CHAPTER III

ACCESSION OF THE EMPEROR JOVIAN

AFTER the decease of Julian, the government of the empire was, by the unanimous consent of the troops, tendered to Jovian. He, at first, refused the symbols of imperial power, alleging that he was a Christian; but when the soldiers discovered the cause of his refusal, they loudly proclaimed that they were themselves Christians. The critical condition in which affairs had been left by Julian, and the sufferings of the army from famine in an enemy’s country, compelled Jovian to conclude a peace with the Persians, and to cede to them some territories which had been formerly tributary to the Romans. Having learned from experience that the impiety of his predecessor had excited the wrath of God, and given rise to public calamities, he wrote without delay to the governors of the provinces, directing that the people should assemble together in the churches, that they should serve God with reverence, and that they should receive the Christian faith as the only true religion. He restored to the churches and the clergy, to the widows and the virgins, the same privileges that had been granted by Constantius and his sons, and afterwards withdrawn by Julian. He commanded Seeundus, who was then a prætorian prefect, to constitute it a capital crime to marry, or to carry off any of the holy virgins, or even to regard them with unchaste desires. He enacted this law on account of the wickedness which had prevailed during the reign of Julian; for many men had taken wives from among the holy virgins; and, either by force or guile, had completely corrupted them: and thence had proceeded those breaches of morality which always occur when religion is contemned and licentiousness tolerated.