174

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

V.

Takes pos-session ofthe palace.

The publicdiscontent.

branches of the imperial power.” From the se-nate Julian was conducted, by the same militaryprocession, to take possession of the palace.The first objects that struck his eyes, were theabandoned trunk of Pertinax , and the frugalentertainment prepared for his supper. Theone he viewed with indifference; the other withcontempt. A magnificent feast was preparedby his order, and he amused himself till a verylate hour, with dice, and the performances ofPylades, a celebrated dancer. Yet it was ob-served, that after the crowd of flatterers dis-persed, and left him to darkness, solitude, andterrible reflection, he passed a sleepless night;revolving most probably in his mind his ownrash folly, the fate of his virtuous predecessorand the doubtful and dangerous tenure of anempire, which had not been acquired by merit,but purchased by money.”

He had reason to tremble. On the throne ofthe world he found himself without a friend, andeven without an adherent. The guards them-selves were ashamed of the prince whom theiravarice had persuaded them to accept; nor wasthere a citizen who did not consider his elevationwith horror, as the last insult on the Romanname. The nobility, whose conspicuous stationand ample possessions exacted the strictest cau-tion, dissembled their sentiments, and met the

“ Hist. August, p. 61. We learn from thence one curious circum-stance, that the new emperor, whatever had been Iris birth, was imme-diately aggregated to the number of patrician families.

° Dion, 1. lxxiii, p. 1235. Hist. August, p. 61. I have endeavouredto blend into one consistent story the seeming contradictions of the twowriters.