and resolved to
restore the ancient form of religion. He sacrificed to the pagan gods,
rebuilt their temples, revived the practice of augury, or divination,
and vainly strove to impose upon the human mind a superstition which it
had just thrown off. In order to mortify the Christians, he resolved to
rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem, and restore the Jews to their ancient
seat. But some natural phenomenon interposed; the workmen were driven
away by balls of fire, and Julian abandoned his design.

Except this unphilosophical hostility toward the Christians, whose faith
he had once professed, Julian seems to have made a sincere attempt to
improve the condition of his people. He lived with frugality, rewarded
merit, and encouraged learning, except where it was employed in the
defense of Christianity. He was also successful in his wars against the
Germans and the Persians, but at length was defeated by the latter, and
was killed A.D. 363, June 26th.

Julian affected in his dress and manners the rudeness and indifference
of a philosopher, was free from vice, possessed considerable learning,
and wrote a work of some value, in which he compared and studied the
characters of the long line of his predecessors.

Jovian was now proclaimed emperor by the Eastern army, and concluded a
dishonorable peace with the Persians. He next published an edict
restoring Christianity, but was found dead in his bed, A.D. 364.

Valentinian was next chosen emperor, who gave the Eastern provinces to
his brother Valens. He made Milan the seat of his own government, while
Valens reigned at Constantinople; and the empire was from this time
divided into the Eastern and the Western. The whole of the Western world
was distressed by the invasion of barbarous tribes, and Valentinian now
made his son Gratian his heir, in order to remove all doubt as to the
succession. The Saxon pirates, meantime, harassed all the coasts of
Gaul, while Britain was invaded by the Picts and Scots. Theodosius,
however, defeated them, and was soon after sent to quell an insurrection
in Africa. This he succeeded in doing, when Valentinian died suddenly,
A.D. 375.

Valens, his brother, meantime had suppressed a rebellion in the East,
led by Procopius; and then, having become an Arian, commenced a severe
persecution of the orthodox, of whom no fewer than eighty ecclesiastics
were put to death for supporting the election of a bishop of their own
faith at Constantinople. Valens als