to sustain the fire of their eyes
and the irresistible weight of their shout of onset.

The speech of the Emperor was received with military applause, and
Theodotus, the president of the council of Hierapolis, requested, with
tears of adulation, that _his_ city might be adorned with the head of
the vanquished rebel. A chosen detachment was despatched away in
post-wagons, to secure, if it were yet possible, the pass of Succi; the
recruits, the horses, the arms, and the magazines, which had been
prepared against Sapor, were appropriated to the service of the civil
war; and the domestic victories of Constantius inspired his partisans
with the most sanguine assurances of success. The notary Gaudentius had
occupied in his name the provinces of Africa; the subsistence of Rome
was intercepted; and the distress of Julian was increased by an
unexpected event, which might have been productive of fatal
consequences. Julian had received the submission of two legions and a
cohort of archers, who were stationed at Sirmium; but he suspected with
reason the fidelity of those troops which had been distinguished by the
Emperor; and it was thought expedient, under the pretence of the exposed
state of the Gallic frontier, to dismiss them from the most important
scene of action.

They advanced, with reluctance, as far as the confines of Italy; but as
they dreaded the length of the way and the savage fierceness of the
Germans, they resolved, by the instigation of one of their tribunes, to
halt at Aquileia, and to erect the banners of Constantius on the walls
of that impregnable city. The vigilance of Julian perceived at once the
extent of the mischief, and the necessity of applying an immediate
remedy. By his order, Jovinus led back a part of the army into Italy;
and the siege of Aquileia was formed with diligence and prosecuted with
vigor. But the legionaries, who seemed to have rejected the yoke of
discipline, conducted the defence of the place with skill and
perseverance; invited the rest of Italy to imitate the example of their
courage and loyalty; and threatened the retreat of Julian, if he should
be forced to yield to the superior numbers of the armies of the East.

But the humanity of Julian was preserved from the cruel alternative
which he pathetically laments, of destroying or of being himself
destroyed; and the seasonable death of Constantius delivered the Roman
Empire from the calamities of civil war. The approach of winter cou