ism of their Savior. The Romans,
as ignorant as their brethren of the real date of his birth, fixed
the solemn festival to the 25th of December, the Brumalia, or winter
solstice, when the Pagans annually celebrated the birth of the sun.
See Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, l. xx. c. 4, and
Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheismo tom. ii. p. 690-700.]

[Footnote 23: The public and secret negotiations between Constantius and
Julian must be extracted, with some caution, from Julian himself. (Orat.
ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 286.) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 51, p. 276,)
Ammianus, (xx. 9,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 154,) and even Zonaras, (tom.
ii. l. xiii. p. 20, 21, 22,) who, on this occasion, appears to have
possessed and used some valuable materials.]

The situation of Julian required a vigorous and immediate resolution.
He had discovered, from intercepted letters, that his adversary,
sacrificing the interest of the state to that of the monarch, had again
excited the Barbarians to invade the provinces of the West. The position
of two magazines, one of them collected on the banks of the Lake of
Constance, the other formed at the foot of the Cottian Alps, seemed to
indicate the march of two armies; and the size of those magazines, each
of which consisted of six hundred thousand quarters of wheat, or rather
flour, [24] was a threatening evidence of the strength and numbers of
the enemy who prepared to surround him. But the Imperial legions were
still in their distant quarters of Asia; the Danube was feebly guarded;
and if Julian could occupy, by a sudden incursion, the important
provinces of Illyricum, he might expect that a people of soldiers would
resort to his standard, and that the rich mines of gold and silver
would contribute to the expenses of the civil war. He proposed this bold
enterprise to the assembly of the soldiers; inspired them with a just
confidence in their general, and in themselves; and exhorted them to
maintain their reputation of being terrible to the enemy, moderate to
their fellow-citizens, and obedient to their officers. His spirited
discourse was received with the loudest acclamations, and the same
troops which had taken up arms against Constantius, when he summoned
them to leave Gaul, now declared with alacrity, that they would follow
Julian to the farthest extremities of Europe or Asia. The oath of
fidelity was administered; and the soldiers, clashing their shields, and
pointing their draw