Res Gestae

But hastening from there to visit Antioch, fair crown of the Orient, he reached it by the usual roads; and as he neared the city, he was received with public prayers, as if he were some deity, and he wondered at the cries of the great throng, who shouted that a lucky star had risen over the East.

Now, it chanced that at that same time the annual cycle was completed and they were celebrating, in the ancient fashion, the festival of Adonis (beloved by Venus, as the poet’s tales say), who was slain by the death-dealing tusk of a boar-a festival which is symbolic of the reaping of the ripe fruits of the field.[*](Cf. xix. 1, 11, and Cumont, Syria, pp. 45-49.) And it seemed a gloomy omen, as the emperor now for the first time entered the great city, the residence of princes, that on all sides melancholy wailing was heard and cries of grief.

It was here that he gave a proof of his patience and mildness, slight, it is true, but surprising. He hated a certain Thalassius,[*](Not the same as the one mentioned in xiv. 1, 10.) a former assistant master of petitions, who had plotted against his brother Gallus. When this man had been prohibited from greeting the emperor and attending at court among the other dignitaries,[*](Cf. xxi. 6, 2.) some enemies of his, with whom he had a suit in the forum, gathered together next day a huge throng of his remaining

But, although Julian believed that this was an opportunity to ruin the man, he replied: I know that the person to whom you refer has given me just cause for offence, but it is proper for you to keep silence until he gives satisfaction to me, his opponent of higher rank. And he ordered the prefect who was sitting in judgement not to listen to their charge until he himself was reconciled with Thalassius, which shortly happened.

Passing the winter there to his heart’s content, he was meanwhile carried away by no incitements of the pleasures in which all Syria abounds; but as if for recreation devoting his attention to cases at law, not less than to difficult and warlike affairs, he was distracted by many cares, as with remarkable willingness to receive information he deliberated how he might give each man his due by righteous decisions, bringing the guilty to order with moderate punishments and protecting the innocent with the safety of their property.