ms, in an accidental mutiny of the
Batavian cohorts. [12] 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 [13] 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. [14] Dadastana, [15] 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, supper, he retired to rest; and the next morning the
emperor Jovian was found dead in his bed. The cause of this sudden death
was variously understood. By some it was ascribed to the consequences
of an indigestion, occasioned either by the quantity of the wine, or
the quality of the mushrooms, which he had swallowed in the evening.
According to others, he was suffocated in his sleep by the vapor
of charcoal, which extracted from the walls of the apartment the
unwholesome moisture of the fresh plaster. [16] But the want of a
regular inquiry into the death of a prince, whose reign and person
were soon forgotten, appears to have been the only circumstance which
countenanced the malicious whispers of poison and domestic guilt. [17]
The body of Jovian was sent to Constantinople, to be interred with his
predecessors, and the sad procession was met on the road by his wife
Charito, the daughter of Count Lucillian; who still wept the recent
death of her father, and was hastening to dry her tears in the embraces
of an Imperial husband. Her disappointment and grief were imbittered
by the anxiety of maternal tenderness. Six weeks before the death of
Jovian, his infant son had been placed in the curule chair, adorned
with the title of Nobilissimus, and the vain ensigns of the consulship.
Unconscious of his fortune, the royal youth, who, from his grandfather,
assumed the name of Varronian, was reminded only by the jealousy of the
government, that he was the son of an emperor. Sixteen years afterwards
he was still alive, but he had already been deprived of an eye; and his
afflicted mother expected every hour, that