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| Jovian is proclaimed Emperor.
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Chapter XXII.—Jovian
is proclaimed Emperor.
The soldiery being thrown into
extreme perplexity by an event so unexpected, and without delay, on the
following day proclaimed Jovian emperor, a person alike distinguished
for his courage and birth. He was a military tribune when Julian put
forth an edict giving his officers the option of either sacrificing or
resigning their rank in the army, and chose rather to lay down his
commission,545
than to obey the mandate of an impious prince. Julian, however, being
pressed by the urgency of the war which was before him, retained him among his generals. On
being saluted emperor, he positively declined to accept the sovereign
power: and when the soldiers brought him forward by force, he declared
that ‘being a Christian, he did not wish to reign over a people
who chose to adopt paganism as their religion.’ They all then
with one voice answered that they also were Christians: upon which he
accepted the imperial dignity. Perceiving himself suddenly left in very
difficult circumstances, in the midst of the Persian territory, where
his army was in danger of perishing for want of necessaries, he agreed
to terminate the war, even on terms by no means honorable to the glory
of the Roman name, but rendered necessary by the exigencies of the
crisis. Submitting therefore to the loss of the government of Syria,546
| 546So the mss. and Bright. The
same reading was also before Epiphanius Scholasticus and Nicephorus;
but Valesius conjecturally amends the reading τοὺς Σύρους
τῆς ἀρχῆς into τοὺς ὅρους
τῆς ἀρχῆς, alleging
that Socrates himself later mentions the loss as ζημίαν τῶν
ὅρων. If the reading of Valesius be
considered correct, then we must translate ‘submitting to the
loss of the borders,’ supplying ‘of the empire.’ This
would include the districts beyond the Tigris.
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and giving up also Nisibis, a city of Mesopotamia, he withdrew from
their territories. The announcement of these things gave fresh hope to
the Christians; while the pagans vehemently bewailed Julian’s
death. Nevertheless the whole army reprobated his intemperate heat, and
ascribed to his rashness in listening to the wily reports of a Persian
deserter, the humiliation of ceding the territories lost: for being
imposed upon by the statements of this fugitive, he was induced to burn
the ships which supplied them with provisions by water, by which means
they were exposed to all the horrors of famine. Then also Libanius
composed a funeral oration on him, which he designated Julianus, or
Epitaph, wherein he celebrates with lofty encomiums almost all his
actions; but in referring to the books which Julian wrote against the
Christians, he says that he has therein clearly demonstrated the
ridiculous and trifling character of their sacred books. Had this
sophist contented himself with extolling the emperor’s other
acts, I should have quietly proceeded with the course of my history;
but since this famous rhetorician has thought proper to take occasion
to inveigh against the Scriptures of the Christian faith, we also
propose to pause a little and in a brief review consider his words.
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