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The conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted only to his
sword for this signal deliverance, was imbittered by the
reflection, that he was abandoned, betrayed, and perhaps devoted
to destruction, by those who were bound to assist him, by every
tie of honor and fidelity. Marcellus, master-general of the
cavalry in Gaul, interpreting too strictly the jealous orders of
the court, beheld with supine indifference the distress of
Julian, and had restrained the troops under his command from
marching to the relief of Sens. If the Caesar had dissembled in
silence so dangerous an insult, his person and authority would
have been exposed to the contempt of the world; and if an action
so criminal had been suffered to pass with impunity, the emperor
would have confirmed the suspicions, which received a very
specious color from his past conduct towards the princes of the
Flavian family. Marcellus was recalled, and gently dismissed
from his office. 71 In his room Severus was appointed general of
the cavalry; an experienced soldier, of approved courage and
fidelity, who could advise with respect, and execute with zeal;
and who submitted, without reluctance to the supreme command
which Julian, by the inrerest of his patroness Eusebia, at length
obtained over the armies of Gaul. 72
A very judicious plan of
operations was adopted for the approaching campaign. Julian
himself, at the head of the remains of the veteran bands, and of
some new levies which he had been permitted to form, boldly
penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments, and
carefully reestablished the fortifications of Saverne, in an
advantageous post, which would either check the incursions, or
intercept the retreat, of the enemy. At the same time, Barbatio,
general of the infantry, advanced from Milan with an army of
thirty thousand men, and passing the mountains, prepared to throw
a bridge over the Rhine, in the neighborhood of Basil. It was
reasonable to expect that the Alemanni, pressed on either side by
the Roman arms, would soon be forced to evacuate the provinces of
Gaul, and to hasten to the defence of their native country. But
the hopes of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, or the
envy, or the secret instructions, of Barbatio; who acted as if he
had been the enemy of the Caesar, and the secret ally of the
Barbarians.
The negligence with which he permitted a troop of
pillagers freely to pass, and to return almost before the gates
of his camp, may be imputed to his want of abilities; but the
treasonable act of burning a number of boats, and a superfluous
stock of provisions, which would have been of the most essential
service to the army of Gaul, was an evidence of his hostile and
criminal intentions. The Germans despised an enemy who appeared
destitute either of power or of inclination to offend them; and
the ignominious retreat of Barbatio deprived Julian of the
expected support; and left him to extricate himself from a
hazardous situation, where he could neither remain with safety,
nor retire with honor. 73
Footnote 71: Ammian. xvi. 7. Libanius speaks rather more
advantageously of the military talents of Marcellus, Orat. x. p.
272. And Julian insinuates, that he would not have been so
easily recalled, unless he had given other reasons of offence to
the court, p. 278.
Footnote 72: Severus, non discors, non arrogans, sed longa
militiae frugalitate compertus; et eum recta praeeuntem
secuturus, ut duetorem morigeran miles. Ammian xvi. 11.
Zosimus, l. iii. p. 140.
Footnote 73: On the design and failure of the cooperation
between Julian and Barbatio, see Ammianus (xvi. 11) and Libanius,
(Orat. x. p. 273.)
Note: Barbatio seems to have allowed himself to be surprised
and defeated - M.
As soon as they were delivered from the fears of invasion,
the Alemanni prepared to chastise the Roman youth, who presumed
to dispute the possession of that country, which they claimed as
their own by the right of conquest and of treaties. They
employed three days, and as many nights, in transporting over the
Rhine their military powers. The fierce Chnodomar, shaking the
ponderous javelin which he had victoriously wielded against the
brother of Magnentius, led the van of the Barbarians, and
moderated by his experience the martial ardor which his example
inspired. 74 He was followed by six other kings, by ten princes
of regal extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and
by thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the tribes of
Germany. The confidence derived from the view of their own
strength, was increased by the intelligence which they received
from a deserter, that the Caesar, with a feeble army of thirteen
thousand men, occupied a post about one-and-twenty miles from
their camp of Strasburgh.
With this inadequate force, Julian
resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarian host; and the
chance of a general action was preferred to the tedious and
uncertain operation of separately engaging the dispersed parties
of the Alemanni. The Romans marched in close order, and in two
columns; the cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left; and
the day was so far spent when they appeared in sight of the
enemy, that Julian was desirous of deferring the battle till the
next morning, and of allowing his troops to recruit their
exhausted strength by the necessary refreshments of sleep and
food. Yielding, however, with some reluctance, to the clamors of
the soldiers, and even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted
them to justify by their valor the eager impatience, which, in
case of a defeat, would be universally branded with the epithets
of rashness and presumption.
The trumpets sounded, the military
shout was heard through the field, and the two armies rushed with
equal fury to the charge. The Caesar, who conducted in person his
right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers, and the
weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were instantly broken
by an irregular mixture of light horse and of light infantry, and
he had the mortification of beholding the flight of six hundred
of his most renowned cuirassiers. 75 The fugitives were stopped
and rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who,
careless of his own safety, threw himself before them, and urging
every motive of shame and honor, led them back against the
victorious enemy. The conflict between the two lines of infantry
was obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority
of strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and
temper; and as the Barbarians, who served under the standard of
the empire, united the respective advantages of both parties,
their strenuous efforts, guided by a skilful leader, at length
determined the event of the day.
The Romans lost four tribunes,
and two hundred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable
battle of Strasburgh, so glorious to the Caesar, 76 and so
salutary to the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the
Alemanni were slain in the field, without including those who
were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed with darts while they
attempted to swim across the river. 77 Chnodomar himself was
surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his brave
companions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or death
the fate of their chieftain. Julian received him with military
pomp in the council of his officers; and expressing a generous
pity for the fallen state, dissembled his inward contempt for the
abject humiliation, of his captive. Instead of exhibiting the
vanquished king of the Alemanni, as a grateful spectacle to the
cities of Gaul, he respectfully laid at the feet of the emperor
this splendid trophy of his victory. Chnodomar experienced an
honorable treatment: but the impatient Barbarian could not long
survive his defeat, his confinement, and his exile. 78
Footnote 74: Ammianus (xvi. 12) describes with his inflated
eloquence the figure and character of Chnodomar. Audax et fidens
ingenti robore lacertorum, ubi ardor proelii sperabatur immanis,
equo spumante sublimior, erectus in jaculum formidandae
vastitatis, armorumque nitore conspicuus: antea strenuus et
miles, et utilis praeter caeteros ductor . . . Decentium Caesarem
superavit aequo marte congressus.
Footnote 75: After the battle, Julian ventured to revive the
rigor of ancient discipline, by exposing these fugitives in
female apparel to the derision of the whole camp. In the next
campaign, these troops nobly retrieved their honor. Zosimus, l.
iii. p. 142.
Footnote 76: Julian himself (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 279) speaks
of the battle of Strasburgh with the modesty of conscious merit;.
Zosimus compares it with the victory of Alexander over Darius;
and yet we are at a loss to discover any of those strokes of
military genius which fix the attention of ages on the conduct
and success of a single day.
Footnote 77: Ammianus, xvi. 12. Libanius adds 2000 more to the
number of the slain, (Orat. x. p. 274.) But these trifling
differences disappear before the 60,000 Barbarians, whom Zosimus
has sacrificed to the glory of his hero, (l. iii. p. 141.) We
might attribute this extravagant number to the carelessness of
transcribers, if this credulous or partial historian had not
swelled the army of 35,000 Alemanni to an innumerable multitude
of Barbarians,. It is our own fault if this detection does not
inspire us with proper distrust on similar occasions.
Footnote 78: Ammian. xvi. 12. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 276.
After Julian had repulsed the Alemanni from the provinces of
the Upper Rhine, he turned his arms against the Franks, who were
seated nearer to the ocean, on the confines of Gaul and Germany;
and who, from their numbers, and still more from their intrepid
valor, had ever been esteemed the most formidable of the
Barbarians. 79 Although they were strongly actuated by the
allurements of rapine, they professed a disinterested love of
war; which they considered as the supreme honor and felicity of
human nature; and their minds and bodies were so completely
hardened by perpetual action, that, according to the lively
expression of an orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant to
them as the flowers of spring.
In the month of December, which
followed the battle of Strasburgh, Julian attacked a body of six
hundred Franks, who had thrown themselves into two castles on the
Meuse. 80 In the midst of that severe season they sustained,
with inflexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days; till at
length, exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the vigilance of
the enemy, in breaking the ice of the river, left them no hopes
of escape, the Franks consented, for the first time, to dispense
with the ancient law which commanded them to conquer or to die.
The Caesar immediately sent his captives to the court of
Constantius, who, accepting them as a valuable present, 81
rejoiced in the opportunity of adding so many heroes to the
choicest troops of his domestic guards.
The obstinate resistance
of this handful of Franks apprised Julian of the difficulties of
the expedition which he meditated for the ensuing spring, against
the whole body of the nation. His rapid diligence surprised and
astonished the active Barbarians. Ordering his soldiers to
provide themselves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly
pitched his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him
in his winter quarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of
his convoys from Aquitaine. Without allowing the Franks to unite
or deliberate, he skilfully spread his legions from Cologne to
the ocean; and by the terror, as well as by the success, of his
arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes to implore the clemency,
and to obey the commands, of their conqueror. The Chamavians
submissively retired to their former habitations beyond the
Rhine; but the Salians were permitted to possess their new
establishment of Toxandria, as the subjects and auxiliaries of
the Roman empire. 82 The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths;
and perpetual inspectors were appointed to reside among the
Franks, with the authority of enforcing the strict observance of
the conditions.
An incident is related, interesting enough in
itself, and by no means repugnant to the character of Julian, who
ingeniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe of the
tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace, he required the son
of their king, as the only hostage on whom he could rely. A
mournful silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declared the
sad perplexity of the Barbarians; and their aged chief lamented
in pathetic language, that his private loss was now imbittered by
a sense of public calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate
at the foot of his throne, the royal captive, whom they believed
to have been slain, unexpectedly appeared before their eyes; and
as soon as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the
Caesar addressed the assembly in the following terms:
"Behold the
son, the prince, whom you wept. You had lost him by your fault.
God and the Romans have restored him to you. I shall still
preserve and educate the youth, rather as a monument of my own
virtue, than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume
to violate the faith which you have sworn, the arms of the
republic will avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the
guilty."
The Barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed
with the warmest sentiments of gratitude and admiration. 83
Footnote 79: Libanius (Orat. iii. p. 137) draws a very lively
picture of the manners of the Franks.
Footnote 80: Ammianus, xvii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278. The
Greek orator, by misapprehending a passage of Julian, has been
induced to represent the Franks as consisting of a thousand men;
and as his head was always full of the Peloponnesian war, he
compares them to the Lacedaemonians, who were besieged and taken
in the Island of Sphatoria.
Footnote 81: Julian. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 280. Libanius, Orat.
x. p. 278. According to the expression of Libanius, the emperor,
which La Bleterie understands (Vie de Julien, p. 118) as an
honest confession, and Valesius (ad Ammian. xvii. 2) as a mean
evasion, of the truth. Dom Bouquet, (Historiens de France, tom.
i. p. 733,) by substituting another word, would suppress both the
difficulty and the spirit of this passage.
Footnote 82: Ammian. xvii. 8. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 146-150, (his
narrative is darkened by a mixture of fable,) and Julian. ad S.
P. Q. Athen. p. 280. His expression. This difference of
treatment confirms the opinion that the Salian Franks were
permitted to retain the settlements in Toxandria.
Note: A newly discovered fragment of Eunapius, whom Zosimus
probably transcribed, illustrates this transaction. "Julian
commanded the Romans to abstain from all hostile measures against
the Salians, neither to waste or ravage their own country, for he
called every country their own which was surrendered without
resistance or toil on the part of the conquerors." Mai, Script.
Vez Nov. Collect. ii. 256, and Eunapius in Niebuhr, Byzant.
Hist.
Footnote 83: This interesting story, which Zosimus has abridged,
is related by Eunapius, (in Excerpt. Legationum, p. 15, 16, 17,)
with all the amplifications of Grecian rhetoric: but the silence
of Libanius, of Ammianus, and of Julian himself, renders the truth of it extremely suspicious.
It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the provinces
of Gaul from the Barbarians of Germany. He aspired to emulate
the glory of the first and most illustrious of the emperors;
after whose example, he composed his own commentaries of the
Gallic war. 84 Caesar has related, with conscious pride, the
manner in which he twice passed the Rhine. Julian could boast,
that before he assumed the title of Augustus, he had carried the
Roman eagles beyond that great river in three successful
expeditions. 85 The consternation of the Germans, after the
battle of Strasburgh, encouraged him to the first attempt; and
the reluctance of the troops soon yielded to the persuasive
eloquence of a leader, who shared the fatigues and dangers which
he imposed on the meanest of the soldiers. The villages on
either side of the Meyn, which were plentifully stored with corn
and cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army. The principal
houses, constructed with some imitation of Roman elegance, were
consumed by the flames; and the Caesar boldly advanced about ten
miles, till his progress was stopped by a dark and impenetrable
forest, undermined by subterraneous passages, which threatened
with secret snares and ambush every step of the assailants.
The
ground was already covered with snow; and Julian, after repairing
an ancient castle which had been erected by Trajan, granted a
truce of ten months to the submissive Barbarians. At the
expiration of the truce, Julian undertook a second expedition
beyond the Rhine, to humble the pride of Surmar and Hortaire, two
of the kings of the Alemanni, who had been present at the battle
of Strasburgh. They promised to restore all the Roman captives
who yet remained alive; and as the Caesar had procured an exact
account from the cities and villages of Gaul, of the inhabitants
whom they had lost, he detected every attempt to deceive him,
with a degree of readiness and accuracy, which almost established
the belief of his supernatural knowledge.
His third expedition
was still more splendid and important than the two former. The
Germans had collected their military powers, and moved along the
opposite banks of the river, with a design of destroying the
bridge, and of preventing the passage of the Romans. But this
judicious plan of defence was disconcerted by a skilful
diversion. Three hundred light-armed and active soldiers were
detached in forty small boats, to fall down the stream in
silence, and to land at some distance from the posts of the
enemy. They executed their orders with so much boldness and
celerity, that they had almost surprised the Barbarian chiefs,
who returned in the fearless confidence of intoxication from one
of their nocturnal festivals. Without repeating the uniform and
disgusting tale of slaughter and devastation, it is sufficient to
observe, that Julian dictated his own conditions of peace to six
of the haughtiest kings of the Alemanni , three of whom were
permitted to view the severe discipline and martial pomp of a
Roman camp. Followed by twenty thousand captives, whom he had
rescued from the chains of the Barbarians, the Caesar repassed
the Rhine, after terminating a war, the success of which has been
compared to the ancient glories of the Punic and Cimbric
victories.
Footnote 84: Libanius, the friend of Julian, clearly insinuates
(Orat. ix. p. 178) that his hero had composed the history of his
Gallic campaigns But Zosimus (l. iii. p, 140) seems to have
derived his information only from the Orations and the Epistles
of Julian. The discourse which is addressed to the Athenians
contains an accurate, though general, account of the war against
the Germans.
Footnote 85: See Ammian. xvii. 1, 10, xviii. 2, and Zosim. l.
iii. p. 144. Julian ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 280.
As soon as the valor and conduct of Julian had secured an
interval of peace, he applied himself to a work more congenial to
his humane and philosophic temper. The cities of Gaul, which had
suffered from the inroads of the Barbarians, he diligently
repaired; and seven important posts, between Mentz and the mouth
of the Rhine, are particularly mentioned, as having been rebuilt
and fortified by the order of Julian. 86 The vanquished Germans
had submitted to the just but humiliating condition of preparing
and conveying the necessary materials. The active zeal of Julian
urged the prosecution of the work; and such was the spirit which
he had diffused among the troops, that the auxiliaries
themselves, waiving their exemption from any duties of fatigue,
contended in the most servile labors with the diligence of the
Roman soldiers. It was incumbent on the Caesar to provide for the
subsistence, as well as for the safety, of the inhabitants and of
the garrisons. The desertion of the former, and the mutiny of
the latter, must have been the fatal and inevitable consequences
of famine. The tillage of the provinces of Gaul had been
interrupted by the calamities of war; but the scanty harvests of
the continent were supplied, by his paternal care, from the
plenty of the adjacent island.
Six hundred large barks, framed in
the forest of the Ardennes, made several voyages to the coast of
Britain; and returning from thence, laden with corn, sailed up
the Rhine, and distributed their cargoes to the several towns and
fortresses along the banks of the river. 87 The arms of Julian
had restored a free and secure navigation, which Constantinius
had offered to purchase at the expense of his dignity, and of a
tributary present of two thousand pounds of silver. The emperor
parsimoniously refused to his soldiers the sums which he granted
with a lavish and trembling hand to the Barbarians. The
dexterity, as well as the firmness, of Julian was put to a severe
trial, when he took the field with a discontented army, which had
already served two campaigns, without receiving any regular pay
or any extraordinary donative. 88
Footnote 86: Ammian. xviii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 279, 280.
Of these seven posts, four are at present towns of some
consequence; Bingen, Andernach, Bonn, and Nuyss. The other
three, Tricesimae, Quadriburgium, and Castra Herculis, or
Heraclea, no longer subsist; but there is room to believe, that
on the ground of Quadriburgium the Dutch have constructed the
fort of Schenk, a name so offensive to the fastidious delicacy of
Boileau. See D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 183.
Boileau, Epitre iv. and the notes.
Note: Tricesimae, Kellen, Mannert, quoted by Wagner.
Heraclea, Erkeleus in the district of Juliers. St. Martin, ii.
311. - M.
Footnote 87: We may credit Julian himself, (Orat. ad S. P. Q.
Atheniensem, p. 280,) who gives a very particular account of the
transaction. Zosimus adds two hundred vessels more, (l. iii. p.
145.) If we compute the 600 corn ships of Julian at only seventy
tons each, they were capable of exporting 120,000 quarters, (see
Arbuthnot's Weights and Measures, p. 237;) and the country which
could bear so large an exportation, must already have attained an
improved state of agriculture.
Footnote 88: The troops once broke out into a mutiny,
immediately before the second passage of the Rhine. Ammian.
xvii. 9.
A tender regard for the peace and happiness of his subjects
was the ruling principle which directed, or seemed to direct, the
administration of Julian. 89 He devoted the leisure of his
winter quarters to the offices of civil government; and affected
to assume, with more pleasure, the character of a magistrate than
that of a general. Before he took the field, he devolved on the
provincial governors most of the public and private causes which
had been referred to his tribunal; but, on his return, he
carefully revised their proceedings, mitigated the rigor of the
law, and pronounced a second judgment on the judges themselves.
Superior to the last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet
and intemperate zeal for justice, he restrained, with calmness
and dignity, the warmth of an advocate, who prosecuted, for
extortion, the president of the Narbonnese province. "Who will
ever be found guilty," exclaimed the vehement Delphidius, "if it
be enough to deny?" "And who," replied Julian, "will ever be
innocent, if it be sufficient to affirm?"
In the general
administration of peace and war, the interest of the sovereign is
commonly the same as that of his people; but Constantius would
have thought himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had
defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted from
an oppressed and exhausted country. The prince who was invested
with the ensigns of royalty, might sometimes presume to correct
the rapacious insolence of his inferior agents, to expose their
corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and easier mode of
collection. But the management of the finances was more safely
intrusted to Florentius, praetorian praefect of Gaul, an
effeminate tyrant, incapable of pity or remorse: and the haughty
minister complained of the most decent and gentle opposition,
while Julian himself was rather inclined to censure the weakness
of his own behavior. The Caesar had rejected, with abhorrence, a
mandate for the levy of an extraordinary tax; a new
superindiction, which the praefect had offered for his signature;
and the faithful picture of the public misery, by which he had
been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the court of
Constantius.
We may enjoy the pleasure of reading the sentiments
of Julian, as he expresses them with warmth and freedom in a
letter to one of his most intimate friends. After stating his
own conduct, he proceeds in the following terms: "Was it possible
for the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise than I
have done? Could I abandon the unhappy subjects intrusted to my
care? Was I not called upon to defend them from the repeated
injuries of these unfeeling robbers? A tribune who deserts his
post is punished with death, and deprived of the honors of
burial. With what justice could I pronounce his sentence, if, in
the hour of danger, I myself neglected a duty far more sacred and
far more important? God has placed me in this elevated post; his
providence will guard and support me. Should I be condemned to
suffer, I shall derive comfort from the testimony of a pure and
upright conscience. Would to Heaven that I still possessed a
counsellor like Sallust! If they think proper to send me a
successor, I shall submit without reluctance; and had much rather
improve the short opportunity of doing good, than enjoy a long
and lasting impunity of evil." 90 The precarious and dependent
situation of Julian displayed his virtues and concealed his
defects. The young hero who supported, in Gaul, the throne of
Constantius, was not permitted to reform the vices of the
government; but he had courage to alleviate or to pity the
distress of the people. Unless he had been able to revive the
martial spirit of the Romans, or to introduce the arts of
industry and refinement among their savage enemies, he could not
entertain any rational hopes of securing the public tranquillity,
either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yet the victories of
Julian suspended, for a short time, the inroads of the
Barbarians, and delayed the ruin of the Western Empire.
Footnote 89: Ammian. xvi. 5, xviii. 1. Mamertinus in Panegyr.
Vet. xi. 4
Footnote 90: Ammian. xvii. 3. Julian. Epistol. xv. edit.
Spanheim. Such a conduct almost justifies the encomium of
Mamertinus. Ita illi anni spatia divisa sunt, ut aut Barbaros
domitet, aut civibus jura restituat, perpetuum professus, aut
contra hostem, aut contra vitia, certamen.
His salutary influence restored the cities of Gaul, which
had been so long exposed to the evils of civil discord, Barbarian
war, and domestic tyranny; and the spirit of industry was revived
with the hopes of enjoyment. Agriculture, manufactures, and
commerce, again flourished under the protection of the laws; and
the curioe, or civil corporations, were again filled with useful
and respectable members: the youth were no longer apprehensive of
marriage; and married persons were no longer apprehensive of
posterity: the public and private festivals were celebrated with
customary pomp; and the frequent and secure intercourse of the
provinces displayed the image of national prosperity. 91 A mind
like that of Julian must have felt the general happiness of which
he was the author; but he viewed, with particular satisfaction
and complacency, the city of Paris; the seat of his winter
residence, and the object even of his partial affection. 92 That
splendid capital, which now embraces an ample territory on either
side of the Seine, was originally confined to the small island in
the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitants derived a
supply of pure and salubrious water. The river bathed the foot
of the walls; and the town was accessible only by two wooden
bridges. A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine, but
on the south, the ground, which now bears the name of the
University, was insensibly covered with houses, and adorned with
a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of
Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops. The severity of the
climate was tempered by the neighborhood of the ocean; and with
some precautions, which experience had taught, the vine and
fig-tree were successfully cultivated. But in remarkable winters,
the Seine was deeply frozen; and the huge pieces of ice that
floated down the stream, might be compared, by an Asiatic, to the
blocks of white marble which were extracted from the quarries of
Phrygia.
The licentiousness and corruption of Antioch recalled
to the memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his
beloved Lutetia; 93 where the amusements of the theatre were
unknown or despised. He indignantly contrasted the effeminate
Syrians with the brave and honest simplicity of the Gauls, and
almost forgave the intemperance, which was the only stain of the
Celtic character. 94 If Julian could now revisit the capital of
France, he might converse with men of science and genius, capable
of understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he
might excuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation, whose
martial spirit has never been enervated by the indulgence of
luxury; and he must applaud the perfection of that inestimable
art, which softens and refines and embellishes the intercourse of
social life.
Footnote 91: Libanius, Orat. Parental. in Imp. Julian. c. 38, in
Fabricius Bibliothec. Graec. tom. vii. p. 263, 264.
Footnote 92: See Julian. in Misopogon, p. 340, 341. The
primitive state of Paris is illustrated by Henry Valesius, (ad
Ammian. xx. 4,) his brother Hadrian Valesius, or de Valois, and
M. D'Anville, (in their respective Notitias of ancient Gaul,) the
Abbe de Longuerue, (Description de la France, tom. i. p. 12, 13,)
and M. Bonamy, (in the Mem. de l'Aca demie des Inscriptions, tom.
xv. p. 656-691.)
Footnote 93: Julian, in Misopogon, p. 340. Leuctra, or
Lutetia, was the ancient name of the city, which, according to
the fashion of the fourth century, assumed the territorial
appellation of Parisii.
Footnote 94: Julian in Misopogon, p. 359, 360.
End of Chapter XIX.
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To cite original text:
Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. (NY : Knopf, 1993), v. 2, pp. 235 - 247 .