often read in the poets that Iris is sent
from heaven when a change is required in the condition of any present
affairs. There are various other opinions which it would be superfluous
now to enumerate, since my narration must hasten back to the point from
which it digressed.

31. By these and similar events the emperor was kept wavering between
hope and fear, as the severity of winter was increasing, and he
suspected ambuscades in the country, which was destitute of roads;
fearing also, among other things, the discontent of the exasperated
soldiers. And it further goaded his unquiet spirit to return balked of
his purpose, after, as it were, the door of the rich mansion was opened
to him.

32. However, giving up his enterprise as fruitless, he returned into the
unwelcome Syria, to winter at Antioch, after having suffered a
succession of melancholy disasters. For, as if some unfriendly
constellation so governed events, Constantius himself, while warring
with the Persians, was always attended by adverse fortune; on which
account he hoped at least to gain victories by means of his generals;
and this, as we remember, usually happened.

[109] "The minute interval which may be interposed between the _hyeme
adulta_ and the _primo vere_ of Ammianus, instead of allowing a
sufficient space for a march of three thousand miles, would render the
orders of Constantius as extravagant as they were unjust; the troops of
Gaul could not have reached Syria till the end of autumn. The memory of
Ammianus must have been inaccurate, and his language
incorrect."--Gibbon, c. xxii.

[110] According to Erdfurt, this legion was so named from its
contumacious and mutinous disposition.

[111] The Gentiles were body-guards of the emperor, or of the Caesar, of
barbarian extraction, whether Scythians, Goths, Franks, Germans, &c.

[112] It may be remarked that Ammianus continually uses the words
Persian and Parthian as synonymous.

[113] Santon is near Cleves.

BOOK XXI.

ARGUMENT.

I. The Emperor Julian at Vienne learns that Constantius is about to
die--How he knew it--An essay on the different arts of learning the
future.--II. Julian at Vienne feigns to be a Christian in order to
conciliate the multitude, and on a day of festival worships God
among the Christians.--III. Vadomarius, king of the Allemanni,
breaking his treaty, lays waste our frontier, and slays Count
Libino, with a few of his men.--