History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0158/01589.txt

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$Title{History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Part I.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Gibbon, Edward}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{julian
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$Date{1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)}
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Title:       History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Book:        Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.
Author:      Gibbon, Edward
Date:        1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

Part I.

     The Religion Of Julian. - Universal Toleration. - He Attempts To Restore
And Reform The Pagan Worship - To Rebuild The Temple Of Jerusalem - His Artful
Persecution Of The Christians. - Mutual Zeal And Injustice.

     The character of Apostate has injured the reputation of Julian; and the
enthusiasm which clouded his virtues has exaggerated the real and apparent
magnitude of his faults.  Our partial ignorance may represent him as a
philosophic monarch, who studied to protect, with an equal hand, the religious
factions of the empire; and to allay the theological fever which had inflamed
the minds of the people, from the edicts of Diocletian to the exile of
Athanasius.  A more accurate view of the character and conduct of Julian will
remove this favorable prepossession for a prince who did not escape the
general contagion of the times.  We enjoy the singular advantage of comparing
the pictures which have been delineated by his fondest admirers and his
implacable enemies.  The actions of Julian are faithfully related by a
judicious and candid historian, the impartial spectator of his life and death.
The unanimous evidence of his contemporaries is confirmed by the public and
private declarations of the emperor himself; and his various writings express
the uniform tenor of his religious sentiments, which policy would have
prompted him to dissemble rather than to affect.  A devout and sincere
attachment for the gods of Athens and Rome constituted the ruling passion of
Julian; ^1 the powers of an enlightened understanding were betrayed and
corrupted by the influence of superstitious prejudice; and the phantoms which
existed only in the mind of the emperor had a real and pernicious effect on
the government of the empire.  The vehement zeal of the Christians, who
despised the worship, and overturned the altars of those fabulous deities,
engaged their votary in a state of irreconcilable hostility with a very
numerous party of his subjects; and he was sometimes tempted by the desire of
victory, or the shame of a repulse, to violate the laws of prudence, and even
of justice.  The triumph of the party, which he deserted and opposed, has
fixed a stain of infamy on the name of Julian; and the unsuccessful apostate
has been overwhelmed with a torrent of pious invectives, of which the signal
was given by the sonorous trumpet ^2 of Gregory Nazianzen. ^3 The interesting
nature of the events which were crowded into the short reign of this active
emperor, deserve a just and circumstantial narrative.  His motives, his
counsels, and his actions, as far as they are connected with the history of
religion, will be the subject of the present chapter.

[Footnote 1: I shall transcribe some of his own expressions from a short
religious discourse which the Imperial pontiff composed to censure the bold
impiety of a Cynic. Orat. vii. p. 212.  The variety and copiousness of the
Greek tongue seem inadequate to the fervor of his devotion.]

[Footnote 2: The orator, with some eloquence, much enthusiasm, and more
vanity, addresses his discourse to heaven and earth, to men and angels, to the
living and the dead; and above all, to the great Constantius, an odd Pagan
expression.) He concludes with a bold assurance, that he has erected a
monument not less durable, and much more portable, than the columns of
Hercules.  See Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 50, iv. p. 134.]

[Footnote 3: See this long invective, which has been injudiciously divided
into two orations in Gregory's works, tom. i. p. 49-134, Paris, 1630.  It was
published by Gregory and his friend Basil, (iv. p. 133,) about six months
after the death of Julian, when his remains had been carried to Tarsus, (iv.
p. 120;) but while Jovian was still on the throne, (iii. p. 54, iv. p. 117) I
have derived much assistance from a French version and remarks, printed at
Lyons, 1735.]

     The cause of his strange and fatal apostasy may be derived from the early
period of his life, when he was left an orphan in the hands of the murderers
of his family.  The names of Christ and of Constantius, the ideas of slavery
and of religion, were soon associated in a youthful imagination, which was
susceptible of the most lively impressions.  The care of his infancy was
intrusted to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, ^4 who was related to him on the
side of his mother; and till Julian reached the twentieth year of his age, he
received from his Christian preceptors the education, not of a hero, but of a
saint.  The emperor, less jealous of a heavenly than of an earthly crown,
contented himself with the imperfect character of a catechumen, while he
bestowed the advantages of baptism ^5 on the nephews of Constantine. ^6 They
were even admitted to the inferior offices of the ecclesiastical order; and
Julian publicly read the Holy Scriptures in the church of Nicomedia.  The
study of religion, which they assiduously cultivated, appeared to produce the
fairest fruits of faith and devotion. ^7 They prayed, they fasted, they
distributed alms to the poor, gifts to the clergy, and oblations to the tombs
of the martyrs; and the splendid monument of St. Mamas, at Caesarea, was
erected, or at least was undertaken, by the joint labor of Gallus and Julian.
^8 They respectfully conversed with the bishops, who were eminent for superior
sanctity, and solicited the benediction of the monks and hermits, who had
introduced into Cappadocia the voluntary hardships of the ascetic life. ^9 As
the two princes advanced towards the years of manhood, they discovered, in
their religious sentiments, the difference of their characters.  The dull and
obstinate understanding of Gallus embraced, with implicit zeal, the doctrines
of Christianity; which never influenced his conduct, or moderated his
passions.  The mild disposition of the younger brother was less repugnant to
the precepts of the gospel; and his active curiosity might have been gratified
by a theological system, which explains the mysterious essence of the Deity,
and opens the boundless prospect of invisible and future worlds.  But the
independent spirit of Julian refused to yield the passive and unresisting
obedience which was required, in the name of religion, by the haughty
ministers of the church.  Their speculative opinions were imposed as positive
laws, and guarded by the terrors of eternal punishments; but while they
prescribed the rigid formulary of the thoughts, the words, and the actions of
the young prince; whilst they silenced his objections, and severely checked
the freedom of his inquiries, they secretly provoked his impatient genius to
disclaim the authority of his ecclesiastical guides.  He was educated in the
Lesser Asia, amidst the scandals of the Arian controversy. ^10 The fierce
contests of the Eastern bishops, the incessant alterations of their creeds,
and the profane motives which appeared to actuate their conduct, insensibly
strengthened the prejudice of Julian, that they neither understood nor
believed the religion for which they so fiercely contended.  Instead of
listening to the proofs of Christianity with that favorable attention which
adds weight to the most respectable evidence, he heard with suspicion, and
disputed with obstinacy and acuteness, the doctrines for which he already
entertained an invincible aversion.  Whenever the young princes were directed
to compose declamations on the subject of the prevailing controversies, Julian
always declared himself the advocate of Paganism; under the specious excuse
that, in the defence of the weaker cause, his learning and ingenuity might be
more advantageously exercised and displayed.

[Footnote 4: Nicomediae ab Eusebio educatus Episcopo, quem genere longius
contingebat, (Ammian. xxii. 9.) Julian never expresses any gratitude towards
that Arian prelate; but he celebrates his preceptor, the eunuch Mardonius, and
describes his mode of education, which inspired his pupil with a passionate
admiration for the genius, and perhaps the religion of Homer.  Misopogon, p.
351, 352.]

[Footnote 5: Greg. Naz. iii. p. 70.  He labored to effect that holy mark in
the blood, perhaps of a Taurobolium.  Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 361, No. 3,
4.]

[Footnote 6: Julian himself (Epist. li. p. 454) assures the Alexandrians that
he had been a Christian (he must mean a sincere one) till the twentieth year
of his age.]

[Footnote 7: See his Christian, and even ecclesiastical education, in Gregory,
(iii. p. 58,) Socrates, (l. iii. c. 1,) and Sozomen, (l. v. c. 2.) He escaped
very narrowly from being a bishop, and perhaps a saint.]

[Footnote 8: The share of the work which had been allotted to Gallus, was
prosecuted with vigor and success; but the earth obstinately rejected and
subverted the structures which were imposed by the sacrilegious hand of
Julian.  Greg. iii. p. 59, 60, 61.  Such a partial earthquake, attested by
many living spectators, would form one of the clearest miracles in
ecclesiastical story.]

[Footnote 9: The philosopher (Fragment, p. 288,) ridicules the iron chains,
&c, of these solitary fanatics, (see Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 661,
632,) who had forgot that man is by nature a gentle and social animal. The
Pagan supposes, that because they had renounced the gods, they were possessed
and tormented by evil daemons.]

[Footnote 10: See Julian apud Cyril, l. vi. p. 206, l. viii. p. 253, 262. "You
persecute," says he, "those heretics who do not mourn the dead man precisely
in the way which you approve." He shows himself a tolerable theologian; but he
maintains that the Christian Trinity is not derived from the doctrine of Paul,
of Jesus, or of Moses.]

     As soon as Gallus was invested with the honors of the purple, Julian was
permitted to breathe the air of freedom, of literature, and of Paganism. ^11
The crowd of sophists, who were attracted by the taste and liberality of their
royal pupil, had formed a strict alliance between the learning and the
religion of Greece; and the poems of Homer, instead of being admired as the
original productions of human genius, were seriously ascribed to the heavenly
inspiration of Apollo and the muses.  The deities of Olympus, as they are
painted by the immortal bard, imprint themselves on the minds which are the
least addicted to superstitious credulity.  Our familiar knowledge of their
names and characters, their forms and attributes, seems to bestow on those
airy beings a real and substantial existence; and the pleasing enchantment
produces an imperfect and momentary assent of the imagination to those fables,
which are the most repugnant to our reason and experience.  In the age of
Julian, every circumstance contributed to prolong and fortify the illusion;
the magnificent temples of Greece and Asia; the works of those artists who had
expressed, in painting or in sculpture, the divine conceptions of the poet;
the pomp of festivals and sacrifices; the successful arts of divination; the
popular traditions of oracles and prodigies; and the ancient practice of two
thousand years. The weakness of polytheism was, in some measure, excused by
the moderation of its claims; and the devotion of the Pagans was not
incompatible with the most licentious scepticism. ^12 Instead of an
indivisible and regular system, which occupies the whole extent of the
believing mind, the mythology of the Greeks was composed of a thousand loose
and flexible parts, and the servant of the gods was at liberty to define the
degree and measure of his religious faith.  The creed which Julian adopted for
his own use was of the largest dimensions; and, by strange contradiction, he
disdained the salutary yoke of the gospel, whilst he made a voluntary offering
of his reason on the altars of Jupiter and Apollo.  One of the orations of
Julian is consecrated to the honor of Cybele, the mother of the gods, who
required from her effeminate priests the bloody sacrifice, so rashly performed
by the madness of the Phrygian boy.  The pious emperor condescends to relate,
without a blush, and without a smile, the voyage of the goddess from the
shores of Pergamus to the mouth of the Tyber, and the stupendous miracle,
which convinced the senate and people of Rome that the lump of clay, which
their ambassadors had transported over the seas, was endowed with life, and
sentiment, and divine power. ^13 For the truth of this prodigy he appeals to
the public monuments of the city; and censures, with some acrimony, the sickly
and affected taste of those men, who impertinently derided the sacred
traditions of their ancestors. ^14

[Footnote 11: Libanius, Orat. Parentalis, c. 9, 10, p. 232, &c. Greg.
Nazianzen.  Orat. iii. p 61.  Eunap. Vit. Sophist. in Maximo, p. 68, 69, 70,
edit Commelin.]

[Footnote 12: A modern philosopher has ingeniously compared the different
operation of theism and polytheism, with regard to the doubt or conviction
which they produce in the human mind.  See Hume's Essays vol. ii. p. 444- 457,
in 8vo. edit. 1777.]

[Footnote 13: The Idaean mother landed in Italy about the end of the second
Punic war.  The miracle of Claudia, either virgin or matron, who cleared her
fame by disgracing the graver modesty of the Roman Indies, is attested by a
cloud of witnesses.  Their evidence is collected by Drakenborch, (ad Silium
Italicum, xvii. 33;) but we may observe that Livy (xxix. 14) slides over the
transaction with discreet ambiguity.]

[Footnote 14: I cannot refrain from transcribing the emphatical words of
Julian: Orat. v. p. 161.  Julian likewise declares his firm belief in the
ancilia, the holy shields, which dropped from heaven on the Quirinal hill; and
pities the strange blindness of the Christians, who preferred the cross to
these celestial trophies.  Apud Cyril. l. vi. p. 194.]

     But the devout philosopher, who sincerely embraced, and warmly
encouraged, the superstition of the people, reserved for himself the privilege
of a liberal interpretation; and silently withdrew from the foot of the altars
into the sanctuary of the temple.  The extravagance of the Grecian mythology
proclaimed, with a clear and audible voice, that the pious inquirer, instead
of being scandalized or satisfied with the literal sense, should diligently
explore the occult wisdom, which had been disguised, by the prudence of
antiquity, under the mask of folly and of fable. ^15 The philosophers of the
Platonic school, ^16 Plotinus, Porphyry, and the divine Iamblichus, were
admired as the most skilful masters of this allegorical science, which labored
to soften and harmonize the deformed features of Paganism.  Julian himself,
who was directed in the mysterious pursuit by Aedesius, the venerable
successor of Iamblichus, aspired to the possession of a treasure, which he
esteemed, if we may credit his solemn asseverations, far above the empire of
the world. ^17 It was indeed a treasure, which derived its value only from
opinion; and every artist who flattered himself that he had extracted the
precious ore from the surrounding dross, claimed an equal right of stamping
the name and figure the most agreeable to his peculiar fancy.  The fable of
Atys and Cybele had been already explained by Porphyry; but his labors served
only to animate the pious industry of Julian, who invented and published his
own allegory of that ancient and mystic tale.  This freedom of interpretation,
which might gratify the pride of the Platonists, exposed the vanity of their
art. Without a tedious detail, the modern reader could not form a just idea of
the strange allusions, the forced etymologies, the solemn trifling, and the
impenetrable obscurity of these sages, who professed to reveal the system of
the universe.  As the traditions of Pagan mythology were variously related,
the sacred interpreters were at liberty to select the most convenient
circumstances; and as they translated an arbitrary cipher, they could extract
from any fable any sense which was adapted to their favorite system of
religion and philosophy.  The lascivious form of a naked Venus was tortured
into the discovery of some moral precept, or some physical truth; and the
castration of Atys explained the revolution of the sun between the tropics, or
the separation of the human soul from vice and error. ^18

[Footnote 15: See the principles of allegory, in Julian, (Orat. vii. p. 216,
222.) His reasoning is less absurd than that of some modern theologians, who
assert that an extravagant or contradictory doctrine must be divine; since no
man alive could have thought of inventing it.]

[Footnote 16: Eunapius has made these sophists the subject of a partial and
fanatical history; and the learned Brucker (Hist. Philosoph. tom. ii. p.
217-303) has employed much labor to illustrate their obscure lives and
incomprehensible doctrines.]

[Footnote 17: Julian, Orat. vii p 222.  He swears with the most fervent and
enthusiastic devotion; and trembles, lest he should betray too much of these
holy mysteries, which the profane might deride with an impious Sardonic
laugh.]

[Footnote 18: See the fifth oration of Julian.  But all the allegories which
ever issued from the Platonic school are not worth the short poem of Catullus
on the same extraordinary subject.  The transition of Atys, from the wildest
enthusiasm to sober, pathetic complaint, for his irretrievable loss, must
inspire a man with pity, a eunuch with despair.]

     The theological system of Julian appears to have contained the sublime
and important principles of natural religion.  But as the faith, which is not
founded on revelation, must remain destitute of any firm assurance, the
disciple of Plato imprudently relapsed into the habits of vulgar superstition;
and the popular and philosophic notion of the Deity seems to have been
confounded in the practice, the writings, and even in the mind of Julian. ^19
The pious emperor acknowledged and adored the Eternal Cause of the universe,
to whom he ascribed all the perfections of an infinite nature, invisible to
the eyes and inaccessible to the understanding, of feeble mortals.  The
Supreme God had created, or rather, in the Platonic language, had generated,
the gradual succession of dependent spirits, of gods, of daemons, of heroes,
and of men; and every being which derived its existence immediately from the
First Cause, received the inherent gift of immortality.  That so precious an
advantage might be lavished upon unworthy objects, the Creator had intrusted
to the skill and power of the inferior gods the office of forming the human
body, and of arranging the beautiful harmony of the animal, the vegetable, and
the mineral kingdoms.  To the conduct of these divine ministers he delegated
the temporal government of this lower world; but their imperfect
administration is not exempt from discord or error.  The earth and its
inhabitants are divided among them, and the characters of Mars or Minerva, of
Mercury or Venus, may be distinctly traced in the laws and manners of their
peculiar votaries.  As long as our immortal souls are confined in a mortal
prison, it is our interest, as well as our duty, to solicit the favor, and to
deprecate the wrath, of the powers of heaven; whose pride is gratified by the
devotion of mankind; and whose grosser parts may be supposed to derive some
nourishment from the fumes of sacrifice. ^20 The inferior gods might sometimes
condescend to animate the statues, and to inhabit the temples, which were
dedicated to their honor.  They might occasionally visit the earth, but the
heavens were the proper throne and symbol of their glory.  The invariable
order of the sun, moon, and stars, was hastily admitted by Julian, as a proof
of their eternal duration; and their eternity was a sufficient evidence that
they were the workmanship, not of an inferior deity, but of the Omnipotent
King.  In the system of Platonists, the visible was a type of the invisible
world.  The celestial bodies, as they were informed by a divine spirit, might
be considered as the objects the most worthy of religious worship.  The Sun,
whose genial influence pervades and sustains the universe, justly claimed the
adoration of mankind, as the bright representative of the Logos, the lively,
the rational, the beneficent image of the intellectual Father. ^21

[Footnote 19: The true religion of Julian may be deduced from the Caesars, p.
308, with Spanheim's notes and illustrations, from the fragments in Cyril, l.
ii. p. 57, 58, and especially from the theological oration in Solem Regem, p.
130-158, addressed in the confidence of friendship, to the praefect Sallust.]

[Footnote 20: Julian adopts this gross conception by ascribing to his favorite
Marcus Antoninus, (Caesares, p. 333.) The Stoics and Platonists hesitated
between the analogy of bodies and the purity of spirits; yet the gravest
philosophers inclined to the whimsical fancy of Aristophanes and Lucian, that
an unbelieving age might starve the immortal gods.  See Observations de
Spanheim, p. 284, 444, &c.]

[Footnote 21: Julian. Epist. li.  In another place, (apud Cyril. l. ii. p.
69,) he calls the Sun God, and the throne of God.  Julian believed the
Platonician Trinity; and only blames the Christians for preferring a mortal to
an immortal Logos.]

     In every age, the absence of genuine inspiration is supplied by the
strong illusions of enthusiasm, and the mimic arts of imposture.  If, in the
time of Julian, these arts had been practised only by the pagan priests, for
the support of an expiring cause, some indulgence might perhaps be allowed to
the interest and habits of the sacerdotal character. But it may appear a
subject of surprise and scandal, that the philosophers themselves should have
contributed to abuse the superstitious credulity of mankind, ^22 and that the
Grecian mysteries should have been supported by the magic or theurgy of the
modern Platonists.  They arrogantly pretended to control the order of nature,
to explore the secrets of futurity, to command the service of the inferior
daemons, to enjoy the view and conversation of the superior gods, and by
disengaging the soul from her material bands, to reunite that immortal
particle with the Infinite and Divine Spirit.

[Footnote 22: The sophists of Eunapias perform as many miracles as the saints
of the desert; and the only circumstance in their favor is, that they are of a
less gloomy complexion.  Instead of devils with horns and tails, Iamblichus
evoked the genii of love, Eros and Anteros, from two adjacent fountains.  Two
beautiful boys issued from the water, fondly embraced him as their father, and
retired at his command, p. 26, 27.]

     The devout and fearless curiosity of Julian tempted the philosophers with
the hopes of an easy conquest; which, from the situation of their young
proselyte, might be productive of the most important consequences. ^23 Julian
imbibed the first rudiments of the Platonic doctrines from the mouth of
Aedesius, who had fixed at Pergamus his wandering and persecuted school.  But
as the declining strength of that venerable sage was unequal to the ardor, the
diligence, the rapid conception of his pupil, two of his most learned
disciples, Chrysanthes and Eusebius, supplied, at his own desire, the place of
their aged master.  These philosophers seem to have prepared and distributed
their respective parts; and they artfully contrived, by dark hints and
affected disputes, to excite the impatient hopes of the aspirant, till they
delivered him into the hands of their associate, Maximus, the boldest and most
skilful master of the Theurgic science.  By his hands, Julian was secretly
initiated at Ephesus, in the twentieth year of his age.  His residence at
Athens confirmed this unnatural alliance of philosophy and superstition.  He
obtained the privilege of a solemn initiation into the mysteries of Eleusis,
which, amidst the general decay of the Grecian worship, still retained some
vestiges of their primaeval sanctity; and such was the zeal of Julian, that he
afterwards invited the Eleusinian pontiff to the court of Gaul, for the sole
purpose of consummating, by mystic rites and sacrifices, the great work of his
sanctification.  As these ceremonies were performed in the depth of caverns,
and in the silence of the night, and as the inviolable secret of the mysteries
was preserved by the discretion of the initiated, I shall not presume to
describe the horrid sounds, and fiery apparitions, which were presented to the
senses, or the imagination, of the credulous aspirant, ^24 till the visions of
comfort and knowledge broke upon him in a blaze of celestial light. ^25 In the
caverns of Ephesus and Eleusis, the mind of Julian was penetrated with
sincere, deep, and unalterable enthusiasm; though he might sometimes exhibit
the vicissitudes of pious fraud and hypocrisy, which may be observed, or at
least suspected, in the characters of the most conscientious fanatics.  From
that moment he consecrated his life to the service of the gods; and while the
occupations of war, of government, and of study, seemed to claim the whole
measure of his time, a stated portion of the hours of the night was invariably
reserved for the exercise of private devotion.  The temperance which adorned
the severe manners of the soldier and the philosopher was connected with some
strict and frivolous rules of religious abstinence; and it was in honor of Pan
or Mercury, of Hecate or Isis, that Julian, on particular days, denied himself
the use of some particular food, which might have been offensive to his
tutelar deities.  By these voluntary fasts, he prepared his senses and his
understanding for the frequent and familiar visits with which he was honored
by the celestial powers.  Notwithstanding the modest silence of Julian
himself, we may learn from his faithful friend, the orator Libanius, that he
lived in a perpetual intercourse with the gods and goddesses; that they
descended upon earth to enjoy the conversation of their favorite hero; that
they gently interrupted his slumbers by touching his hand or his hair; that
they warned him of every impending danger, and conducted him, by their
infallible wisdom, in every action of his life; and that he had acquired such
an intimate knowledge of his heavenly guests, as readily to distinguish the
voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the form of Apollo from the figure
of Hercules. ^26 These sleeping or waking visions, the ordinary effects of
abstinence and fanaticism, would almost degrade the emperor to the level of an
Egyptian monk.  But the useless lives of Antony or Pachomius were consumed in
these vain occupations. Julian could break from the dream of superstition to
arm himself for battle; and after vanquishing in the field the enemies of
Rome, he calmly retired into his tent, to dictate the wise and salutary laws
of an empire, or to indulge his genius in the elegant pursuits of literature
and philosophy.

[Footnote 23: The dexterous management of these sophists, who played their
credulous pupil into each other's hands, is fairly told by Eunapius (p. 69-
79) with unsuspecting simplicity.  The Abbe de la Bleterie understands, and
neatly describes, the whole comedy, (Vie de Julian, p. 61-67.)]

[Footnote 24: When Julian, in a momentary panic, made the sign of the cross
the daemons instantly disappeared, (Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 71.) Gregory
supposes that they were frightened, but the priests declared that they were
indignant.  The reader, according to the measure of his faith, will determine
this profound question.]

[Footnote 25: A dark and distant view of the terrors and joys of initiation is
shown by Dion Chrysostom, Themistius, Proclus, and Stobaeus.  The learned
author of the Divine Legation has exhibited their words, (vol. i. p. 239, 247,
248, 280, edit. 1765,) which he dexterously or forcibly applies to his own
hypothesis.]

[Footnote 26: Julian's modesty confined him to obscure and occasional hints:
but Libanius expiates with pleasure on the facts and visions of the religious
hero.  (Legat. ad Julian. p. 157, and Orat. Parental. c. lxxxiii. p. 309,
310.)]

     The important secret of the apostasy of Julian was intrusted to the
fidelity of the initiated, with whom he was united by the sacred ties of
friendship and religion. ^27 The pleasing rumor was cautiously circulated
among the adherents of the ancient worship; and his future greatness became
the object of the hopes, the prayers, and the predictions of the Pagans, in
every province of the empire.  From the zeal and virtues of their royal
proselyte, they fondly expected the cure of every evil, and the restoration of
every blessing; and instead of disapproving of the ardor of their pious
wishes, Julian ingenuously confessed, that he was ambitious to attain a
situation in which he might be useful to his country and to his religion. But
this religion was viewed with a hostile eye by the successor of Constantine,
whose capricious passions altercately saved and threatened the life of Julian.
The arts of magic and divination were strictly prohibited under a despotic
government, which condescended to fear them; and if the Pagans were
reluctantly indulged in the exercise of their superstition, the rank of Julian
would have excepted him from the general toleration.  The apostate soon became
the presumptive heir of the monarchy, and his death could alone have appeased
the just apprehensions of the Christians. ^28 But the young prince, who
aspired to the glory of a hero rather than of a martyr, consulted his safety
by dissembling his religion; and the easy temper of polytheism permitted him
to join in the public worship of a sect which he inwardly despised.  Libanius
has considered the hypocrisy of his friend as a subject, not of censure, but
of praise.  "As the statues of the gods," says that orator, "which have been
defiled with filth, are again placed in a magnificent temple, so the beauty of
truth was seated in the mind of Julian, after it had been purified from the
errors and follies of his education.  His sentiments were changed; but as it
would have been dangerous to have avowed his sentiments, his conduct still
continued the same.  Very different from the ass in Aesop, who disguised
himself with a lion's hide, our lion was obliged to conceal himself under the
skin of an ass; and, while he embraced the dictates of reason, to obey the
laws of prudence and necessity." ^29 The dissimulation of Julian lasted about
ten years, from his secret initiation at Ephesus to the beginning of the civil
war; when he declared himself at once the implacable enemy of Christ and of
Constantius.  This state of constraint might contribute to strengthen his
devotion; and as soon as he had satisfied the obligation of assisting, on
solemn festivals, at the assemblies of the Christians, Julian returned, with
the impatience of a lover, to burn his free and voluntary incense on the
domestic chapels of Jupiter and Mercury.  But as every act of dissimulation
must be painful to an ingenuous spirit, the profession of Christianity
increased the aversion of Julian for a religion which oppressed the freedom of
his mind, and compelled him to hold a conduct repugnant to the noblest
attributes of human nature, sincerity and courage.

[Footnote 27: Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. x. p. 233, 234.  Gallus had some
reason to suspect the secret apostasy of his brother; and in a letter, which
may be received as genuine, he exhorts Julian to adhere to the religion of
their ancestors; an argument which, as it should seem, was not yet perfectly
ripe.  See Julian, Op. p. 454, and Hist. de Jovien tom ii. p. 141.]

[Footnote 28: Gregory, (iii. p. 50,) with inhuman zeal, censures Constantius
for paring the infant apostate.  His French translator (p. 265) cautiously
observes, that such expressions must not be prises a la lettre.]

[Footnote 29: Libanius, Orat. Parental. c ix. p. 233.]