is time they made sure of their man by choosing Euzoius, the
old friend of Arius. But the mischief was already done. The old
congregation of Leontius was broken up, and a new schism, more dangerous
than the Eustathian, formed round Meletius. Many jealousies still
divided him from the Nicenes, but his bold confession was the first
effective blow at the Homoean supremacy.

[Footnote 13: Prov. Viii. 21. LXX. translation.]

[Sidenote: Affairs in 361.]

The idea of conciliating Nicene support was not entirely given up.
Acacius remained on friendly terms with Meletius, and was still able to
name Pelagius for the see of Laodicea. But Euzoius was an avowed Arian;
Eudoxius differed little from him, and only the remaining scruples of
Constantius delayed the victory of the Anomoeans.

CHAPTER VI.

_THE REIGN OF JULIAN._

[Sidenote: Earlier life of Julian.]

Flavius Claudius Julianus was the son of Constantine's half-brother,
Julius Constantius, by his second wife, Basilina, a lady of the great
Anician family. He was born in 331, and lost his mother a few months
later, while his father and other relations perished in the massacre
which followed Constantine's death. Julian and his half-brother Gallus
escaped the slaughter to be kept almost as prisoners of state,
surrounded through their youth with spies and taught by hypocrites a
repulsive Christianity. Julian, however, had a literary education from
his mother's old teacher, the eunuch Mardonius; and this was his
happiness till he was old enough to attend the rhetoricians at Nicomedia
and elsewhere. Gallus was for a while Caesar in Syria (351-354), and
after his execution, Julian's own life was only saved by the Empress
Eusebia, who got permission for him to retire to the schools of Athens.
In 355 he was made Caesar in Gaul, and with much labour freed the
province from the Germans. Early in 360 the soldiers mutinied at Paris
and proclaimed Julian Augustus. Negotiations followed, and it was not
till the summer of 361 that Julian pushed down the Danube. By the time
he halted at Naissus, he was master of three-quarters of the Empire.
There seemed no escape from civil war now that the main army of
Constantius was coming up from Syria. But one day two barbarian counts
rode into Julian's camp with the news that Constantius was dead. A
sudden fever had carried him off in Cilicia (Nov. 3, 361), and the
Eastern army presented its allegiance to Julian Augustus.

[Sidenote: J