n from disgust with the vices of men, had in his reign returned
again to the earth; only that sometimes he acted arbitrarily and
inconsistently.

20. For he made some laws which, with but few exceptions, were not
offensive, though they very positively enforced or forbade certain
actions. Among the exceptions was that cruel one which forbade Christian
masters of rhetoric and grammar to teach unless they came over to the
worship of the heathen gods.

21. And this other ordinance was equally intolerable, namely one which
allowed some persons to be unjustly enrolled in the companies of the
municipal guilds, though they were foreigners, or by privilege or birth
wholly unconnected with such companies.

22. As to his personal appearance it was this. He was of moderate
stature, with soft hair, as if he had carefully dressed it, with a rough
beard ending in a point, with beautiful brilliant eyes, which displayed
the subtlety of his mind, with handsome eyebrows and a straight nose, a
rather large mouth, with a drooping lower lip, a thick and stooping
neck, large and broad shoulders. From head to foot he was straight and
well proportioned, which made him strong and a good runner.

23. And since his detractors have accused him of provoking new wars, to
the injury of the commonwealth, let them know the unquestionable truth,
that it was not Julian but Constantius who occasioned the hostility of
the Parthians by greedily acquiescing in the falsehoods of Metrodorus,
as we have already set forth.

24. In consequence of this conduct our armies were slain, numbers of our
soldiers were taken prisoners, cities were rased, fortresses were
stormed and destroyed, provinces were exhausted by heavy expenses, and
in short the Persians, putting their threats into effect, were led to
seek to become masters of everything up to Bithynia and the shores of
the Propontis.

25. While the Gallic wars grew more and more violent, the Germans
overrunning our territories, and being on the point of forcing the
passes of the Alps in order to invade Italy, there was nothing to be
seen but tears and consternation, the recollection of the past being
bitter, the expectation of the future still more woeful. All these
miseries, this youth, being sent into the West with the rank of Caesar,
put an end to with marvellous celerity, treating the kings of those
countries as base-born slaves.

26. Then in order to re-establish the prosperity of the east, with
simil