us population of the district to resist his
advance.

3. To prevent this, he took prudent precautions, and distributing his
army into divisions, he sent some under Jovenius and Jovius to advance
with all speed by the well-trodden roads of Italy; others under the
command of Nevitta, the commander of the cavalry, were to take the
inland road of the Tyrol. So that his army, by being scattered over
various countries, might cause a belief that its numbers were immense,
and might fill all nations with fear. Alexander the Great, and many
other skilful generals, had done the same thing when their affairs
required it.

4. But he charged them, when they set forth, to march with all speed, as
if likely to meet at any moment with an enemy, and carefully to post
watches and sentries and outposts at night, so as to be free from the
danger of any sudden attack.

IX.

Sec. 1. These things having been arranged according to the best of his
judgment, Julian adhering to the maxim by which he had often forced his
way through the countries of the barbarians, and trusting in his
continued successes, proceeded in his advance.

2. And when he had reached the spot at which he had been informed that
the river was navigable, he embarked on board some boats which good
fortune had brought thither in numbers, and passed as secretly as he
could down the stream, escaping notice the more because his habits of
endurance and fortitude had made him indifferent to delicate food; so
that, being contented with meagre and poor fare, he did not care to
approach their towns or camps, forming his conduct in this respect
according to the celebrated saying of the ancient Cyrus, who, when he
was introduced to a host who asked him what he wished to have got ready
for supper, answered, "Nothing beyond bread, for that he hoped he should
sup by the side of a river."

3. But Fame, which, as they say, having a thousand tongues, always
exaggerates the truth, at this time spread abroad a report among all the
tribes of Illyricum that Julian, having overthrown a number of kings and
nations in Gaul, was coming on flushed with success and with a numerous
army.

4. Jovinus, the prefect of the praetorium, being alarmed at this rumour,
fled in haste, as if from a foreign enemy; and going by the public
conveyances with frequent relays, he crossed the Julian Alps, taking
with him also Florentius the prefect.

5. But Count Lucillianus, who at that time had the command of