For the theologians maintain that there are associated with all men at their birth, but without interference with the established course of destiny, certain divinities of that sort, as directors of their conduct; but they have been seen by only a very few, whom their manifold merits have raised to eminence.

And this oracles and writers of distinction have shown; among the latter is also the comic poet Menander, in whom we read these two senarii: A daemon is assigned to every manAt birth, to be the leaderμυσταγωγός is the name applied to the priest who gave the initiated instruction in the mysteries. Later it was used of the guide who showed strangers the noteworthy objects in a place. The quotation is frag. 550 in Kock’s III. of his life.

Likewise from the immortal poems of HomerPerhaps , i. 503 ff. we are given to understand that it was not the gods of heaven that spoke with brave men, and stood by them or aided them as they fought, but that guardian spirits attended them; and through reliance upon their special support, it is said, that Pythagoras, Socrates, and Numa PompiliusReferring to the nymph Egeria; cf. Livy, i. 19, 5. became famous; also the earlier Scipio,Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal. and (as some believe) Marius and Octavianus, who first had the title of Augustus conferred upon him, and Hermes Trismegistus,A surname of the Egyptian Hermes. Here the refer- ence is apparently to a writer of the second century, who under that name tried to revive the old Egyptian, Pythagorean, and Platonic ideas. Apollonius of Tyana,The famous magician of the first century B.C., whose biography was written by Philostratus. and Plotinus,An eclectic philosopher of the third century, whose views entitled τερὶ τοῦ εἰληχότος ἡμᾶς δαίμονος have come down to us (Plot. , iii, 4). who ventured to discourse on this mystic theme, and to present a profound discussion of the question by what elements these spirits are linked with men’s souls, and taking them to their bosoms, as it were, protect them (as long as possible) and give them higher instruction, if they perceive that they are pure and kept from the pollution of sin through association with an immaculate body.

Constantius, therefore, having reached Antiochia by forced marches, intending (as was his custom) eagerly to encounter civil disturbances at their outset, and having made all his preparations, was in immoderate haste to set out, although many opposed it, but only by murmurs; for no one dared openly to dissuade or to forbid him.

When autumn was already waning he began his march, and on coming to a suburban estate called Hippocephalus, distant three miles from the city, he saw in broad daylight on the right side of the road the corpse of a man with head torn off, lying stretched out towards the west.The omen seems to consist, in part at least, in the position of the body, stretched out towards the setting Terrified by the omen, although the fates were preparing his end, he kept on with the greater determination and arrived at Tarsus. There he was taken with a slight fever, but in the expectation of being able to throw off the danger of his illness by the motion of the journey he kept on over difficult roads to Mobsucrenae, the last station of Cilicia as you go from here, situated at the foot of Mount Taurus; but when he tried to start again on the following day, he was detained by the increasing severity of the disease. Gradually the extreme heat of the fever so inflamed his veins that his body could not even be touched, since it burned like a furnace; and when the application of remedies proved useless, as he breathed his last he lamented his end. However, while his mind was still unimpaired he is said to have designated Julian as the successor to the throne.

Then the death-rattle began and he was silent, and after a long struggle with life now about to leave him, he died on the fifth of October, in the thirty-eighth year of his reign at the age of forty- four years and a few months.October 5, 361. He was forty-five years old and had reigned twenty-five years, since the death of his father; thirty-eight years includes his term of office as Caesar.

After this followed the last mournful call to the deceased,The conclamatio was a regular custom, for the purpose of seeing whether any life was left; cf. xxx. 10, 1. and grief and wailing broke out; then those who held the first rank in the royal court considered what they should do, or what they ought to attempt. And after a few had been sounded secretly as to the choice of an emperor, at the suggestion of Eusebius (as was reported), whom the consciousness of his guilt pricked, since Julian’s nearness made an attempt at revolution inadvisable, Theolaifus and Aligildus,Cf. xxii. 2, 1. at that time counts, were sent to him, to report the death of his kinsman, and beg him to lay aside all delay and come to take over the Orient, which was ready to obey him.

However, rumour and an uncertain report had it that Constantius had made a last will, in which (as I have said) he wrote down Julian as his heir and gave commissions and legacies to those who were dear to him.

Now he left his wife with child, and the posthumous daughter to whom she afterwards gave birth was called by his name, and when she grew up was united in marriage with Gratianus.Cf. xxix. 6, 7. Her name was Flavia Maxima Faustina.

Observing, therefore, a true distinction between his good qualities and his defects, it will be fitting to set forth his good points first.With this chapter, cf. xiv. 5, 1-4. He always maintained the dignity of imperial majesty, and his great and lofty spirit disdained the favour of the populace. He was exceedingly sparing in conferring the higher dignities, with few exceptions allowing no innovations in the way of additions to the administrative offices; and he never let the military lift their heads too high.With erigens cornua, cf. supercilia . . cornua, xx. 1, 2. The horn is a symbol of courage and confidence both in Latin and in Hebrew literature, e.g. Horace, , iii. 21, 18, addis cornua pauperi; Ovid, i. 239, pauper sumit cornua; Psalms, cxlviii. 14, He exalteth the horn of his people.

Under him no leader of an army was advanced to the rank of clarissimus. For they were (according to my personal recollection) all perfectissimi.See Introd., p. xxviii. clarissimi were members of the senatorial order who, as the sons of senators, inherited their rank; but the title included also those who were made senators by adlectio. The governor of a province never officially met a commanderOn his arrival in the province. of the cavalry, nor was the latter official allowed to take part in civil affairs. But all the military and civil officials always looked up to the praetorian prefects with the old-time respect, as the peak of all authority.

In the maintenance of the soldiers he was exceedingly careful; somewhat critical at times in evaluating services, he bestowed appointments at court by the plumb-line,The metaphorical use of this expression does not seem to be common; it occurs also in Ausonius, , v. 8, ad perpendiculum se suosque habuit. as it were. Under him no one who was to hold a high position was appointed to a post in the palace suddenly or untried, but a man who after ten years was to be marshal of the court, or head treasurer, or to fill any similar post, was thoroughly known. It very rarely happened that any military officer passed to a civil magistracy, and on the other hand, none were put in command of soldiers who had not grown hardy in the dust of battle.

He made great pretensions to learning,Cf. Eusebius, , iv. 51, Constantinus M. filios omnino probe erudiendos magistris tradiderat peritissimis. Wagner adds e quorum disciplina si quid haesisset, iactare quavis data occasione solebat Constantius; cf. Julian, i, pp. 28 ff. L.C.L. but after failing in rhetoric because of dullness of mind, he turned to making verses, but accomplished nothing worth while.

By a prudent and temperate manner of life and by moderation in eating and drinking he maintained such sound health that he rarely suffered from illnesses, but such as he had were of a dangerous character. For that abstinence from dissipation and luxury have this effect on the body is shown by repeated experience, as well as by the statements of physicians.

He was content with little sleep when time and circumstances so required. Throughout the entire span of his life he was so extraordinarily chaste, that not even a suspicion could be raised against him even by an ill-disposed attendant on his private life, a charge which malice, even if it fails to discover it, still trumps up, having regard to the unrestrained liberty of supreme power.

In riding, in hurling the javelin, and especially in the skilful use of the bow, and in all the exercises of the foot-soldiers, he was an adept. That no one ever saw him wipe his mouth or nose in public, or spit, or turn his face in either direction,Cf. xvi. 10, 10. or that so long as he lived he never tasted fruit, I leave unmentioned, since it has often been related.

Having given a succinct account of his merits, so far as I could know them, let us now come to an enumeration of his defects. While in administrative affairs he was comparable to other emperors of medium quality, if he found any indication, however slight or groundless, of an aspiration to the supreme power, by endless investigations, in which he made no distinction between right and wrong, he easily surpassed the savagery of Caligula, Domitian, and Commodus. For it was in rivalry of the cruelty of those emperors that at the beginning of his reign he destroyed root and branch all who were related to him by blood and race.

To add to the sufferings of the wretches who were reported to him for impairment of, or insult to, his majesty, his bitterness and angry suspicions were stretched to the uttermost in all such cases. If anything of the kind was bruited abroad, he gave himself up to inquisitions with more eagerness than humanity, and appointed for such trials merciless judges; and in the punishment of some he tried to make their death lingering, if nature allowed, in some particulars being even more ruthless than Gallienus in such inquisitions.

As a matter of fact, he was the object of many genuine plots of traitors, such as Aureolus, Postumus, Ingenuus, ValensIn Illyricum, Gaul, Pannonia and Achaia respectively. surnamed Thessalonicus, and several others, yet he often showed leniency in punishing crimes which would bring death to the victim; but he also tried to make false or doubtful cases appear well-founded by excessively violent tortures.

And in such affairs he showed deadly enmity to justice, although he made a special effort to be considered just and merciful. And as sparks flying from a dry forest even with a light breeze of wind come with irresistible course and bring danger to rural villages, so he also from trivial causes roused up a mass of evils, unlike that revered prince Marcus,Marcus Aurelius. who, when Cassius had mounted to imperial heights in Syria, and a packet of letters sent by him to his accomplices had fallen into the emperor’s hands through the capture of their bearer, at once ordered it to be burned unopened, in order that, being at the time still in Illyricum, he might not know who were plotting against him, and hence be forced to hate some men against his will.Cf. Dio, lxii. 26, 38.