s [51]
was completely finished. On solemn festivals, Julian, who felt and
professed an unfashionable dislike to these frivolous amusements,
condescended to appear in the Circus; and after bestowing a careless
glance at five or six of the races, he hastily withdrew with the
impatience of a philosopher, who considered every moment as lost that
was not devoted to the advantage of the public or the improvement of his
own mind. [52] By this avarice of time, he seemed to protract the short
duration of his reign; and if the dates were less securely ascertained,
we should refuse to believe, that only sixteen months elapsed between
the death of Constantius and the departure of his successor for the
Persian war. The actions of Julian can only be preserved by the care
of the historian; but the portion of his voluminous writings, which is
still extant, remains as a monument of the application, as well as of
the genius, of the emperor. The Misopogon, the Caesars, several of his
orations, and his elaborate work against the Christian religion, were
composed in the long nights of the two winters, the former of which he
passed at Constantinople, and the latter at Antioch.

[Footnote 46: Julian himself (p. 253-267) has expressed these
philosophical ideas with much eloquence and some affectation, in a very
elaborate epistle to Themistius. The Abbe de la Bleterie, (tom. ii. p.
146-193,) who has given an elegant translation, is inclined to believe
that it was the celebrated Themistius, whose orations are still extant.]

[Footnote 47: Julian. ad Themist. p. 258. Petavius (not. p. 95) observes
that this passage is taken from the fourth book De Legibus; but either
Julian quoted from memory, or his MSS. were different from ours Xenophon
opens the Cyropaedia with a similar reflection.]

[Footnote 48: Aristot. ap. Julian. p. 261. The MS. of Vossius,
unsatisfied with the single beast, affords the stronger reading of which
the experience of despotism may warrant.]

[Footnote 49: Libanius (Orat. Parentalis, c. lxxxiv. lxxxv. p. 310, 311,
312) has given this interesting detail of the private life of Julian. He
himself (in Misopogon, p. 350) mentions his vegetable diet, and upbraids
the gross and sensual appetite of the people of Antioch.]

[Footnote 50: Lectulus... Vestalium toris purior, is the praise which
Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 13) addresses to Julian himself. Libanius
affirms, in sober peremptory language, that Julian never knew a woma