XIX. moft artful infinuation; and he depended on the CHA P. dearh, and grace From wide A.D. 354. December. After a long delay, the reluctant Cæfar fet for- His difwards on his journey to the Imperial court. Antioch to Hadrianople, he traverfed the extent of his dominions with a numerous and ftately train; and as he laboured to conceal his apprehenfions from the world, and perhaps from himself, he entertained the people of Constantinople with an exhibition of the games of the circus. The progrefs of the journey might, how ever, have warned him of the impending danger. In all the principal cities he was met by minifters of confidence, commiffioned to feize the offices of government, to obferve his motions, and to prevent the hafty fallies of his defpair. The perfons dispatched to fecure the provinces which he left behind, paffed him with cold falutations, or affected difdain; and the troops, whofe ftation lay along the public road, were ftudioufly removed on his approach, left they might be tempted to offer their fwords for the fervice of a civil war 23. 22 She had preceded her husband; but died of a fever on the road, at a little place in Bithynia, called Cœnum Gallicanum. 33 The Thebean legions, which were then quartered at Hadrianople, fent a deputation to Gallus, with a tender of their fervices. Am. mian. 1. xiv. c. 11. The Notitia (f. 6. 20. 38. edit. Labb.) mentions three feveral legions which bore the name of Thelaan. The zeal of M. de Voltaire, to destroy a despicable though celebrated legend, bas tempted him on the flightest grounds to deny the existence of a Theban legion in the Roman armies. See Oeuvres de Voltaire, tom. xv. p. 414. quarto edition. CHAP. After Gallus had been permitted to repofe himXIX. self a few days at Hadrianople, he received a mandate, expreffed in the moft haughty and abfolute style, that his fplendid retinue should halt in that city, while the Cæfar himself, with only ten poft-carriages, fhould haften to the Imperial residence at Milan. In this rapid journey, the profound respect which was due to the brother and colleague of Comftantius, was infenfibly changed into rude familiarity; and Gallus, who difcovered in the countenances of the attendants that they already confidered themselves as his guards, and might foon be employed as his executioners, began to accufe his fatal rafhnefs, and to recollect with terror and remorse the conduct by which he had provoked his fate. The diffi mulation which had hitherto been preferved, was laid afide at Petovio in Pannonia. He was conducted to a palace in the fuburbs, where the general Barbatio, with a felect band of foldiers, who could neither be moved by pity, nor corrupted by rewards, expected the arrival of his illuftrious victim. In the clofe of the evening he was ar rested, ignominiously stripped of the enfigns of Cæfar, and hurried away to Pola in Iftria, a fequestered prison which had been fo recently polluted with royal blood. The horror which he felt was foon increased by the appearance of his implacable enemy the eunuch Eufebius, who, with the affiftance of a notary and a tribune, proceeded to interrogate him concerning the adminiftration of the East. The Cæfar funk under the weight of fhame and guilt, confeffed all the criminal actions, actions, and all the treasonable defigns with which CHA P. he was charged; and by imputing them to the XIX. advice of his wife, exafperated the indignation of Conftantius, who reviewed with partial prejudice the minutes of the examination. The emperor was eafily convinced, that his own fafety was incompatible with the life of his coufin: the fentence of death was figned, dispatched, and executed; and the nephew of Conftantine, with his hands tied behind his back, was beheaded in prifon like the vileft malefactor 24. Those who are inclined to palliate the cruelties of Conftantius, affert that he foon relented, and endeavoured to recal the bloody mandate; but that the fecond messenger entrusted with the reprieve, was detained by the eunuchs, who dreaded the unforgiving temper of Gallus, and were defirous of reuniting to their empire the wealthy provinces of the Eaft 25. Con- ger and escape of royal Julian. Befides the reigning emperor, Julian alone The Danfurvived, of all the numerous pofterity of ftantius Chlorus. The misfortune of his birth involved him in the difgrace of Gallus. From his retirement in the happy country of Ionia, he was conveyed under a strong guard to 24 See the complete narrative of the journey and death of Gallus in Ammianus, 1. 14. c. 11. Julian complains that his brother was put to death without a trial; attempts to justify, or at least to excufe, the cruel revenge which he had inflicted on his enemies; but feems at last to acknowledge that he might justly have been deprived of the purple. 25 Philoftorgius. I. iv. c. 1. Zonaras, l. xiii. tom. ii. p. 19. But the former was partial towards an Arian monarch, and the latter transcribed, without choice or criticifin, whatever he found in the writings of the ancients. N 3 the CHAP. the court of Milan; where he languifhed above XIX. feven months, in the continual apprehenfion of 26 fuffering the fame ignominious death, which was daily inflicted, almoft before his eyes, on the friends and adherents of his perfecuted family. His looks, his gestures, his filence, were fcrutinized with malignant curiofity, and he was perpe tually affaulted by enemies, whom he had never offended, and by arts to which he was a stranger But in the school of adverfity, Julian infenfibly acquired the virtues of firmness and difcretion. He defended his honour, as well as his life, against the enfnaring fubtleties of the eunuchs, who endeavoured to extort fome declaration of his fentiments; and whilft he cautioufly fuppreffed his grief and refentment, he nobly difdained to flatter the tyrant, by any feeming approbation of his brother's murder. Julian moft devoutly afcribes his miraculous deliverance to the protection of the Gods, who had exempted his innocence from the fentence of deftruction pronounced by their juftice againft the impious houfe of Conftantine". As the most ef fectual inftrument of their providence, he grate. 26 See Ammianus Marcellin, 1. xv. c. i. 3. 8. Julian himself, in his epifle to the Athenians, draws a very lively and jutt picture of his own danger, and of his fentiments. He fhews, however, a tendency to exaggerate his fufferings, by infinuating, though in obfcure terms, that they lafted above a year; a period which cannot be reconciled with the truth of Chronology. 27 Julian has worked the crimes and misfortunes of the family of Conftantine into an allegorical table, which is happily conceived and agreeably related. It forms the conclufion of the feventh Oration. from whence it has been detached and tranflated by the Abbé de la Bletenie. Vei de Jovien, tom, ii, p. 385—408. fully fully acknowledges the steady and generous friend- CHAP, fhip of the emprefs Eufebia 28, a woman of beauty XIX. and merit, who, by the afcendant which she had gained over the mind of her husband, counterbalanced, in fome measure, the powerful confpiracy of the eunuchs. By the interceffion of his patronefs, Julian was admitted into the Imperial prefence; he pleaded his caufe with a defcent freedom, he was heard with favour; and, notwithftanding the efforts of his enemies, who urged the danger of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus, the milder fentiment of Eufebia prevailed in the council. But the effects of a fecond interview were dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was advised to withdraw for a while into the neighbourhood of Milan, till the emperor thought He is fent proper to affign the city of Athens for the place to Athens, A.D. 355. of his honourable exile. As he had difcovered May. from his earliest youth, a propenfity, or rather paffion, for the language, the manners, the learning, and the religion of the Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure an order fo agreeable to his wishes. Far from the tumult of arms and the treachery of courts, he spent fix months amidst the groves of the academy, in a free intercourfe with the philofophers of the age, who ftudied to cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to inflame the devotion of their royal pupil. Their 28 She was a native of Theffalonica in Macedonia, of a noble family, and the daughter as well as fifter of confuls. Her marriage with the emperor may be placed in the year 352. In a divided age the hiftorians of all parties agree in her praifes. See their teftimonies collected by Tillemont, Hift. des Empereurs, tom. iv. P. 750-754. N 4 labours |