CHAPTER XXII

JOVIAN IS PROCLAIMED EMPEROR

THE soldiery in extreme perplexity at an event so unexpected, on the following day proclaim Jovian emperor, a person alike distinguished by his courage and birth. He was a military tribune when Julian put forth an edict giving his officers the option of either sacrificing or resigning their rank in the army, and chose rather to lay down his commission, than to obey the mandate of an impious prince. Julian however being pressed by the urgency of the war which was before him, would not accept his resignation, but continued him among his generals. On being saluted emperor, he positively declined to accept the sovereign power: and when the soldiers brought him forward by force, he declared that being a Christian, he did not wish to reign over a people devoted to idolatrous superstitions. They all then with one voice answered that they also were Christians: upon which he allowed himself to be invested with the imperial dignity. Perceiving himself suddenly left in very difficult circumstances, in the heart of a hostile country, where his army was in danger of perishing for want of necessaries, he agreed to terminate the war, even on terms by no means honourable to the glory of the Roman name; although the exigencies of the present crisis obliged him to accede to them. Submitting therefore to the loss of the borders of the empire, (i. e. the districts beyond the Tigris,) and giving up also Nisibis, a city of Mesopotamia, to the Persians, he withdrew from their territories. The announcement of these things gave fresh hope to the Christians; while the Pagans vehemently bewailed Julian’s death. Nevertheless the whole army reprobated his intemperate heat, and ascribed to his rashness in listening to the wily reports of a Persian deserter, the humiliating position in which they found themselves subsequently placed: for being imposed upon by the statements of this fugitive, he was induced to burn the ships which supplied them with provisions by water, by which means they were exposed to all the horrors of famine. Libanius composed a Funeral Oration on him, which he designated the Julianian Epitaph, wherein he not only celebrates with lofty encomiums almost all his actions; but in referring to the books which Julian wrote against the Christians, says that he has therein clearly demonstrated the ridiculous and trifling character of their sacred books. Had this sophist contented himself with extolling the emperor’s other acts, I should have quietly proceeded with the course of my history; but since this violent declaimer has thought proper to take occasion to inveigh against the Christian Religion, we shall pause a little to consider his words.