182

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

XIX.

was a stranger. 1 * But in the school of adver-sity, Julian insensibly acquired the virtues offirmness and discretion. He defended his ho-nour, as well as his life, against the ensnaringsubtleties of the eunuchs, who endeavoured toextort some declaration of his sentiments ; andwhilst he cautiously suppressed his grief andresentment, he nobly disdained to flatter thetyrant, by any seeming approbation of his bro-ther’s murder. Julian most devoutly ascribeshis miraculous deliverance to the protection ofthe gods, who had exempted his innocence fromthe sentence of destruction pronounced by theirjustice against the impious house of Constan-tine.' As the most effectual instrument of theirprovidence, he gratefully acknowledges thesteady and generous friendship of the empressEusebia, * a woman of beauty and merit, who,by the ascendant which she had gained over themind of her husband, counterbalanced, in somemeasure, the powerful conspiracy of theeunuchs.By the intercession of his patroness, Julian was

b See Ammianns Marcellin. I. xr, e. 1, 3-8. Julian himself, in hisepistle to the Athenians , draws a very lively and just picture of hisown danger, and of his sentiments. He shews, however, a tendencyto exaggerate his sufferings, by insinuating, though in obscure terms,that they lasted above a year; a period which cannot be reconciledwith the truth of chronology.

c Julian has worked the crimes and misfortunes of the family ofConstantine into an allegorical fable, which is happily conceived, andagreeably related. It forms the conclusion of the seventh oration, fromwhence it has been detached and translated by the Abbt: de la Bleterie.Vie de Jovien, torn, ii, p 385-408. ‘‘

0 She was a native of Thessalonica in Macedonia , of a noble family,and the daughter as well as sister of consuls. Her marriage with theemperor may be placed in the year 352. In a divided age, the histo-rians of all parties agree in her praises. See their testimonies aollectedby Tillemont. Hist, des Empereurs, tom . iv, p. 750-754.