the judge from the legislator; [84] and though he meditated a necessary
reformation of the Roman jurisprudence, he pronounced sentence according
to the strict and literal interpretation of those laws, which the
magistrates were bound to execute, and the subjects to obey.

[Footnote 82: His eloquence is celebrated by Libanius, (Orat. Parent.
c. 75, 76, p. 300, 301,) who distinctly mentions the orators of Homer.
Socrates (l. iii. c. 1) has rashly asserted that Julian was the
only prince, since Julius Caesar, who harangued the senate. All
the predecessors of Nero, (Tacit. Annal. xiii. 3,) and many of his
successors, possessed the faculty of speaking in public; and it might
be proved by various examples, that they frequently exercised it in the
senate.]

[Footnote 83: Ammianus (xxi. 10) has impartially stated the merits and
defects of his judicial proceedings. Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 90,
91, p. 315, &c.) has seen only the fair side, and his picture, if
it flatters the person, expresses at least the duties, of the judge.
Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv. p. 120,) who suppresses the virtues, and
exaggerates even the venial faults of the Apostate, triumphantly
asks, whether such a judge was fit to be seated between Minos and
Rhadamanthus, in the Elysian Fields.]

[Footnote 84: Of the laws which Julian enacted in a reign of sixteen
months, fifty-four have been admitted into the codes of Theodosius and
Justinian. (Gothofred. Chron. Legum, p. 64-67.) The Abbe de la Bleterie
(tom. ii. p. 329-336) has chosen one of these laws to give an idea of
Julian's Latin style, which is forcible and elaborate, but less pure
than his Greek.]

The generality of princes, if they were stripped of their purple, and
cast naked into the world, would immediately sink to the lowest rank
of society, without a hope of emerging from their obscurity. But the
personal merit of Julian was, in some measure, independent of his
fortune. Whatever had been his choice of life, by the force of intrepid
courage, lively wit, and intense application, he would have obtained, or
at least he would have deserved, the highest honors of his profession;
and Julian might have raised himself to the rank of minister, or
general, of the state in which he was born a private citizen. If the
jealous caprice of power had disappointed his expectations, if he had
prudently declined the paths of greatness, the employment of the same
talents in studious solitude would have placed be