or THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

perity." A mind like that of Julian must havefelt the general happiness of which he was theauthor; but he viewed, with peculiar satisfac-tion and complacency, the city of Paris ; theseat of his winter residence, and the object evenof his partial affection . 11 That splendid capital,which now embraces an ample territory oneither side of the Seine , was originally confinedto the small island in the midst of the river,from whence the inhabitants derived a supplyof pure and salubrious water. The river bath-ed the foot of the walls ; and the town was ac-cessible only by two wooden bridges. A forestoverspread the northern side of the Seine ; buton the south, the ground, which now bears thename of the university, was insensibly coveredwith houses, and adorned with a palace andamphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a fieldof Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops.The severity of the climate was tempered bythe neighbourhood of the ocean; and with someprecautions, which experience had taught, thevine and fig-tree were successfully cultivated.But, in remarkable winters, the Seine was deep-ly frozen; and the huge pieces of ice that float-ed down the stream, might be compared, by anAsiatic, to the blocks of white marble which

u Libanius , Orat. Parental, in Imp. Julian, c. 38, in Fabricius Bi-bliotliec. Grtec. tom. vii, p. 263,201.

« See Julian, in Misopogon. p. 310, 341. The primitive state of Pa-ris is illustrated by Henry Valesius (ad Ammian . xx, 4), his brotherHadrian Valesius, or de Valois, and M. d'Anville (in their respectiveNotitias of ancient Gaul ), the Abb6 dc Longuernc Description de laFrance tom- i, p. 12, 13, and M. Bonainy (in the Mem. de PAcademwdcs Inscriptions, tom. xv, p. GSG-GOP

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XIX.