ties, of his exalted station; and there
were few among his subjects who would have consented to relieve him from
the weight of the diadem, had they been obliged to submit their time
and their actions to the rigorous laws which that philosophic emperor
imposed on himself. One of his most intimate friends, [49] who had often
shared the frugal simplicity of his table, has remarked, that his light
and sparing diet (which was usually of the vegetable kind) left his mind
and body always free and active, for the various and important business
of an author, a pontiff, a magistrate, a general, and a prince. In one
and the same day, he gave audience to several ambassadors, and wrote,
or dictated, a great number of letters to his generals, his civil
magistrates, his private friends, and the different cities of his
dominions. He listened to the memorials which had been received,
considered the subject of the petitions, and signified his intentions
more rapidly than they could be taken in short-hand by the diligence
of his secretaries. He possessed such flexibility of thought, and such
firmness of attention, that he could employ his hand to write, his ear
to listen, and his voice to dictate; and pursue at once three several
trains of ideas without hesitation, and without error. While his
ministers reposed, the prince flew with agility from one labor to
another, and, after a hasty dinner, retired into his library, till the
public business, which he had appointed for the evening, summoned him to
interrupt the prosecution of his studies. The supper of the emperor was
still less substantial than the former meal; his sleep was never clouded
by the fumes of indigestion; and except in the short interval of a
marriage, which was the effect of policy rather than love, the chaste
Julian never shared his bed with a female companion. [50] He was
soon awakened by the entrance of fresh secretaries, who had slept the
preceding day; and his servants were obliged to wait alternately
while their indefatigable master allowed himself scarcely any other
refreshment than the change of occupation. The predecessors of Julian,
his uncle, his brother, and his cousin, indulged their puerile taste for
the games of the Circus, under the specious pretence of complying
with the inclinations of the people; and they frequently remained
the greatest part of the day as idle spectators, and as a part of the
splendid spectacle, till the ordinary round of twenty-four race