Hormisdas, who conducted the legions without
difficulty to Antioch. There Julian himself arrived in June or July 14
after having made a stately progress through Asia Minor; and it would
seem that he would at once have marched against the enemy, had not his
counsellors strongly urged the necessity of a short delay, during which
the European troops might be rested, and adequate preparations made for
the intended invasion. It was especially necessary to provide stores and
ships, since the new emperor had resolved not to content himself with an
ordinary campaign upon the frontier, but rather to imitate the examples
of Trajan and Severus, who had carried the Roman eagles to the extreme
south of Mesopotamia. Ships, accordingly, were collected, and probably
built during the winter of A.D. 362-3; provisions were laid in; warlike
stores, military engines, and the like accumulated; while the impatient
monarch, galled by the wit and raillery of the gay Antiochenes, chafed
at his compelled inaction, and longed to exchange the war of words in
which he was engaged with his subjects for the ruder contests of arms
wherewith use had made him more familiar.

It must have been during the emperor's stay at Antioch that he
received an embassy from the court of Persia, commissioned to sound his
inclinations with regard to the conclusion of a peace. Sapor had
seen, with some disquiet, the sceptre of the Roman world assumed by an
enterprising and courageous youth, inured to warfare and ambitious of
military glory. He was probably very well informed as to the general
condition of the Roman State and the personal character of its
administrator; and the tidings which he received concerning the
intentions and preparations, of the new prince were such as caused him
some apprehension, if not actual alarm. Under these circumstance she
sent an embassy with overtures, the exact nature of which is not known,
but which, it is probable, took for their basis the existing territorial
limits of the two countries. At least, we hear of no offer of surrender
or submission on Sapor's part; and we can scarcely suppose that, had
such offers been made, the Roman writers would have passed them over in
silence. It is not surprising that Julian lent no favorable ear to the
envoys, if these were their instructions; but it would have been better
for his reputation had he replied to them with less of haughtiness and
rudeness. According to one authority, he tore up before