h XIX. favourite. By his artful suggestions, the em- CHAP. peror was persuaded to subscribe the condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime to the long list of unnatural murders which pollute the honour of the house of Constantine. of Gallus When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus Education and Julian, were saved from the fury of the sol- and Julian. diers, the former was about twelve, and the latter about six, years of age; and, as the eldest was thought to be of a sickly constitution, they obtained with the less difficulty a precarious and dependent life, from the affected pity of Constantius, who was sensible that the execution of these helpless orphans would have been esteemed, by all mankind, an act of the most deliberate cruelty.' Different cities of Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for the places of their exile and education; but, as soon as their growing years excited the jealousy of the emperor, he judged it more prudent to secure those unhappy youths in the strong castle of Macellum, near Cæsarea. The treatment which they experienced during a six years confinement, was partly such as they could hope from a careful guardian, and partly such as they might dread from a suspicious ty Apud quem (si verè dici debeat) multum Constantius potuit. Ammien. 1. xviii, c. 4. 1 Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iii, p. 90) reproaches the apostate with his ingratitude towards Mark, bishop of Arethusa, who had contri buted to save his life; and we learn, though from a less respectable authority (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv, p. 916), that Julian was concealed in the sanctuary of a church. XIX. m CHAP. rant. Their prison was an ancient palace, the residence of the kings of Cappadocia ; the situation was pleasant, the building stately, the inclosure spacious. They pursued their studies, and practised their exercises, under the tuition of the most skilful masters; and the numerous household appointed to attend, or rather to guard, the nephews of Constantine, was not unworthy of the dignity of their birth. But they could not disguise to themselves that they were deprived of fortune, of freedom, and of safety; secluded from the society of all whom they could trust or esteem, and condemned to pass their melancholy hours in the company of slaves, devoted to the commands of a tyrant, who had already injured them beyond the hope of reconciliation. At length, however, the emergencies of the state compelled the emperor, or rather his eunuchs, to Gallus de invest Gallus, in the twenty-fifth year of his with the title of Cæsar, and to cement this poliA. D. 351, tical connection by his marriage with the princess Constantina. After a formal interview, in which the two princes mutually engaged their faith never to undertake any thing to the prejudice of each other, they repaired without delay to their respective stations. Constantius continued his march towards the west, and Gallus fixed his re clared Cæ sar, March 5. age, m The most authentic account of the education and adventures of Julian, is contained in the epistle or manifeste which he himself addressed to the senate and people of Athens. Libanius (Orat. Parentalis), on the side of the Pagans, and Socrates (l. iii, c. 1), on that of the Christians, have preserved several interesting circumstances. XIX. sidence at Antioch, from whence, with a dele. CHA P. gated authority, he administered the five great dioceses of the eastern præfecture. In this fortunate change, the new Cæsar was not unmind-ful of his brother Julian, who obtained the honours of his rank, the appearances of liberty, and the restitution of an ample patrimony." and im The writers the most indulgent to the memory Cruelty of Gallus, and even Julian himself, though he prudence wished to cast a veil over the frailties of his bro- of Gallus. ther, are obliged to confess that the Cesar was incapable of reigning. Transported from a prison to a throne, he possessed neither genius nor application, nor docility to compensate for the want of knowledge and experience. A temper naturallymorose and violent, instead of being corrected, was soured by solitude and adversity; the remembrance of what he had endured, disposed him to retaliation rather than to sympathy; and the ungoverned sallies of his rage were often fatal to those who approached his person, or were subject to his power. Constantina, his wife, is For the promotion of Gallus, see Idatius, Zosimus, and the two Victors. According to Philostorgius (1. iv, c. 1), Theophilus,' an Arian bishop, was the witness, and, as it were, the guarantee, of this solemn engagement. He supported that character with gene rous firmness; but M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv, p. 1120) thinks it very improbable that an heretic should have possessed such virtue. • Julian was at first permitted to pursue his studies at Constantinople, but the reputation which he acquired soon excited the jea-" lousy of Constantius; and the young prince was advised to withdraw himself to the less conspicuous scenes of Bythynia and Ionia. P See Julian ad S.P.Q.A. p. 271. Jerom. in Chron. Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, x, 14. I shall copy the words of Eutropius, who wrote XIX. CHA P. described, not as a woman, but as one of the infernal furies, tormented with an insatiate thirst of human blood. Instead of employing her influence to insinuate the mild counsels of prudence and humanity, she exasperated the fierce passions of her husband; and as she retained the vanity, though she had renounced the gentleness of her sex, a pearl necklace was esteemed an equivalent price for the murder of an innocent and virtuous nobleman." The cruelty of Gallus was sometimes displayed in the undissembled violence of popular or military executions: and was sometimes disguised by the abuse of law, and the forms of judicial proceedings. The private houses of Antioch, and the places of public resort, were besieged by spies and informers; and the Cæsar himself, concealed in a plebeian habit, very frequently condescended to assume that odious character. Every apartment of the palace was adorned with the instruments of death and torture, and a general consternation was diffused through the capital of Syria. The prince of the East, as if he wrote his abridgement about fifteen years after the death of Gallus, when there was no longer any motive either to flatter or to depreciate his character. "Multis incivilibus gestis Gallus Cæsar vir "naturâ ferox et ad tyrannidem pronior, si suo jure imperare li"cuisset." 9 Megæra quidem mortalis, inflammatrix sævientis assidua, humani cruoris avida, &c. Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xiv, c. 1. The sincerity of Ammianus would not suffer him to misrepresent facts or characters, but his love of ambitious ornaments frequently betrayed him into an unnatural vehemence of expression. His name was Clematius of Alexandria, and his only crime was a refusal to gratify the desires of his mother-in-law; who solicited his death, because she had been disappointed of his love. Ammian. 1. xiv, c. I. of the im had been conscious how much he had to fear, CHA P. XIX. and how little he deserved to reign, selected for the objects of his resentment, the provincials accused of some imaginary treason, and his own courtiers, whom with more reason he suspected of incensing, by their secret correspondence, the timid and suspicious mind of Constantius. But he forgot that he was depriving himself of his only support, the affection of the people; whilst he furnished the malice of his enemies with the arms of truth, and afforded the emperor the fairest pretence of exacting the forfeit of his purple, and of his life.* As long as the civil war suspended the fate of Massacre the Roman world, Constantius dissembled his perial miknowledge of the weak and cruel administration to which his choice had subjected the East; and the discovery of some assassins, secretly dispatched to Antioch by the tyrant of Gaul, was employed to convince the public, that the emperor and the Cæsar were united by the same interest, and pursued by the same enemies. But when the victory was decided in favour of Constantius, his dependent colleague became less useful and less formidable. Every circumstance of his conduct was severely and suspiciously examined, and it was privately resolved, either to deprive Gallus of the • See in Ammianus (l. xiv, c. 1-7) a very ample detail of the cruelties of Gallus. His brother Julian (p. 272) insinuates, that a secret conspiracy had been formed against him; and Zosimus names (1. ii, p. 135) the persons engaged in it; a minister of considerable rank, and two obscure agents, who were resolved to make their fortune. * Zonaras, 1. xiii, tom. ii, p. 17, 18. The assassins had seduced a great number of legionaries; but their designs were discovered and revealed by an old woman in whose cottage they lodged. nisters, A. D. 354. |