Part 33 (1/2)

4. And when they had gone, an order was given to all the captains of s.h.i.+ps which go to and fro, that none of them should venture to take an Egyptian for a pa.s.senger. And as this command was carefully observed, their obstinacy in bringing false accusations came to an end, and they all, being disappointed in their object, returned home.

5. After which, as if at the dictation of justice herself, a law was published forbidding any one to exact from any officer the rest.i.tution of things which that officer had legally received.

VII.

A.D. 362.

-- 1. At the beginning of the new year, when the consular records had received the names of Mamertinus and Nevitta, the prince humbled himself by walking in their train with other men of high rank; an act which some praised, while others blame it as full of affectation, and mean.

2. Afterwards, when Mamertinus was celebrating the Circensian games, Julian, following an ancient fas.h.i.+on, manumitted some slaves, who were introduced by the consul's officer; but afterwards, being informed that on that day the supreme jurisdiction belonged to another, he fined himself ten pounds of gold as an offender.

3. At the same time he was a continual attendant in the court of justice, settling many actions which were brought in all kinds of cases.

One day while he was sitting as judge, the arrival of a certain philosopher from Asia named Maximus, was announced, on which he leapt down from the judgment seat in an unseemly manner, and forgetting himself so far as to run at full speed from the hall, he kissed him, and received him with great reverence, and led him into the palace, appearing by this unseasonable ostentation a seeker of empty glory, and forgetful of those admirable words of Cicero, which describe people like him.

4. ”Those very philosophers inscribe their names on the identical books which they write about the contempt of glory, in order that they may be named and extolled in that very thing in which they proclaim their contempt for mention and for praise.”[122]

5. Not long afterwards, two of the secretaries who had been banished came to him, boldly promising to point out the hiding-place of Florentius if he would restore them to their rank in the army; but he abused them, and called them informers; adding that it did not become an emperor to be led by underhand information to bring back a man who had concealed himself out of fear of death, and who perhaps would not long be left in his retreat unpardoned.

6. On all these occasions Praetextatus was present, a senator of a n.o.ble disposition and of old-fas.h.i.+oned dignity; who at that time had come to Constantinople on his own private affairs, and whom Julian by his own choice selected as governor of Achaia with the rank of proconsul.

7. Still, while thus diligent in correcting civil evils, Julian did not omit the affairs of the army: continually appointing over the soldiers officers of long-tried worth; repairing the exterior defences of all the cities throughout Thrace, and taking great care that the soldiers on the banks of the Danube, who were exposed to the attacks of the barbarians, and who, as he heard were doing their duty with vigilance and courage, should never be in want of arms, clothes, pay, or provisions.

8. And while superintending these matters he allowed nothing to be done carelessly: and when those about him advised him to attack the Gauls as neighbours who were always deceitful and perfidious, he said he wished for more formidable foes; for that the Gallic merchants were enough for them, who sold them at all times without any distinction of rank.

9. While he gave his attention to these and similar matters, his fame was spreading among foreign nations for courage, temperance, skill in war, and eminent endowments of every kind of virtue, so that he gradually became renowned throughout the whole world.

10. And as the fear of his approach pervaded both neighbouring and distant countries, emba.s.sies hastened to him with unusual speed from all quarters at one time; the people beyond the Tigris and the Armenians sued for peace. At another the Indian tribes vied with each other, sending n.o.bles loaded with gifts even from the Maldive Islands and Ceylon; from the south the Moors offered themselves as subjects of the Roman empire; from the north, and also from those hot climates through which the Phasis pa.s.ses on its way to the sea, and from the people of the Bosphorus, and from other unknown tribes came amba.s.sadors entreating that on the payment of annual duties they might be allowed to live in peace within their native countries.

VIII.

-- 1. The time is now appropriate, in my opinion, since in treating of this mighty prince we are come to speak of these districts, to explain perspicuously what we have learnt by our own eyesight or by reading, about the frontiers of Thrace and the situation of the Black Sea.

2. The lofty mountains of Athos in Macedonia, once made pa.s.sable for s.h.i.+ps by the Persians, and the Euboean rocky promontory of Caphareus, where Nauplius the father of Palamedes wrecked the Grecian fleet, though far distant from one another, separate the aegean from the Thessalian Sea, which, extending as it proceeds, on the right, where it is widest, is full of the Sporades and Cyclades islands, which latter are so called because they lie round Delos, an island celebrated as the birthplace of the G.o.ds; on the left it washes Imbros, Tenedos, Lemnos, and Thasos; and when agitated by any gale it beats violently on Lesbos.

3. From thence, with a receding current, it flows past the temple of Apollo Sminthius, and Troas, and Troy, renowned for the adventures of heroes; and on the west it forms the Gulf of Melas, near the head of which is seen Abdera, the abode of Protagoras and Democritus; and the blood-stained seat of the Thracian Diomede; and the valleys through which the Maritza flows on its way to its waves; and Maronea, and aenus, founded under sad auspices and soon deserted by aeneas, when under the guidance of the G.o.ds he hastened onwards to ancient Italy.

4. After this it narrows gradually, and, as if by a kind of natural wish to mingle with its waters, it rushes towards the Black Sea; and taking a portion of it forms a figure like the Greek f. Then separating the h.e.l.lespont from Mount Rhodope, it pa.s.ses by Cynossema,[123] where Hecuba is supposed to be buried, and Caela, and Sestos, and Callipolis, and pa.s.sing by the tombs of Ajax and Achilles, it touches Darda.n.u.s and Abydos (where Xerxes, throwing a bridge across, pa.s.sed over the waters on foot), and Lampsacus, given to Themistocles by the king of Persia; and Parion, founded by Parius the son of Jason.

5. Then curving round in a semicircle and separating the opposite lands more widely in the round gulf of the sea of Marmora, it washes on the east Cyzicus, and Dindyma, the holy seat of the mighty mother Cybele, and Apamia, and Cius, and Astacus afterwards called Nicomedia from the King Nicomedes.

6. On the west it beats against the Chersonese, aegospotami where Anaxagoras predicted that stones would fall from heaven, and Lysimachia, and the city which Hercules founded and consecrated to the memory of his comrade Perinthus. And in order to preserve the full and complete figure of the letter f, in the very centre of the circular gulf lies the oblong island of Proconnesus, and also Besbicus.

7. Beyond the upper end of this island the sea again becomes very narrow where it separates Bithynia from Europe, pa.s.sing by Chalcedon and Chrysopolis, and some other places of no importance.

8. Its left sh.o.r.e is looked down upon by Port Athyras and Selymbria, and Constantinople, formerly called Byzantium, a colony of the Athenians, and Cape Ceras, having at its extremity a lofty tower to serve as a lighthouse to s.h.i.+ps--from which cape also a very cold wind which often arises from that point is called Ceratas.

9. The sea thus broken, and terminated by mingling with the seas at each end, and now becoming very calm, spreads out into wider waters, as far as the eye can reach both in length and breadth. Its entire circuit, if one should measure it as one would measure an island, sailing along its sh.o.r.es, is 23,000 furlongs according to Eratosthenes, Hecataeus, and Ptolemy, and other accurate investigators of subjects of this kind, resembling, by the consent of all geographers, a Scythian bow, held at both ends by its string.

10. When the sun rises from the eastern ocean, it is shut in by the marshes of the Sea of Azov. On the west it is bounded by the Roman provinces. On the north lie many tribes differing in language and manners; its southern side describes a gentle curve.