e use, or even to the splendor, of the throne. The
monarch was disgraced, and the people was injured, by the creation and
sale of an infinite number of obscure, and even titular employments;
and the most worthless of mankind might purchase the privilege of being
maintained, without the necessity of labor, from the public revenue. The
waste of an enormous household, the increase of fees and perquisites,
which were soon claimed as a lawful debt, and the bribes which they
extorted from those who feared their enmity, or solicited their favor,
suddenly enriched these haughty menials. They abused their fortune,
without considering their past, or their future, condition; and their
rapine and venality could be equalled only by the extravagance of their
dissipations. Their silken robes were embroidered with gold, their
tables were served with delicacy and profusion; the houses which they
built for their own use, would have covered the farm of an ancient
consul; and the most honorable citizens were obliged to dismount from
their horses, and respectfully to salute a eunuch whom they met on
the public highway. The luxury of the palace excited the contempt and
indignation of Julian, who usually slept on the ground, who yielded
with reluctance to the indispensable calls of nature; and who placed his
vanity, not in emulating, but in despising, the pomp of royalty.

By the total extirpation of a mischief which was magnified even beyond
its real extent, he was impatient to relieve the distress, and to
appease the murmurs of the people; who support with less uneasiness the
weight of taxes, if they are convinced that the fruits of their industry
are appropriated to the service of the state. But in the execution of
this salutary work, Julian is accused of proceeding with too much haste
and inconsiderate severity. By a single edict, he reduced the palace
of Constantinople to an immense desert, and dismissed with ignominy the
whole train of slaves and dependants, without providing any just, or at
least benevolent, exceptions, for the age, the services, or the poverty,
of the faithful domestics of the Imperial family. Such indeed was
the temper of Julian, who seldom recollected the fundamental maxim of
Aristotle, that true virtue is placed at an equal distance between the
opposite vices. The splendid and effeminate dress of the Asiatics,
the curls and paint, the collars and bracelets, which had appeared so
ridiculous in the person of Constanti