of
spring. In the month of December which followed the battle
of Strasburg, Julian attacked a body of six hundred Franks
who had thrown themselves into two castles on the Meuse.(80)
In the midst of that severe season they sustained, with
inflexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days, till at
length, exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the
vigilance of the enemy in breaking the ice of the river left
them no hopes of escape, the Franks consented, for the first
time, to dispense with the ancient law which commanded them
to conquer or to die. The Caesar immediately sent his
captives to the court of Constantius, who, accepting them as
a valuable present,(81) rejoiced in the opportunity of adding
so many heroes to the choicest troops of his domestic
guards. The obstinate resistance of this handful of Franks
apprised Julian of the difficulties of the expedition which
he meditated for the ensuing spring against the whole body
of the nation. His rapid diligence surprised and astonished
the active barbarians. Ordering his soldiers to provide
themselves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly pitched
his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him in
his winter-quarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of
his convoys from Aquitain. Without allowing the Franks to
unite or to deliberate, he skilfully spread his legions from
Cologne to the ocean; and by the terror, as well as by the
success of his arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes to
implore the clemency and to obey the commands of their
conqueror. The Chamavians submissively retired to their
former habitations beyond the Rhine; but the Salians were
permitted to possess their new establishment of Toxandria,
as the subjects and auxiliaries of the Roman empire.(82) The
treaty was ratified by solemn oaths; and perpetual
inspectors were appointed to reside among the Franks, with
the authority of enforcing the strict observance of the
conditions. An incident is related, interesting enough in
itself, and by no means repugnant to the character of
Julian, who ingeniously contrived both the plot and the
catastrophe of the tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for
peace, he required the son of their king, as the only
hostage on whom he could rely. A mournful silence,
interrupted by tears and groans, declared the sad perplexity
of the barbarians; and their aged chief lamented, in pathetic language, that his private loss was now embittered by a sense of the public calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate at the foot of his throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to have been slain, unexpectedly appeared before their eyes; and as soon as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Caesar addressed the assembly in the following terms: —
"Behold the son, the prince, whom you wept. You had lost him by your fault. God and the Romans have restored him to you. I shall still preserve and educate the youth, rather as a monument of my own virtue than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume to violate the faith which you have sworn, the arms of the republic will avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty."
The barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmest sentiments of gratitude and admiration.(83)
Makes three expiditions beyond the Rhine, A.D. 357, 358, 359.
It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the provinces
of Gaul from the barbarians of Germany. He aspired to
emulate the glory of the first and most illustrious of the
emperors; after whose example he composed his own
commentaries of the Gallic war.(84) Caesar has related, with
conscious pride, the manner in which he twice passed the
Rhine. Julian could boast that, before he assumed the title
of Augustus, he had carried the Roman eagles beyond that
great river in three successful expeditions. (85) The
consternation of the Germans after the battle of Strasburg
encouraged him to the first attempt; and the reluctance of
the troops soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of a
leader who shared the fatigues and dangers which he imposed
on the meanest of the soldiers. The villages on either side
of the Main, which were plentifully stored with corn and
cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army. The principal
houses, constructed with some imitation of Roman elegance,
were consumed by the flames; and the Caesar boldly advanced
about ten miles, till his progress was stopped by a dark and
impenetrable forest, undermined by subterraneous passages,
which threatened with secret snares and ambush every step of
the assailant. The ground was already covered with snow; and
Julian, after repairing an ancient castle which had been
erected by Trajan, granted a truce of ten months to the
submissive barbarians. At the expiration of the truce Julian
undertook a second expedition beyond the Rhine, to humble
the pride of Surmar and Hortaire, two of the kings of the
Alemanni, who had been present at the battle of Strasburg.
They promised to restore all the Roman captives who yet
remained alive; and as the Caesar had procured an exact
account from the cities and villages of Gaul of the
inhabitants whom they had lost, he detected every attempt to
deceive him with a degree of readiness and accuracy which
almost established the belief of his super-natural
knowledge. His third expedition was still more splendid and
important than the two former. The Germans had collected
their military powers, and moved along the opposite banks of
the river, with a design of destroying the bridge, and of
preventing the passage of the Romans. But this judicious
plan of defence was disconcerted by a skilful diversion.
Three hundred light-armed and active soldiers were detached
in forty small boats, to fall down the stream in silence,
and to land at some distance from the posts of the enemy.
They executed their orders with so much boldness and
celerity, that they had almost surprised the barbarian
chiefs, who returned in the fearless confidence of
intoxication from one of their nocturnal festivals. Without
repeating the uniform and disgusting tale of slaughter and
devastation, it is sufficient to observe that Julian
dictated his own conditions of peace to six of the
haughtiest kings of the Alemanni, three of whom were
permitted to view the severe discipline and martial pomp of
a Roman camp. Followed by twenty thousand captives, whom he
had rescued from the chains of the barbarians, the Caesar
repassed the Rhine, after terminating a war the success of
which has been compared to the ancient glories of the Punic
and Cimbric victories.
Restores the cities of Gaul.
As soon as the valour and conduct of Julian had secured an
interval of peace, he applied himself to a work more
congenial to his humane and philosophic temper. The cities
of Gaul, which had suffered from the inroads of the
barbarians, he diligently repaired; and seven important
posts, between Mentz and the mouth of the Rhine, are
particularly mentioned as having been rebuilt and fortified
by the order of Julian. (86) The vanquished Germans had
submitted to the just but humiliating condition of preparing
and conveying the necessary materials. The active zeal of
Julian urged the prosecution of the work; and such was the
spirit which he had diffused among the troops, that the
auxiliaries themselves, waiving their exemption from any
duties of fatigue, contended in the most servile labours
with the diligence of the Roman soldiers. It was incumbent
on the Caesar to provide for the subsistence as well as for
the safety of the inhabitants and of the garrisons. The
desertion of the former, and the mutiny of the latter, must
have been the fatal and inevitable consequences of famine.
The tillage of the provinces of Gaul had been interrupted by
the calamities of war; but the scanty harvests of the
continent were supplied, by his paternal care, from the
plenty of the adjacent island. Six hundred large barques,
framed in the forest of the Ardennes, made several voyages
to the coast of Britain; and returning from thence, laden
with corn, sailed up the Rhine, and distributed their
cargoes to the several towns and fortresses along the banks
of the river. (87) The arms of Julian had restored a free and
secure navigation, which Constantius had offered to purchase
at the expense of his dignity, and of a tributary present of
two thousand pounds of silver. The emperor parsimoniously
refused to his soldiers the sums which he granted with a
lavish and trembling hand to the barbarians. The dexterity,
as well as the firmness of Julian, was put to a severe
trial, when he took the field with a discontented army,
which had already served two campaigns without receiving any
regular pay or any extraordinary donative.(88)
Civil administration of Julian
A tender regard for the peace and happiness of his subjects
was the ruling principle which directed, or seemed to
direct, the administration of Julian. (89) He devoted the
leisure of his winter-quarters to the offices of civil
government; and affected to assume with more pleasure the
character of a magistrate than that of a general. Before he
took the field he devolved on the provincial governors most
of the public and private causes which had been referred to
his tribunal; but, on his return, he carefully revised their
proceedings, mitigated the rigour of the law, and pronounced
a second judgment on the judges themselves. Superior to the
last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet and
intemperate zeal for justice, he restrained, with calmness
and dignity, the warmth of an advocate who prosecuted, for
extortion the president of the Narbonnese province.
"Who will ever be found guilty," exclaimed the vehement Delphidius, "if it be enough to deny?"
"And who," replied Julian, "will ever be innocent, if it is sufficient to affirm?"
In the general administration of peace and war, the interest of the sovereign is commonly the same as that of his people; but Constantius would have thought himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted from an oppressed and exhausted country. The prince who was invested with the ensigns of royalty might sometimes presume to correct the rapacious insolence of the inferior agents, to expose their corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and easier mode of collection. But the management of the finances was more safely intrusted to Florentius, Praetorian praefect of Gaul, an effeminate tyrant, incapable of pity or remorse: and the haughty minister complained of the most decent and gentle opposition, while Julian himself was rather inclined to censure the weakness of his own behaviour. The Caesar had rejected with abhorrence a mandate for the levy of an extraordinary tax; a new super-indiction, which the praefect had offered for his signature; and the faithful picture of the public misery, by which he had been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the court of Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of reading the sentiments of Julian, as he expresses them with warmth and freedom in a letter to one of his most intimate friends. After stating his own conduct, he proceeds in the following terms:—
"Was it possible for the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise than I have done? Could I abandon the unhappy subjects intrusted to my care? Was I not called upon to defend them from the repeated injuries of these unfeeling robbers? A tribune who deserts his post is punished with death, and deprived of the honours of burial. With what justice could I pronounce his sentence, if, in the hour of danger, I myself neglected a duty far more sacred and far more important? God has placed me in this elevated post; his providence will guard and support me. Should I be condemned to suffer, I shall derive comfort from the testimony of a pure and upright conscience. Would to Heaven that I still possessed a counsellor like Sallust! If they think proper to send me a successor, I shall submit without reluctance; and had much rather improve the short opportunity of doing good, than enjoy. a long and lasting impunity of evil." (90)
The precarious and dependent situation of Julian displayed his virtues and concealed his defects. The young hero who supported, in Gaul, the throne of Constantius, was not permitted to reform the vices of the government; but he had courage to alleviate or to pity the distress of the people. Unless he had been able o revive the martial spirit of the Romans, or to introduce the arts of industry and refinement among their savage enemies, he could not entertain any rational hopes of securing the public tranquillity, either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yet the victories of Julian suspended for a short time the inroads of the barbarians, and delayed the ruin of the Western Empire.
Description of Paris
His salutary influence restored the cities of Gaul, which had been so long exposed to the evils of civil discord, barbarian war, and domestic tyranny; and the spirit of industry was revived with the hopes of enjoyment. Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce again flourished under the protection of the laws; and the curiaea, or civil corporations, were again filled with useful and respectable members: the youth were no longer apprehensive of marriage; and married persons were no longer apprehensive of posterity: the public and private festivals were celebrated with customary pomp; and the frequent and secure intercourse of the provinces displayed the image of national prosperity.(91) A mind like that of Julian must have felt the general happiness of which he was the author; but he viewed with peculiar satisfaction and complacency the city of
Paris, the seat of his winter residence, and the object even of his partial affection. (92) That splendid capital, which now embraces an ample territory on either side of the Seine,
was originally confined to the small island in the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitants derived a supply of pure and salubrious water. The river bathed the foot of the walls; and the town was accessible only by two wooden bridges. A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine, but on the south; the ground which now bears the name of the University was insensibly covered with houses, and adorned with a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops. The severity of the climate was tempered by the neighbourhood of the ocean; and with some precautions, which experience had
taught, the vine and figtree were successfully cultivated.
But in remarkable winters the Seine was deeply frozen; and
the huge pieces of ice that floated down the stream might be
compared, by an Asiatic, to the blocks of white marble which
were extracted from the quarries of Phrygia. The
licentiousness and corruption of Antioch recalled to the
memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his
beloved Lutetia,(93) where the amusements of the theatre were
unknown or despised. He indignantly contrasted the
effeminate Syrians with the brave and honest simplicity of
the Gauls, and almost forgave the intemperance which was the
only stain of the Celtic character.(94) If Julian could now
revisit the capital of France, he might converse with men of
science and genius, capable of understanding and of
instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he might excuse the
lively and graceful follies of a nation whose martial spirit
has never been enervated by the indulgence of luxury; and he
must applaud the perfection of. that inestimable art which
softens and refines and embellishes the intercourse of
social life.
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