faith which was professed by the successors of Julian.

While the devout monarch incessantly labored to restore and propagate
the religion of his ancestors, he embraced the extraordinary design of
rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem. In a public epistle to the nation or
community of the Jews, dispersed through the provinces, he pities
their misfortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises their constancy,
declares himself their gracious protector, and expresses a pious hope,
that after his return from the Persian war, he may be permitted to pay
his grateful vows to the Almighty in his holy city of Jerusalem. The
blind superstition, and abject slavery, of those unfortunate exiles,
must excite the contempt of a philosophic emperor; but they deserved the
friendship of Julian, by their implacable hatred of the Christian name.
The barren synagogue abhorred and envied the fecundity of the rebellious
church; the power of the Jews was not equal to their malice; but their
gravest rabbis approved the private murder of an apostate; and their
seditious clamors had often awakened the indolence of the Pagan
magistrates. Under the reign of Constantine, the Jews became the
subjects of their revolted children nor was it long before they
experienced the bitterness of domestic tyranny. The civil immunities
which had been granted, or confirmed, by Severus, were gradually
repealed by the Christian princes; and a rash tumult, excited by the
Jews of Palestine, seemed to justify the lucrative modes of oppression
which were invented by the bishops and eunuchs of the court of
Constantius. The Jewish patriarch, who was still permitted to exercise
a precarious jurisdiction, held his residence at Tiberias; and the
neighboring cities of Palestine were filled with the remains of a people
who fondly adhered to the promised land. But the edict of Hadrian was
renewed and enforced; and they viewed from afar the walls of the holy
city, which were profaned in their eyes by the triumph of the cross and
the devotion of the Christians.

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.--Part III.

In the midst of a rocky and barren country, the walls of Jerusalem
enclosed the two mountains of Sion and Acra, within an oval figure of
about three English miles. Towards the south, the upper town, and the
fortress of David, were erected on the lofty ascent of Mount Sion: on
the north side, the buildings of the lower town covered the spacious
summit of Mount Acra; and a part of