104
THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP.XIX. t
in the school of Athens, a general prepossessionin favour of his virtues and talents, which wassoon diffused over the Roman world.'
Whilst his hours were passed in studious re-tirement, the empress, resolute to achieve thegenerous design w hich she had undertaken, wasnot unmindful of the care of his fortune. Thedeath of the late Caesar had left Constantius in-vested with the sole command, and oppressedby the accumulated weight of a mighty empire.Before the wounds of civil discord could behealed, the provinces of Gaul were overwhelm-ed by a deluge of barbarians. The Sarmatiansno longer respected the barrier of the Danube .The impunily of rapine had increased the bold-ness and numbers of the wild Isaurians : tliosrobbers descended from their craggy mountainsto ravage the adjacent country, and had evenpresumed, though without success, to besiegethe important city of Seleucia, which was de-fended by a garrison of three Roman legions.Above all, the Persian monarch, elated by vic-tory, again threatened the peace of Asia ; andthe presence of the emperor was indispensablyrequired, both in the West and in the East.For the first time, Constantius sincerely ac-knowledged, that his single strength was une-
e Libanius and Gregory Nazianzen have exhausted the arts as wellas the powers of their eloquence, to represent Julian as the first of he*roes, or the worst of tyrants. Gregory was his fellow-student atAthens; and the symptoms which he so tragically describes, of the fu-ture wickedness of the apostate, amount only to some bodily imperfec-tions, and to some peculiarities in his speech and manner. He pro-tests, however, that he then foresaw and foretold the calamities of thechurch and state (Greg. Nazianzen , Oral, iv, p. 121, 122).