eality the object of his fear was
very different.

3. Then a man of the name of Sabinus, eminent among his fellow-citizens
both for his fortune and birth, replied with great fluency that
Constantius too was at one time defeated by the Persians in the terrible
strife of fierce war, that afterwards he fled with a small body of
comrades to the unguarded station of Hibita, where he lived on a scanty
and uncertain supply of bread which was brought him by an old woman from
the country; and yet that to the end of his life he lost no territory;
while Jovian, at the very beginning of his reign, was yielding up the
wall of his provinces, by the protection of which barrier they had
hitherto remained safe from the earliest ages.

4. But as he could not prevail on the emperor, who persisted obstinately
in alleging the obligation of his oath, presently, when Jovian, who had
for some time refused the crown which was offered to him, accepted it
under a show of compulsion, an advocate, named Silvanus, exclaimed
boldly, "May you, O emperor, be so crowned in the rest of your cities."
But Jovian was offended at his words, and ordered the whole body of
citizens to quit the city within three days, in despair as they were at
the existing state of affairs.

5. Accordingly, men were appointed to compel obedience to this order,
with threats of death to every one who delayed his departure; and the
whole city was a scene of mourning and lamentation, and in every quarter
nothing was heard but one universal wail, matrons tearing their hair
when about to be driven from their homes, in which they had been born
and brought up, the mother who had lost her children, or the wife her
husband, about to be torn from the place rendered sacred by their
shades, clinging to their doorposts, embracing their thresholds, and
pouring forth floods of tears.

6. Every road was crowded, each person straggling away as he could.
Many, too, loaded themselves with as much of their property as they
thought they could carry, while leaving behind them abundant and costly
furniture, for this they could not remove for want of beasts of burden.

7. Thou in this place, O fortune of the Roman world, art justly an
object of accusation, who, while storms were agitating the republic,
didst strike the helm from the hand of a wise sovereign, to intrust it
to an inexperienced youth, whom, as he was not previously known for any
remarkable actions in his previous life, it is not fair