ul conflict, and acquired the advantages of a
complete victory. Impatient to visit the place of his birth, and the new
capital of the empire, he advanced from Naissus through the mountains
of Haemus, and the cities of Thrace. When he reached Heraclea, at the
distance of sixty miles, all Constantinople was poured forth to receive
him; and he made his triumphal entry amidst the dutiful acclamations
of the soldiers, the people, and the senate. At innumerable multitude
pressed around him with eager respect and were perhaps disappointed
when they beheld the small stature and simple garb of a hero, whose
unexperienced youth had vanquished the Barbarians of Germany, and
who had now traversed, in a successful career, the whole continent of
Europe, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Bosphorus. [43]
A few days afterwards, when the remains of the deceased emperor were
landed in the harbor, the subjects of Julian applauded the real or
affected humanity of their sovereign. On foot, without his diadem, and
clothed in a mourning habit, he accompanied the funeral as far as the
church of the Holy Apostles, where the body was deposited: and if these
marks of respect may be interpreted as a selfish tribute to the birth
and dignity of his Imperial kinsman, the tears of Julian professed
to the world that he had forgot the injuries, and remembered only the
obligations, which he had received from Constantius. [44] As soon as
the legions of Aquileia were assured of the death of the emperor, they
opened the gates of the city, and, by the sacrifice of their guilty
leaders, obtained an easy pardon from the prudence or lenity of Julian;
who, in the thirty-second year of his age, acquired the undisputed
possession of the Roman empire. [45]

[Footnote 42: His death and character are faithfully delineated by
Ammianus, (xxi. 14, 15, 16;) and we are authorized to despise and detest
the foolish calumny of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 68,) who accuses Julian
of contriving the death of his benefactor. The private repentance of the
emperor, that he had spared and promoted Julian, (p. 69, and Orat. xxi.
p. 389,) is not improbable in itself, nor incompatible with the public
verbal testament which prudential considerations might dictate in the
last moments of his life. Note: Wagner thinks this sudden change of
sentiment altogether a fiction of the attendant courtiers and chiefs of
the army. who up to this time had been hostile to Julian. Note in loco