al toleration; whose aid Superstition herself, in the hour of
her distress, is not ashamed to implore. He justly observes, that in
the recent changes, both religions had been alternately disgraced by the
seeming acquisition of worthless proselytes, of those votaries of the
reigning purple, who could pass, without a reason, and without a blush,
from the church to the temple, and from the altars of Jupiter to the
sacred table of the Christians.

In the space of seven months, the Roman troops, who were now returned to
Antioch, had performed a march of fifteen hundred miles; in which
they had endured all the hardships of war, of famine, and of climate.
Notwithstanding their services, their fatigues, and the approach of
winter, the timid and impatient Jovian allowed only, to the men and
horses, a respite of six weeks. The emperor could not sustain the
indiscreet and malicious raillery of the people of Antioch. He was
impatient to possess the palace of Constantinople; and to prevent the
ambition of some competitor, who might occupy the vacant allegiance
of Europe. But he soon received the grateful intelligence, that his
authority was acknowledged from the Thracian Bosphorus to the Atlantic
Ocean. By the first letters which he despatched from the camp of
Mesopotamia, he had delegated the military command of Gaul and Illyricum
to Malarich, a brave and faithful officer of the nation of the
Franks; and to his father-in-law, Count Lucillian, who had formerly
distinguished his courage and conduct in the defence of Nisibis.
Malarich had declined an office to which he thought himself unequal;
and Lucillian was massacred at Rheims, in an accidental mutiny of the
Batavian cohorts. But the moderation of Jovinus, master-general of the
cavalry, who forgave the intention of his disgrace, soon appeased the
tumult, and confirmed the uncertain minds of the soldiers. The oath of
fidelity was administered and taken, with loyal acclamations; and
the deputies of the Western armies saluted their new sovereign as he
descended from Mount Taurus to the city of Tyana in Cappadocia. From
Tyana he continued his hasty march to Ancyra, capital of the province of
Galatia; where Jovian assumed, with his infant son, the name and ensigns
of the consulship. Dadastana, an obscure town, almost at an equal
distance between Ancyra and Nice, was marked for the fatal term of his
journey and life. After indulging himself with a plentiful, perhaps
an intemperate, supp