Res Gestae

First, then (and a hard thing to accomplish) he imposed moderation on himself, and kept to it, as if he were living bound by the sumptuary laws which were brought to Rome from the Edicts,[*](The rhetrae (ῥῆτραι) were oracular utterances which Lycurgus professed to have received directly from Apollo at Delphi; later the word was used generally for the laws of Lycurgus.) that is, the wooden tablets,[*](The laws of Solon were called ἄξονες because they could be revolved on pivots. Many ancient writers state that the tablets were originally of wood, and they retained this name after they were republished on marble slabs. R. Scholl was probably right in assuming a lacuna after Lycurgi, and Ammianus may have included a reference to Solon’s ἄξονες for ῥῆτραι and ἄξονες were used through. out antiquity of the two lawgivers’ works distinctively. For their history see J. H. Oliver, Hesperia, iv. (1935), pp. 9 ff.) of Lycurgus; and when they had long been observed, but were going out of use, the dictator Sulla gradually renewed them,[*](See Gellius, ii. 24, 11; i. 204 f. L.C.L., for details of this and other sumptuary laws.) taking account of one of the sayings of Democritus, that a pretentious table is set by Fortune, a frugal one by Virtue.

Furthermore, Cato of Tusculum, whose austere manner of living conferred upon him the surname Censorius, wisely defined that point, saying: Great care about food implies great neglect of virtue.[*](P. 110, 22, Jordan.)

Lastly, though he constantly read the booklet which Constantius, as it sending a stepson to the university, had written with his own hand, making lavish provision for what should be spent on Caesar’s table, he forbade the

So it came about that he divided his nights according to a threefold schedule—rest, affairs of state, and the Muses, a course which Alexander the Great, as we read, used to practise; but Julian was far more self-reliant. For Alexander used to set a bronze basin beside his couch and with outstretched arm hold a silver ball over it, so that when the coming of sleep relaxed the tension of his muscles, the clanging of the ball as it fell might break off his nap.

But Julian could wake up as often as he wished, without any artificial means. And when the night was half over, he always got up, not from a downy couch or silken coverlets glittering with varied hues, but from a rough blanket and rug, which the simple common folk call susurna.[*](A coarse blanket made from the fur or hide of an animal.) Then he secretly prayed to Mercury, whom the teaching of the theologians stated to be the swift intelligence of the universe, arousing the activity of men’s minds; and in spite of such great lack of material things he paid diligent heed to all his public duties.