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| The Emperor's Invasion of Persia, and Death.
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Chapter XXI.—The
Emperor’s Invasion of Persia, and Death.
The emperor meanwhile invaded
the country of the Persians a little before spring, having learnt that
the races of Persia were greatly enfeebled and totally spiritless in
winter. For from their inability to endure cold, they abstain from
military service at that season, and it has become a proverb that
‘a Mede will not then draw his hand from underneath his
cloak.’ And well knowing that the Romans were inured to brave all
the rigors of the atmosphere he let them loose on the country. After
devastating a considerable tract of country, including numerous
villages and fortresses, they next assailed the cities; and having
invested the great city Ctesiphon, he reduced the king of the Persians
to such straits that the latter sent repeated embassies to the emperor,
offering to surrender a portion of his dominions, on condition of his
quitting the country, and putting an end to the war. But Julian was
unaffected by these submissions, and showed no compassion to a
suppliant foe: nor did he think of the adage, ‘To conquer is
honorable, but to be more than conqueror gives occasion for
envy.’ Giving credit to the divinations of the philosopher
Maximus, with whom he was in continual intercourse, he was deluded into
the belief that his exploits would not only equal, but exceed those of
Alexander of Macedon; so that he spurned with contempt the entreaties
of the Persian monarch. He even supposed in accordance with the
teachings of Pythagoras and Plato on ‘the transmigration of
souls,’542
| 542μετενσωματώσεως
, lit. ‘exchange of bodies,’ formed in analogy with μετεμψύχωσις
and logically inseparable from that doctrine.
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that he was possessed of Alexander’s soul, or rather that he
himself was Alexander in another body. This ridiculous fancy deluded
and caused him to reject the negotiations for peace proposed by the
king of the Persians. Wherefore the latter convinced of the uselessness
of them was constrained to prepare for conflict, and therefore on the
next day after the rejection of his embassy, he drew out in order of
battle all the forces he had. The Romans indeed censured their prince,
for not avoiding an engagement when he might have done so with
advantage: nevertheless they attacked those who opposed them, and again
put the enemy to flight. The emperor was present on horseback, and
encouraged his soldiers in battle; but confiding simply in his hope of
success, he wore no armor. In this defenceless state, a dart cast by
some one unknown, pierced through his arm and entered his side, making
a wound. In consequence of this wound he died. Some say that a certain
Persian hurled the javelin, and then fled; others assert that one of
his own men was the author of the deed, which indeed is the best
corroborated and most current report. But Callistus, one of his
body-guards, who celebrated this emperor’s deeds in heroic verse,
says in narrating the particulars of this war, that the wound of which
he died was inflicted by a demon. This is possibly a mere poetical
fiction, or perhaps it was really the fact; for vengeful furies have
undoubtedly destroyed many persons. Be the case however as it may, this
is certain, that the ardor of his natural temperament rendered him
incautious, his learning made him vain, and his affectation of clemency
exposed him to contempt. Thus Julian ended his life in Persia,543
| 543Theodoret, H. E. III. 25, gives the familiar
version of the death of Julian, according to which, on perceiving the
character of his wound, the dying emperor filled his hand with blood
and threw it up into the air, crying, ‘Galilean, thou hast
overcome!’
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as we have said, in his fourth consulate,544
which he bore with Sallust his colleague. This event occurred on the
26th of June, in the third year of his reign, and the seventh from his
having been created Cæsar by Constantius, he being at that time in
the thirty-first year of his age.
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