ly felt. The religion which had
so long and so lately been established in the Roman empire was still
revered by a numerous people, less attached indeed to speculative
opinion, than to ancient custom. The honors of the state and army
were indifferently bestowed on all the subjects of Constantine and
Constantius; and a considerable portion of knowledge and wealth and
valor was still engaged in the service of polytheism. The superstition
of the senator and of the peasant, of the poet and the philosopher, was
derived from very different causes, but they met with equal devotion
in the temples of the gods. Their zeal was insensibly provoked by the
insulting triumph of a proscribed sect; and their hopes were revived by
the well-grounded confidence, that the presumptive heir of the empire,
a young and valiant hero, who had delivered Gaul from the arms of the
Barbarians, had secretly embraced the religion of his ancestors.

Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.--Part I Julian Is Declared
Emperor By The Legions Of Gaul.--His March And Success.--The Death Of
Constantius.--Civil Administration Of Julian.

While the Romans languished under the ignominious tyranny of eunuchs
and bishops, the praises of Julian were repeated with transport in every
part of the empire, except in the palace of Constantius. The barbarians
of Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the arms of the young Caesar; his
soldiers were the companions of his victory; the grateful provincials
enjoyed the blessings of his reign; but the favorites, who had opposed
his elevation, were offended by his virtues; and they justly considered
the friend of the people as the enemy of the court. As long as the fame
of Julian was doubtful, the buffoons of the palace, who were skilled in
the language of satire, tried the efficacy of those arts which they
had so often practised with success. They easily discovered, that his
simplicity was not exempt from affectation: the ridiculous epithets of
a hairy savage, of an ape invested with the purple, were applied to the
dress and person of the philosophic warrior; and his modest despatches
were stigmatized as the vain and elaborate fictions of a loquacious
Greek, a speculative soldier, who had studied the art of war amidst
the groves of the academy. The voice of malicious folly was at length
silenced by the shouts of victory; the conqueror of the Franks and
Alemanni could no longer be painted as an object of contempt; and the
monarc