es we may borrow elsewhere, Ammianus
(xx. 8, 9, 10) still supplies the series of the narrative.]

The homage which Julian obtained, from the fears or the inclination of
the people, extended far beyond the immediate effect of his arms. [35]
The praefectures of Italy and Illyricum were administered by Taurus and
Florentius, who united that important office with the vain honors of the
consulship; and as those magistrates had retired with precipitation to
the court of Asia, Julian, who could not always restrain the levity of
his temper, stigmatized their flight by adding, in all the Acts of
the Year, the epithet of fugitive to the names of the two consuls.
The provinces which had been deserted by their first magistrates
acknowledged the authority of an emperor, who, conciliating the
qualities of a soldier with those of a philosopher, was equally admired
in the camps of the Danube and in the cities of Greece. From his palace,
or, more properly, from his head-quarters of Sirmium and Naissus, he
distributed to the principal cities of the empire, a labored apology
for his own conduct; published the secret despatches of Constantius; and
solicited the judgment of mankind between two competitors, the one
of whom had expelled, and the other had invited, the Barbarians. [36]
Julian, whose mind was deeply wounded by the reproach of ingratitude,
aspired to maintain, by argument as well as by arms, the superior merits
of his cause; and to excel, not only in the arts of war, but in those of
composition. His epistle to the senate and people of Athens [37] seems
to have been dictated by an elegant enthusiasm; which prompted him to
submit his actions and his motives to the degenerate Athenians of his
own times, with the same humble deference as if he had been pleading,
in the days of Aristides, before the tribunal of the Areopagus. His
application to the senate of Rome, which was still permitted to bestow
the titles of Imperial power, was agreeable to the forms of the expiring
republic. An assembly was summoned by Tertullus, praefect of the city;
the epistle of Julian was read; and, as he appeared to be master of
Italy his claims were admitted without a dissenting voice. His oblique
censure of the innovations of Constantine, and his passionate invective
against the vices of Constantius, were heard with less satisfaction;
and the senate, as if Julian had been present, unanimously exclaimed,
"Respect, we beseech you, the author of your own fo