Res Gestae

Passing the winter there to his heart’s content, he was meanwhile carried away by no incitements of the pleasures in which all Syria abounds; but as if for recreation devoting his attention to cases at law, not less than to difficult and warlike affairs, he was distracted by many cares, as with remarkable willingness to receive information he deliberated how he might give each man his due by righteous decisions, bringing the guilty to order with moderate punishments and protecting the innocent with the safety of their property.

And, although in arguing cases he was sometimes untimely, asking at some inopportune moment what the religion of each of the litigants was, yet it cannot be found that in the decision of any suit he was inconsistent with equity, nor could he ever be accused because of a man’s religious views, or for any other cause, of having deviated from the straight path of justice.

For that is desirable

And when the defenders of causes greeted him with the greatest applause, declaring that he understood perfect justice, he is said to have replied with emotion: I should certainly rejoice and show my joy, if I were praised by those whom I knew to have also the power to blame me in case I was wrong in deed or word.

But it will suffice, in place of many examples of the clemency that he showed in judicial processes, to set down this one, which is neither out of place nor ill-chosen. When a certain woman had been brought before the court, and contrary to her expectation saw that her accuser, who was one of the court servants that had been discharged, wore his girdle,[*](The sign either of military rank or of a position at court; the right to wear it was lost with the office.) she loudly complained at this act of insolence. Whereupon the emperor said: Go on with your charge, woman, if you think that you have been wronged in any way; for this man has thus girt himself in order to go through the mire the more easily[*](This seems to be a sarcastic reference to the muck-rakingthat would characterize the trial.) ; it can do little harm to your cause.

And these and similar instances led to the belief, as he himself constantly affirmed, that the old goddess of Justice,[*](Astraea, who left the earth in the iron age; cf. Ovid, Metam. i. 150 f., Victa iacet pietas et virgo caede madentes Ultima caelestum terras Astraea reliquit. ) whom Aratus takes up to heaven[*](That is, was represented by Aratus, a Greek poet of Soli in Cilicia (circ. 276 B.C.), as leaving the earth; of. Aratus, 130, καὶ τότε μισήσασα δίκη κείνων γένος ἀνδρῶν ἔπταθ᾽ ὑπουρανίη: Cic., Arat. Phaen. 137 ff. (lines 1, 3 and 4 in the supplement of Grotius): Tune, mortale exosa genus, dea in alta volavitEt Iovis in regno caelique in parte resedit,Illustrem sortita locum, qua nocte serenaVirgo conspicuo fulget vicina Boötae. ) because she was displeased with the vices of mankind, had returned to earth during his reign, were it not that sometimes Julian followed his own inclination rather than the demands of the laws, and by occasionally erring clouded the many glories of his career.

For after many other things, he also corrected some of the laws, removing ambiguities, so that they showed clearly what they demanded or forbade to be done. But this one thing was inhumane, and ought to be buried in eternal silence, namely, that he forbade teachers of rhetoric and literature to practise their profession, if they were followers of the Christian religion.

At about that same time, that notorious state- secretary Gaudentius, who (as I said before)[*](See xxi. 7, 2.) had been sent to Africa by Constantius to oppose Julian there, and also Julianus, a former vice-governor, an intemperate partisan of the same faction, were brought back in chains and punished with death.

Then, too, Artemius, sometime military commander in Egypt,[*](xvii. 11, 5.) since the Alexandrians heaped upon him a mass of atrocious charges, suffered capital

Hardly had a brief time elapsed, when the Alexandrians, on learning of the death of Artemius, whom they dreaded, for fear that he would return with his power restored (for so he had threatened) and do harm to many for the wrong that he had suffered, turned their wrath against the bishop Georgius, who had often, so to speak, made them feel his poisonous fangs.

The story goes that he was born in a fullery at Epiphania, a town of Cilicia,[*](According to Athanasius he was a Cappadocian.) and flourished to the ruin of many people. Then, contrary to his own advantage and that of the commonwealth, he was ordained bishop of Alexandria, a city which on its own impulse, and without ground, is frequently roused to rebellion and rioting,[*](See, for example, Curtius, iv. 1, 30; Aegyptii, vana gens, et novandis quam gerendis aptior rebus; Trebellius, Thirty Tyrants, 22, 1.) as the oracles themselves show.[*](Nothing is known of these oracles.)

To the frenzied minds of these people Georgius himself was also a powerful incentive by pouring, after his appointment, into the ready ears of Constantius charges against many, alleging that they were rebellious against his authority; and, forgetful of his calling, which counselled only justice and mildness, he descended to the informer’s deadly practices.

And, among other matters, it was said that he maliciously

To these evil deeds he had added still another, which soon after drove him headlong to destruction. As he was returning from the emperor’s court and passed by the beautiful temple of the Genius,[*](I.e. of the city.) attended as usual by a large crowd, he turned his eyes straight at the temple, and said: How long shall this sepulchre stand? On hearing this, many were struck as if by a thunderbolt, and fearing that he might try to overthrow even that building, they devised secret plots to destroy him in whatever way they could.

And lo! on the sudden arrival of the glad news that told of the death of Artemius, all the populace, transported by this unlooked-for joy, grinding their teeth and uttering fearful outcries, made for Georgius and seized him, maltreating him in divers ways and trampling upon him; then they dragged him about spread-eagle fashion,[*](Cf. xiv. 7, 15, of Montius.) and killed him.

And with him Dracontius, superintendent of the mint, and one Diodorus, who had the honorary rank of count,[*](veluti seems to indicate that he had the title, but not the office.) were dragged about with ropes fastened to their legs and both killed; the former, because he overthrew an altar,[*](To Juno Moneta.) newly set up in the mint, of which he had charge; the other, because, while overseer of the building of a church, he arbitrarily cut off the curls of some boys, thinking that this also was a fashion belonging to the pagan worship.

Not content with this, the inhuman mob loaded the mutilated bodies of the slain men upon camels