Res Gestae

And when the defenders of causes greeted him with the greatest applause, declaring that he understood perfect justice, he is said to have replied with emotion: I should certainly rejoice and show my joy, if I were praised by those whom I knew to have also the power to blame me in case I was wrong in deed or word.

But it will suffice, in place of many examples of the clemency that he showed in judicial processes, to set down this one, which is neither out of place nor ill-chosen. When a certain woman had been brought before the court, and contrary to her expectation saw that her accuser, who was one of the court servants that had been discharged, wore his girdle,[*](The sign either of military rank or of a position at court; the right to wear it was lost with the office.) she loudly complained at this act of insolence. Whereupon the emperor said: Go on with your charge, woman, if you think that you have been wronged in any way; for this man has thus girt himself in order to go through the mire the more easily[*](This seems to be a sarcastic reference to the muck-rakingthat would characterize the trial.) ; it can do little harm to your cause.

And these and similar instances led to the belief, as he himself constantly affirmed, that the old goddess of Justice,[*](Astraea, who left the earth in the iron age; cf. Ovid, Metam. i. 150 f., Victa iacet pietas et virgo caede madentes Ultima caelestum terras Astraea reliquit. ) whom Aratus takes up to heaven[*](That is, was represented by Aratus, a Greek poet of Soli in Cilicia (circ. 276 B.C.), as leaving the earth; of. Aratus, 130, καὶ τότε μισήσασα δίκη κείνων γένος ἀνδρῶν ἔπταθ᾽ ὑπουρανίη: Cic., Arat. Phaen. 137 ff. (lines 1, 3 and 4 in the supplement of Grotius): Tune, mortale exosa genus, dea in alta volavitEt Iovis in regno caelique in parte resedit,Illustrem sortita locum, qua nocte serenaVirgo conspicuo fulget vicina Boötae. ) because she was displeased with the vices of mankind, had returned to earth during his reign, were it not that sometimes Julian followed his own inclination rather than the demands of the laws, and by occasionally erring clouded the many glories of his career.

For after many other things, he also corrected some of the laws, removing ambiguities, so that they showed clearly what they demanded or forbade to be done. But this one thing was inhumane, and ought to be buried in eternal silence, namely, that he forbade teachers of rhetoric and literature to practise their profession, if they were followers of the Christian religion.

At about that same time, that notorious state- secretary Gaudentius, who (as I said before)[*](See xxi. 7, 2.) had been sent to Africa by Constantius to oppose Julian there, and also Julianus, a former vice-governor, an intemperate partisan of the same faction, were brought back in chains and punished with death.

Then, too, Artemius, sometime military commander in Egypt,[*](xvii. 11, 5.) since the Alexandrians heaped upon him a mass of atrocious charges, suffered capital

Hardly had a brief time elapsed, when the Alexandrians, on learning of the death of Artemius, whom they dreaded, for fear that he would return with his power restored (for so he had threatened) and do harm to many for the wrong that he had suffered, turned their wrath against the bishop Georgius, who had often, so to speak, made them feel his poisonous fangs.

The story goes that he was born in a fullery at Epiphania, a town of Cilicia,[*](According to Athanasius he was a Cappadocian.) and flourished to the ruin of many people. Then, contrary to his own advantage and that of the commonwealth, he was ordained bishop of Alexandria, a city which on its own impulse, and without ground, is frequently roused to rebellion and rioting,[*](See, for example, Curtius, iv. 1, 30; Aegyptii, vana gens, et novandis quam gerendis aptior rebus; Trebellius, Thirty Tyrants, 22, 1.) as the oracles themselves show.[*](Nothing is known of these oracles.)

To the frenzied minds of these people Georgius himself was also a powerful incentive by pouring, after his appointment, into the ready ears of Constantius charges against many, alleging that they were rebellious against his authority; and, forgetful of his calling, which counselled only justice and mildness, he descended to the informer’s deadly practices.

And, among other matters, it was said that he maliciously

To these evil deeds he had added still another, which soon after drove him headlong to destruction. As he was returning from the emperor’s court and passed by the beautiful temple of the Genius,[*](I.e. of the city.) attended as usual by a large crowd, he turned his eyes straight at the temple, and said: How long shall this sepulchre stand? On hearing this, many were struck as if by a thunderbolt, and fearing that he might try to overthrow even that building, they devised secret plots to destroy him in whatever way they could.

And lo! on the sudden arrival of the glad news that told of the death of Artemius, all the populace, transported by this unlooked-for joy, grinding their teeth and uttering fearful outcries, made for Georgius and seized him, maltreating him in divers ways and trampling upon him; then they dragged him about spread-eagle fashion,[*](Cf. xiv. 7, 15, of Montius.) and killed him.

And with him Dracontius, superintendent of the mint, and one Diodorus, who had the honorary rank of count,[*](veluti seems to indicate that he had the title, but not the office.) were dragged about with ropes fastened to their legs and both killed; the former, because he overthrew an altar,[*](To Juno Moneta.) newly set up in the mint, of which he had charge; the other, because, while overseer of the building of a church, he arbitrarily cut off the curls of some boys, thinking that this also was a fashion belonging to the pagan worship.

Not content with this, the inhuman mob loaded the mutilated bodies of the slain men upon camels

The emperor, on hearing of this abominable deed, was bent upon taking vengeance, but just as he was on the point of inflicting the extreme penalty upon the guilty parties, he was pacified by his intimates, who counselled leniency. Accordingly, he issued an edict expressing, in the strongest terms, his horror at the outrage that had been committed, and threatened extreme measures in case in the future anything was attempted contrary to justice and the laws.

Meanwhile, Julian was preparing a campaign against the Persians, which he had long before planned with lofty strength of mind, being exceedingly aroused to punish their misdeeds in the past, knowing and hearing as he did that this savage

He was inflamed besides with a twofold longing for war, first, because he was tired of inactivity and dreamed of clarions and battle; and then, exposed as he had been in the first flower of his youth to warfare with savage nations, while his ears were still warm[*](His two motives were: a love of action; and, since those men had prayed to him for peace who no one ever thought would do so, a desire for further glory in the Orient.) with the prayers of kings and princes who (as it was believed) could more easily be vanquished than led to hold out their hands as suppliants, he burned to add to the tokens of his glorious victories the surname Parthicus.

But his idle and envious detractors,[*](Apparently referring to the Christians.) seeing these mighty and hasty preparations, cried out that it was shameful and ruinous that through the exchange of one man for another[*](That is, of Julian for Constantius.) so many untimely disturbances should be set on foot; and they devoted all their efforts to putting off the campaign. And they repeatedly said, in the presence of those who they thought could repeat to the emperor what they had heard, that if he did not conduct himself with more moderation in his excessive prosperity and success, like plants that grow rank from too great fertility, he would soon find destruction in his own good fortune.

But though they kept up this agitation long and persistently, it was in vain that they barked around a man as unmoved by secret insults, as was Hercules by those of the Pygmies,[*](When Hercules entered the country of the Pygmies an army of them attacked him in his sleep, but he gathered them up and packed them in his lion skin.) or by

But Julian, being a man of uncommonly high spirit, no less carefully considered the importance of his campaign, and used every effort to make corre- sponding preparations.