heir allegiance; and
the flatterers of Constantius celebrated the wisdom and felicity of the
monarch who had extinguished a civil war without the hazard of a battle.
[40]

[Footnote 37: The word purple which Homer had used as a vague but common
epithet for death, was applied by Julian to express, very aptly, the
nature and object of his own apprehensions.]

[Footnote 38: He represents, in the most pathetic terms, (p. 277,) the
distress of his new situation. The provision for his table was, however,
so elegant and sumptuous, that the young philosopher rejected it with
disdain. Quum legeret libellum assidue, quem Constantius ut privignum
ad studia mittens manu sua conscripserat, praelicenter disponens quid in
convivio Caesaris impendi deberit: Phasianum, et vulvam et sumen exigi
vetuit et inferri. Ammian. Marcellin. l. xvi. c. 5.]

[Footnote 39: If we recollect that Constantine, the father of Helena,
died above eighteen years before, in a mature old age, it will appear
probable, that the daughter, though a virgin, could not be very young
at the time of her marriage. She was soon afterwards delivered of a
son, who died immediately, quod obstetrix corrupta mercede, mox natum
praesecto plusquam convenerat umbilico necavit. She accompanied the
emperor and empress in their journey to Rome, and the latter, quaesitum
venenum bibere per fraudem illexit, ut quotiescunque concepisset,
immaturum abjicerit partum. Ammian. l. xvi. c. 10. Our physicians will
determine whether there exists such a poison. For my own part I am
inclined to hope that the public malignity imputed the effects of
accident as the guilt of Eusebia.]

[Footnote 40: Ammianus (xv. v.) was perfectly well informed of the
conduct and fate of Sylvanus. He himself was one of the few followers
who attended Ursicinus in his dangerous enterprise.]

The protection of the Rhaetian frontier, and the persecution of the
Catholic church, detained Constantius in Italy above eighteen months
after the departure of Julian. Before the emperor returned into the
East, he indulged his pride and curiosity in a visit to the ancient
capital. [41] He proceeded from Milan to Rome along the Aemilian and
Flaminian ways, and as soon as he approached within forty miles of the
city, the march of a prince who had never vanquished a foreign enemy,
assumed the appearance of a triumphal procession. His splendid train
was composed of all the ministers of luxury; but in a time of profound
peace,