Res Gestae

But hastening from there to visit Antioch, fair crown of the Orient, he reached it by the usual roads; and as he neared the city, he was received with public prayers, as if he were some deity, and he wondered at the cries of the great throng, who shouted that a lucky star had risen over the East.

Now, it chanced that at that same time the annual cycle was completed and they were celebrating, in the ancient fashion, the festival of Adonis (beloved by Venus, as the poet’s tales say), who was slain by the death-dealing tusk of a boar-a festival which is symbolic of the reaping of the ripe fruits of the field.[*](Cf. xix. 1, 11, and Cumont, Syria, pp. 45-49.) And it seemed a gloomy omen, as the emperor now for the first time entered the great city, the residence of princes, that on all sides melancholy wailing was heard and cries of grief.

It was here that he gave a proof of his patience and mildness, slight, it is true, but surprising. He hated a certain Thalassius,[*](Not the same as the one mentioned in xiv. 1, 10.) a former assistant master of petitions, who had plotted against his brother Gallus. When this man had been prohibited from greeting the emperor and attending at court among the other dignitaries,[*](Cf. xxi. 6, 2.) some enemies of his, with whom he had a suit in the forum, gathered together next day a huge throng of his remaining

But, although Julian believed that this was an opportunity to ruin the man, he replied: I know that the person to whom you refer has given me just cause for offence, but it is proper for you to keep silence until he gives satisfaction to me, his opponent of higher rank. And he ordered the prefect who was sitting in judgement not to listen to their charge until he himself was reconciled with Thalassius, which shortly happened.

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.