ormer splendor, and became
the capital of Mesopotamia. [126] Similar orders were despatched by the
emperor for the evacuation of Singara and the castle of the Moors;
and for the restitution of the five provinces beyond the Tigris. Sapor
enjoyed the glory and the fruits of his victory; and this ignominious
peace has justly been considered as a memorable aera in the decline
and fall of the Roman empire. The predecessors of Jovian had sometimes
relinquished the dominion of distant and unprofitable provinces; but,
since the foundation of the city, the genius of Rome, the god Terminus,
who guarded the boundaries of the republic, had never retired before the
sword of a victorious enemy. [127]

[Footnote 124: At Nisibis he performed a royal act. A brave officer, his
namesake, who had been thought worthy of the purple, was dragged from
supper, thrown into a well, and stoned to death without any form of
trial or evidence of guilt. Anomian. xxv. 8.]

[Footnote 125: See xxv. 9, and Zosimus, l. iii. p. 194, 195.]

[Footnote 126: Chron. Paschal. p. 300. The ecclesiastical Notitie may be
consulted.]

[Footnote 127: Zosimus, l. iii. p. 192, 193. Sextus Rufus de Provinciis,
c. 29. Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. iv. c. 29. This general position
must be applied and interpreted with some caution.]

After Jovian had performed those engagements which the voice of his
people might have tempted him to violate, he hastened away from the
scene of his disgrace, and proceeded with his whole court to enjoy the
luxury of Antioch. [128] Without consulting the dictates of religious
zeal, he was prompted, by humanity and gratitude, to bestow the last
honors on the remains of his deceased sovereign: [129] and Procopius,
who sincerely bewailed the loss of his kinsman, was removed from
the command of the army, under the decent pretence of conducting the
funeral. The corpse of Julian was transported from Nisibis to Tarsus,
in a slow march of fifteen days; and, as it passed through the cities
of the East, was saluted by the hostile factions, with mournful
lamentations and clamorous insults. The Pagans already placed their
beloved hero in the rank of those gods whose worship he had restored;
while the invectives of the Christians pursued the soul of the Apostate
to hell, and his body to the grave. [130] One party lamented the
approaching ruin of their altars; the other celebrated the marvellous
deliverance of their church. The Christians applauded, in lo