rusalem and Antioch, in Cappadocia and
Mesopotamia.

[Sidenote: The Arians under Julian.]

Nor were the other parties idle. The Homoean coalition was even more
unstable than the Eusebian. Already before the death of Constantius
there had been quarrels over the appointment of Meletius by one section
of the party, of Eunomius by another. The deposition of Aetius was
another bone of contention. Hence the coalition broke up of itself as
soon as men were free to act. Acacius and his friends drew nearer to
Meletius, while Eudoxius and Euzoius talked of annulling the
condemnation of the Anomoean bishops at Constantinople. The Semiarians
were busy too. Guided by Macedonius and Eleusius, the ejected bishops of
Constantinople and Cyzicus, they gradually took up a middle position
between Nicenes and Anomoeans, confessing the Lord's deity with the
one, and denying that of the Holy Spirit with the other. Like true
Legitimists, who had learned nothing and forgotten nothing, they were
satisfied to confirm the Seleucian decisions and re-issue their old
Lucianic creed. Had they ceased to care for the Nicene alliance, or did
they fancy the world had stood still since the Council of the
Dedication?

[Sidenote: Julian's campaign in Persia (Mar. 5 to June 26, 363).]

Meanwhile the Persian war demanded Julian's attention. An emperor so
full of heathen enthusiasm was not likely to forego the dreams of
conquest which had brought so many of his predecessors on the path of
glory in the East. His own part of the campaign was a splendid success.
But when he had fought his way through the desert to the Tigris, he
looked in vain for succours from the north. The Christians of Armenia
would not fight for the apostate Emperor. Julian was obliged to retreat
on Nisibis through a wasted country, and with the Persian cavalry
hovering round. The campaign would have been at best a brilliant
failure, but it was only converted into absolute disaster by the chance
arrow (June 26, 363) which cut short his busy life. After all, he was
only in his thirty-second year.

[Sidenote: Julian's character.]

Christian charity will not delight in counting up the outbreaks of petty
spite and childish vanity which disfigure a noble character of purity
and self-devotion. Still less need we presume to speculate what Julian
would have done if he had returned in triumph from the Persian war. His
bitterness might have hardened into a renegade's malice, or it might
have me