ost unknown to the modern
sovereigns of Europe. The arts of persuasion, so diligently cultivated
by the first Caesars, were neglected by the military ignorance and
Asiatic pride of their successors; and if they condescended to harangue
the soldiers, whom they feared, they treated with silent disdain the
senators, whom they despised. The assemblies of the senate, which
Constantius had avoided, were considered by Julian as the place where he
could exhibit, with the most propriety, the maxims of a republican, and
the talents of a rhetorician. He alternately practised, as in a school
of declamation, the several modes of praise, of censure, of exhortation;
and his friend Libanius has remarked, that the study of Homer taught
him to imitate the simple, concise style of Menelaus, the copiousness of
Nestor, whose words descended like the flakes of a winter's snow, or the
pathetic and forcible eloquence of Ulysses. The functions of a judge,
which are sometimes incompatible with those of a prince, were exercised
by Julian, not only as a duty, but as an amusement; and although he
might have trusted the integrity and discernment of his Praetorian
praefects, he often placed himself by their side on the seat of
judgment. The acute penetration of his mind was agreeably occupied in
detecting and defeating the chicanery of the advocates, who labored to
disguise the truths of facts, and to pervert the sense of the laws.
He sometimes forgot the gravity of his station, asked indiscreet or
unseasonable questions, and betrayed, by the loudness of his voice,
and the agitation of his body, the earnest vehemence with which he
maintained his opinion against the judges, the advocates, and their
clients. But his knowledge of his own temper prompted him to encourage,
and even to solicit, the reproof of his friends and ministers; and
whenever they ventured to oppose the irregular sallies of his passions,
the spectators could observe the shame, as well as the gratitude, of
their monarch. The decrees of Julian were almost always founded on the
principles of justice; and he had the firmness to resist the two most
dangerous temptations, which assault the tribunal of a sovereign, under
the specious forms of compassion and equity. He decided the merits of
the cause without weighing the circumstances of the parties; and the
poor, whom he wished to relieve, were condemned to satisfy the just
demands of a wealthy and noble adversary. He carefully distinguished