e wise, and the applause of the multitude. In the season of
life when the powers of the mind and body enjoy the most active vigor,
the emperor who was instructed by the experience, and animated by the
success, of the German war, resolved to signalize his reign by some more
splendid and memorable achievement. The ambassadors of the East, from
the continent of India, and the Isle of Ceylon, had respectfully saluted
the Roman purple. The nations of the West esteemed and dreaded the
personal virtues of Julian, both in peace and war. He despised the
trophies of a Gothic victory, and was satisfied that the rapacious
Barbarians of the Danube would be restrained from any future violation
of the faith of treaties by the terror of his name, and the additional
fortifications with which he strengthened the Thracian and Illyrian
frontiers. The successor of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only rival whom
he deemed worthy of his arms; and he resolved, by the final conquest of
Persia, to chastise the naughty nation which had so long resisted
and insulted the majesty of Rome. As soon as the Persian monarch was
informed that the throne of Constantius was filed by a prince of a very
different character, he condescended to make some artful, or perhaps
sincere, overtures towards a negotiation of peace. But the pride of
Sapor was astonished by the firmness of Julian; who sternly declared,
that he would never consent to hold a peaceful conference among the
flames and ruins of the cities of Mesopotamia; and who added, with a
smile of contempt, that it was needless to treat by ambassadors, as
he himself had determined to visit speedily the court of Persia.
The impatience of the emperor urged the diligence of the military
preparations. The generals were named; and Julian, marching from
Constantinople through the provinces of Asia Minor, arrived at Antioch
about eight months after the death of his predecessor. His ardent desire
to march into the heart of Persia, was checked by the indispensable duty
of regulating the state of the empire; by his zeal to revive the worship
of the gods; and by the advice of his wisest friends; who represented
the necessity of allowing the salutary interval of winter quarters,
to restore the exhausted strength of the legions of Gaul, and the
discipline and spirit of the Eastern troops. Julian was persuaded to
fix, till the ensuing spring, his residence at Antioch, among a people
maliciously disposed to deride the haste, a