XXII. a purple garment; and this indiscreet action, CHAP. which, under the reign of Constantius, would have been considered as a capital offence *, was reported to Julian by the officious importunity of a private enemy. The monarch, after making some inquiry into the rank and character of his rival, dispatched the informer with a present of a pair of purple slippers, to complete the magnificence of his imperial habit. A more dangerous conspiracy was formed by ten of the domestic guards, who had resolved to assassinate Julian in the field of exercise near Antioch: Their intemperance revealed their guilt; and they were conducted in chains to the presence of their injured sovereign, who, after a lively representation of the wickedness and folly of their enterprise, instead of a death of torture, which they deserved and expected, pronounced a sentence of exile against the two principal offenders. The only instance in which Julian seemed to depart from his accustomed clemency, was the execution of a rash youth, who, with a feeble hand, had aspired to seize the reins of empire. But that youth was the son of Marcellus, the general of cavalry, who, in the first campaign of the Gallic E 2 The president Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grantdeur, &c. des Romains, c. xiv., in his works, tom. iii. p. 448, 449.) excuses this minute and absurd tyranny, by supposing, that actions the most indifferent in our eyes might excite, in a Roman mind, the idea of guilt and danger. This strange apology is supported by a strange misapprehension of the English laws, "chez une nation.... où il est defendû de boire à la to santé d'une certaine personne." XXIL CHAP. Gallic war, had deserted the standard of the Casar, and the republic. Without appearing to indulge his personal resentment, Julian might easily confound the crime of the son and of the father; but he was reconciled by the distress of Marcellus, and the liberality of the emperor endeavoured to heal the wound which had been inflicted by the hand of justice *. His love of freedom, and the republic. Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom t. From his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection, that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects, were not worthy to applaud his virtues t. He sincerely abhorred the system of oriental despotism, which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits of fourscore years, had established in the empire. A motive of superstition prevented the execution of the design which Julian had frequently meditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a costly diadem: The clemency of Julian, and the conspiracy which was formed against his life at Antioch, are described by Ammianus (xxii. 9, 10. and Vales. ad loc.), and Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 99. p. 323.). According to some, says Aristotle (as he is quoted by Julian ad Themist. p. 261.), the form of absolute government, the παμβασιλεια, is contrary to nature. Both the prince and the philosopher choose, however, to involve this eternal truth in artful and laboured obscurity. That sentiment is expressed almost in the words of Julian himself. Ammian. xxii. 10. XXII. Jan. 1. diadem: but he absolutely refused the title of CHAP E s * Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 95. p. 320.), who mentions the wish and design of Julian, insinuates, in mysterious language (θεων έτω γνοντων . . . . αλλ' ην αμείνων ο κωλύων), that the emperor was restrained by some particular revelation. † Julian in Misopogon. p. 343. As he never abolished, by any public law, the proud appellations of Despot or Dominus, they are still extant on his medals (Ducange. Fam. Byzantin. p. 38, 39.); and the private displeasure which he affected to express, only gave a different tone to the servility of the court. The Abbé de la Bleterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 99– 102.) has curiously traced the origin and progress of the word Dominus under the imperial government. + + XXII. CHAP purple *. But the behaviour of Julian was uni, formly supported. During the games of the Circus, he had, imprudently or designedly, performed the manumission of a slave in the presence of the consul. The moment he was reminded that he had trespassed on the jurisdiction of another magistrate, he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold; and embraced this public occasion of declaring to the world, that he was subject, like the rest of his fellowcitizens, to the laws t, and even to the forms, of the republic. The spirit of his administration, and his regard for the place of his nativity, induced Julian to confer on the senate of Constantinople, the same honours, privileges, and authority, which were still enjoyed by the senate of ancient Rome. A legal fiction was introduced, and gradually established, that one half of the national council had migrated into the East and the despotic successors of Julian, accepting the title of Senators, acknowledged them, selves the members of a respectable body, which was Ammian. xxii, 7. The consul Mamertinys (in Panegyr.Vet. xi. 28, 29, 30.) celebrates the auspicious day, like an eloquent slave, astonished and intoxicated by the condescension of his master. Personal satire was condemned by the laws of the twelve tables : Si male condiderit in quem quis carmiņa, jus est Julian (in Misopogon. p. 337.) owns himself subject to the Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 158. XXII. was permitted to represent the majesty of the CHAP. Roman name. From Constantinople, the attention of the monarch was extended to the municipal senates of the provinces. He abolished, by repeated edicts, the unjust and pernicious exemptions, which had withdrawn so many idle citizens from the service of their country; and by imposing an equal distribution of public duties, he restored the strength, the splendour, or, according to the glowing expression of Libanius*, the soul of the expiring cities of his empire. The venerable age of Greece excited His care of the most tender compassion in the mind of Ju- the Grecian lian; which kindled into rapture when he recollected the gods; the heroes; and the men superior to heroes and to gods; who had bequeathed to the latest posterity the monuments of their genius, or the example of their virtues. lieved the distress, and restored the beauty, of the cities of Epirus and Peloponnesus †. Athens acknowledged him for her benefactor; Argos, for her deliverer. The pride of Corinth, again rising from her ruins with the honours of a Ro E 4 He re man * Η της βουλής ισχυς ψυχη πολεως εσιν. See Libanius (Orat, Paren. c. 71. p. 296.), Ammianus (xxii. 9.), and the Theodosian Code (1. xii. tit. i. leg. 50-55.), with Godefroy's Com. mentary (tom. iv. p. 390-402.). Yet the whole subject of the Curie, notwithstanding very ample materials, still remains the most obscure in the legal history of the empire. + Quæ paulo ante arida et siti anhelantia visebantur, ea nunc perlui, mundari, madere; Fora, Deambulacra, Gymnasia, lætis et gaudentibus populis frequentari; dies festos, et celebrari veteres, et novos in honorem principis consecrari (Mamertin. xi. 9.). He particularly restored the city of Nicopolis, and the Actiac games, which had been instituted by Augus tus, cities. |