XIX. € HA P. embraced him with the tenderness of a fister; and endeavoured, by the most foothing careffes, to difpel 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 philofopher for the military habit of a Roman prince, amused, during a few days, the levity of the Imperial court The emperors of the age of Conftantine no longer deigned to confult with the fenate in the choice of a colleague; but they were anxious that their nomination should be ratified by the confent of the army. On this folemn occafion, the guards, with the other troops whofe ftations were in the neighbourhood of Milan, appeared under arms; and Conftantius afcended his lofty tribunal, holding by the hand his coufin Julian, who entered the fame day into the twenty-fifth year of his age ". In a ftudied fpeech, conceived and delivered with dignity, the emperor reprefented the various dangers which threatened the profperity of the republic, the neceffity of naming a Cæfar for the administration of the Weft, and his own intention, if it was agreeable to their wishes, of rewarding with the honours of the purple, the promifing virtues of the nephew of Conftantine. The approbation of the foldiers was teftified by a refpectful murmur: they gazed on the manly countenance of Julian, and obferved with pleasure, that the fire which fparkled in his eyes was tempered by a modeft blush, on being thus exposed, for the first time, to the public XIX. view of mankind. As foon as the ceremony of CHAP his inveftiture had been performed, Conftantius addreffed him with the tone of authority, which his fuperior age and ftation permitted him to af fume; and exhorting the new Cæfar to deferve, by heroic deeds, that facred and immortal name, the emperor gave his colleague the strongest af furances of a friendship which should never be impaired by time, nor interrupted by their separation into the moft diftant climates. As foon as the speech was ended, the troops, as a token of applaufe, clashed their shields against their knees "; while the officers who furrounded the tribunal expreffed, with decent reserve, their sense of the merits of the reprefentative of Conftantius. The two princes returned to the palace in the and des fame chariot; and during the slow proceffion, Julian repeated to himself a verfe of his favourite Homer, which he might equally apply to his fortune and to his fears ". The four-and-twenty days which the Cæfar spent at Milan after his inveftiture, and the first months of his Gallic reign, were devoted to a fplendid, but fevere captivity; nor could the acquifition of honour compensate for the lofs of freedom". His fteps were watched, his correfpondence was intercepted; and he was obliged, by prudence, to decline the vifits of his most intimate friends. Of his former domeftics, four only were permitted to attend him; two pages, his phyfician, and his librarian; the laft of whom was employed in the care of a valuable col lection of books, the gift of the empress, who clared Cæfar, A. D. 344, Nov. 6. СНАР. ftudied the inclinations as well as the intereft of her friend. In the room of these faithful fervants, an household was formed, fuch indeed as became the dignity of a Cæfar: but it was filled with a crowd of slaves, deftitute, and perhaps incapable of any attachment for their new master, to whom, for the most part, they were either unknown or fufpected. His want of experience might require the affiftance of a wife counfel; but the minute inftructions which regulated the fervice of his table, and the distribution of his hours. were adapted to a youth ftill under the difcipline of his præceptors, rather than to the fituation of a prince entrusted with the conduct of an important war. If he afpired to deferve the esteem of his fubjects, he was checked by the fear of dif pleafing his fovereign; and even the fruits of his mariage-bed were blafted by the jealous artifices of Eufebia" herself, who, on this occafion alone, feems to have been unmindful of the tenderness of her fex, and the generofity of her character. The memory of his father and of his brothers reminded Julian of his own danger, and his apprehenfions were encreased by the recent and unFatal end worthy fate of Sylvanus. In the fummer which preceded his own elevation, that general had been chofen to deliver Gaul from the tyranny of the September. Barbarians; but Sylvanus foon difcovered that he had left his most dangerous enemies in the Imperial court. A dexterous informer, countenanced by feveral of the principal minifters, prosured from him fome recommendatory letters; of Sylvanus, A. D. 355, and erazing the whole of the contents, except the fignature, 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 prefence of the emperor himself, the innocence of Sylvanus was publicly acknowledged. But the discovery came too late; the report of the calumny, and the hafty feizure of his eftate, had already provoked the indignant chief to the rebellion of which he was fo unjustly accused. He affumed the purple at his head-quarters of Cologne, and his active powers appeared to menace Italy with an invafion, and Milan with a fiege. In this emergency, Urficinus, a general of equal rank, regained, by an act of treachery, the favour which he had loft by his eminent services in the Eaft. Exafperated, as he might fpeciously allege, by injuries of a fimilar nature, he haftened 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 affaffinated: the foldiers who, without any criminal intention, had blindly followed the example of their leader, immediately returned to their allegiance; and the flatterers of Conftantius celebrated the wif dom and felicity of the monarch who had extinguished a civil war without the hazard of a battle ". XIX. tius vifits The protection of the Rhætian frontier, and Conftan the perfecution of the Catholic Church, detained Rome, CHAP. A. D. 357, Conftantius in Italy above eighteen months after the departure of Julian. Before the emperor returned into the East, he indulged his pride and curiofity in a vifit to the ancient capital ". He proceeded from Milan to Rome along the Emi. lian and Flaminian ways; and as foon as he approached within forty miles of the city, the march of a prince who had never vanquished a foreign enemy, affumed the appearance of a triumphal proceffion. His fplendid train was compofed of all the minifters of luxury; but in a time of profound peace, he was encompaffed by the glittering arms of the numerous fquadrons of his guards: and cuiraffiers. Their ftreaming banners of filk, emboffed with gold, and shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the perfon of the emperor. Conftantius fat alone in a lofty car refplendent with gold and precious gems; and, except when he bowed his head to pafs under the gates of the cities, he affected a ftately demeanour of inflexible, and, as it might seem, of infenfible gravity. The fevere difcipline of the Perfian youth had been introduced by the eunuchs into the Imperial palace; and fuch were the habits of patience which they had inculcated, that, during a slow and fultry march, he was never feen 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 magiftrates and senate of Rome; and the emperor furveyed, with attention, the civil honours of the republic, and the confular images of the noble families, The ftreets were lined |