Ammian.--M.]

[Footnote 43: In describing the triumph of Julian, Ammianus (xxii. l,
2) assumes the lofty tone of an orator or poet; while Libanius (Orat.
Parent, c. 56, p. 281) sinks to the grave simplicity of an historian.]

[Footnote 44: The funeral of Constantius is described by Ammianus, (xxi.
16.) Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 119,) Mamertinus, in (Panegyr.
Vet. xi. 27,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. lvi. p. 283,) and
Philostorgius, (l. vi. c. 6, with Godefroy's Dissertations, p. 265.)
These writers, and their followers, Pagans, Catholics, Arians, beheld
with very different eyes both the dead and the living emperor.]

[Footnote 45: The day and year of the birth of Julian are not perfectly
ascertained. The day is probably the sixth of November, and the year
must be either 331 or 332. Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.
693. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 50. I have preferred the earlier date.]

Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.--Part III.

Philosophy had instructed Julian to compare the advantages of action
and retirement; but the elevation of his birth, and the accidents of
his life, never allowed him the freedom of choice. He might perhaps
sincerely have preferred the groves of the academy, and the society of
Athens; but he was constrained, at first by the will, and afterwards
by the injustice, of Constantius, to expose his person and fame to the
dangers of Imperial greatness; and to make himself accountable to the
world, and to posterity, for the happiness of millions. [46] Julian
recollected with terror the observation of his master Plato, [47] that
the government of our flocks and herds is always committed to beings
of a superior species; and that the conduct of nations requires and
deserves the celestial powers of the gods or of the genii. From this
principle he justly concluded, that the man who presumes to reign,
should aspire to the perfection of the divine nature; that he should
purify his soul from her mortal and terrestrial part; that he should
extinguish his appetites, enlighten his understanding, regulate his
passions, and subdue the wild beast, which, according to the lively
metaphor of Aristotle, [48] seldom fails to ascend the throne of a
despot. The throne of Julian, which the death of Constantius fixed on
an independent basis, was the seat of reason, of virtue, and perhaps of
vanity. He despised the honors, renounced the pleasures, and discharged
with incessant diligence the du