heir country under
the emblem of a furious lion, who vomited from his mouth a consuming
fire. To his friends and soldiers the philosophic hero appeared in
a more amiable light; and his virtues were never more conspicuously
displayed, than in the last and most active period of his life. He
practised, without effort, and almost without merit, the habitual
qualities of temperance and sobriety. According to the dictates of that
artificial wisdom, which assumes an absolute dominion over the mind
and body, he sternly refused himself the indulgence of the most natural
appetites. In the warm climate of Assyria, which solicited a luxurious
people to the gratification of every sensual desire, a youthful
conqueror preserved his chastity pure and inviolate; nor was Julian ever
tempted, even by a motive of curiosity, to visit his female captives
of exquisite beauty, who, instead of resisting his power, would have
disputed with each other the honor of his embraces. With the same
firmness that he resisted the allurements of love, he sustained the
hardships of war. When the Romans marched through the flat and flooded
country, their sovereign, on foot, at the head of his legions, shared
their fatigues and animated their diligence. In every useful labor, the
hand of Julian was prompt and strenuous; and the Imperial purple was wet
and dirty as the coarse garment of the meanest soldier. The two sieges
allowed him some remarkable opportunities of signalizing his personal
valor, which, in the improved state of the military art, can seldom
be exerted by a prudent general. The emperor stood before the citadel
before the citadel of Perisabor, insensible of his extreme danger,
and encouraged his troops to burst open the gates of iron, till he was
almost overwhelmed under a cloud of missile weapons and huge stones,
that were directed against his person. As he examined the exterior
fortifications of Maogamalcha, two Persians, devoting themselves for
their country, suddenly rushed upon him with drawn cimeters: the emperor
dexterously received their blows on his uplifted shield; and, with a
steady and well-aimed thrust, laid one of his adversaries dead at
his feet. The esteem of a prince who possesses the virtues which he
approves, is the noblest recompense of a deserving subject; and the
authority which Julian derived from his personal merit, enabled him to
revive and enforce the rigor of ancient discipline. He punished with
death or ignominy the mi