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| Of the reign and piety of Jovianus.
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Book
IV.
Chapter
I.—Of the reign and piety of
Jovianus
After Julian was slain the generals and prefects met in council and
deliberated who ought to succeed to the imperial power and effect both
the salvation of the army in the campaign, and the recovery of the
fortunes of Rome, now, by the rashness of the deceased Emperor, placed
to use the common saying, on the razor edge of peril.665
| 665 The
common proverbial saying, from Homer downwards; ἐπὶ
ξυροῦ
ἱσταται
ἀκμῆς
ὅλεθρος ηὲ
βιῶναι. Il. 10.
173. | But while the chiefs were in deliberation
the troops met together and demanded Jovianus for emperor, though he
was neither a general nor in the next highest rank; a man however
remarkably distinguished, and for many reasons well known. His stature
was great; his soul lofty. In war, and in grave struggles it was his
wont to be first. Against impiety he delivered himself courageously
with no fear of the tyrant’s power, but with a zeal that ranked
him among the martyrs of Christ. So the generals accepted the unanimous
vote of the soldiers as a divine election. The brave man was led
forward and placed upon a raised platform hastily constructed. The host
saluted him with the imperial titles, calling him Augustus and
Cæsar. With his usual bluntness, and fearless alike in the
presence of the commanding officers and in view of the recent apostasy
of the troops, Jovianus admirably said “I am a Christian. I
cannot govern men like these. I cannot command Julian’s army
trained as it is in vicious discipline. Men like these, stripped of the
covering of the providence of God, will fall an easy and ridiculous
prey to the foe.” On hearing this the troops shouted with one
voice, “Hesitate not, O emperor; think it not a vile thing to
command us. You shall reign over Christians nurtured in the training of
truth; our veterans were taught in the school of Constantine himself;
younger men among us were taught by Constantius. This dead man’s
empire lasted but a few years, all too few to stamp its brand even on
those whom it deceived.”666
| 666 Jovianus, son of Count Varronianus of Singidunum (Belgrade), was
born in 330 or 331 and reigned from June 363 to February 364. His hasty
acceptance by a part of the army may have been due to the mistake of
the sound of “Jovianus Augustus” for that of
“Julianus Augustus” and a belief that Julian survived.
“Gentilitate enim prope perciti nominis, quod una littera
discernebat, Julianum recreatum arbitrati sunt deduci magnis favoribus,
ut solebat.” Amm. xxv. v. 6.
“Jovian was a
brilliant colonel of the guards. In all the army there was not a
goodlier person than he. Julian’s purple was too small for his
gigantic limbs. But that stately form was animated by a spirit of
cowardly selfishness. Jovian was also a decided Christian,” but
“even the heathen soldiers condemned his low amours and vulgar
tippling.” Gwatkin, “Arian Controversy,”
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