lting the dictates of religious zeal,
he was prompted, by humanity and gratitude, to bestow the last honors
on the remains of his deceased sovereign: and Procopius, who sincerely
bewailed the loss of his kinsman, was removed from the command of the
army, under the decent pretence of conducting the funeral. The corpse
of Julian was transported from Nisibis to Tarsus, in a slow march of
fifteen days; and, as it passed through the cities of the East,
was saluted by the hostile factions, with mournful lamentations and
clamorous insults. The Pagans already placed their beloved hero in the
rank of those gods whose worship he had restored; while the invectives
of the Christians pursued the soul of the Apostate to hell, and his body
to the grave. One party lamented the approaching ruin of their altars;
the other celebrated the marvellous deliverance of their church. The
Christians applauded, in lofty and ambiguous strains, the stroke of
divine vengeance, which had been so long suspended over the guilty
head of Julian. They acknowledge, that the death of the tyrant, at the
instant he expired beyond the Tigris, was revealed to the saints of
Egypt, Syria, and Cappadocia; and instead of suffering him to fall by
the Persian darts, their indiscretion ascribed the heroic deed to the
obscure hand of some mortal or immortal champion of the faith. Such
imprudent declarations were eagerly adopted by the malice, or credulity,
of their adversaries; who darkly insinuated, or confidently asserted,
that the governors of the church had instigated and directed the
fanaticism of a domestic assassin. Above sixteen years after the death
of Julian, the charge was solemnly and vehemently urged, in a public
oration, addressed by Libanius to the emperor Theodosius. His suspicions
are unsupported by fact or argument; and we can only esteem the generous
zeal of the sophist of Antioch for the cold and neglected ashes of his
friend.

It was an ancient custom in the funerals, as well as in the triumphs,
of the Romans, that the voice of praise should be corrected by that of
satire and ridicule; and that, in the midst of the splendid pageants,
which displayed the glory of the living or of the dead, their
imperfections should not be concealed from the eyes of the world.
This custom was practised in the funeral of Julian. The comedians, who
resented his contempt and aversion for the theatre, exhibited, with
the applause of a Christian audience, the lively and e