war, resolved to signalize his reign by some more
splendid and memorable achievement. The ambassadors of the East, from
the continent of India, and the Isle of Ceylon, [6] had respectfully
saluted the Roman purple. [7] The nations of the West esteemed and
dreaded the personal virtues of Julian, both in peace and war. He
despised the trophies of a Gothic victory, and was satisfied that the
rapacious Barbarians of the Danube would be restrained from any future
violation of the faith of treaties by the terror of his name, and the
additional fortifications with which he strengthened the Thracian and
Illyrian frontiers. The successor of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only
rival whom he deemed worthy of his arms; and he resolved, by the final
conquest of Persia, to chastise the naughty nation which had so long
resisted and insulted the majesty of Rome. [9] As soon as the Persian
monarch was informed that the throne of Constantius was filed by a
prince of a very different character, he condescended to make some
artful, or perhaps sincere, overtures towards a negotiation of peace.
But the pride of Sapor was astonished by the firmness of Julian;
who sternly declared, that he would never consent to hold a peaceful
conference among the flames and ruins of the cities of Mesopotamia; and
who added, with a smile of contempt, that it was needless to treat by
ambassadors, as he himself had determined to visit speedily the court
of Persia. The impatience of the emperor urged the diligence of the
military preparations. The generals were named; and Julian, marching
from Constantinople through the provinces of Asia Minor, arrived at
Antioch about eight months after the death of his predecessor. His
ardent desire to march into the heart of Persia, was checked by the
indispensable duty of regulating the state of the empire; by his zeal to
revive the worship of the gods; and by the advice of his wisest friends;
who represented the necessity of allowing the salutary interval of
winter quarters, to restore the exhausted strength of the legions of
Gaul, and the discipline and spirit of the Eastern troops. Julian was
persuaded to fix, till the ensuing spring, his residence at Antioch,
among a people maliciously disposed to deride the haste, and to censure
the delays, of their sovereign. [10]

[Footnote 6: Inde nationibus Indicis certatim cum aonis optimates
mittentibus.... ab usque Divis et Serendivis. Ammian. xx. 7.
This island, to which the name