OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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admitted into the imperial presence: he pleaded chaphis cause with a decent freedom; he w r as heardwith favour; and, notwithstanding the effortsof his enemies, who urged the danger of sparingan avenger of the blood of Gallus, the mildersentiment of Eusebia prevailed in the council.

But the effects of a second interview were dread-ed by the eunuchs; and Julian was advised towithdraw for a while into the neighbourhood ofMilan, till the emperor thought proper to as- He is sentjsign the city of Athens for the place of his ho-jg™*nourable exile. As he had discovered, from his Ma y-.earliest youth, a propensity, or rather passion,for the language, the manners, the learning, andthe religion of the Greeks, he obeyed with plea-sure an order so agreeable to his wishes. Farfrom the tumult of arms and the treachery ofcourts, he spent six months amidst the grovesof the academy, in a free intercourse with thephilosophers of the age, who studied to culti-vate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and toinflame the devotion of their royal pupil. Theirlabours were not unsuccessful; and Julian in-violably preserved for Athens that tender re-gard, which seldom fails to arise in a liberalmind, from the recollection of the place whereit has discovered and exercised its growingpowers. The gentleness and affability of man-ners, which his temper suggested, and his situa-tion imposed, insensibly engaged theaffections ofthe strangers, as well as citizens, with whom heconversed. Some of his fellow-students mightperhaps examine his behaviour with an eye ofprejudice and aversion; but Julian established,