Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part I

Constantius Sole Emperor.—Elevation And Death Of Gallus.— Danger
And Elevation Of Julian.—Sarmatian And Persian Wars.—Victories Of
Julian In Gaul.

The divided provinces of the empire were again united by the
victory of Constantius; but as that feeble prince was destitute
of personal merit, either in peace or war; as he feared his
generals, and distrusted his ministers; the triumph of his arms
served only to establish the reign of the _eunuchs_ over the
Roman world. Those unhappy beings, the ancient production of
Oriental jealousy and despotism, 1 were introduced into Greece
and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. 2 Their progress was
rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been
abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, 3 were
gradually admitted into the families of matrons, of senators, and
of the emperors themselves. 4 Restrained by the severe edicts of
Domitian and Nerva, cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced
to an humble station by the prudence of Constantine, 6 they
multiplied in the palaces of his degenerate sons, and insensibly
acquired the knowledge, and at length the direction, of the
secret councils of Constantius. The aversion and contempt which
mankind had so uniformly entertained for that imperfect species,
appears to have degraded their character, and to have rendered
them almost as incapable as they were supposed to be, of
conceiving any generous sentiment, or of performing any worthy
action. 7 But the eunuchs were skilled in the arts of flattery
and intrigue; and they alternately governed the mind of
Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and his vanity. 8 Whilst
he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance of public
prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the
complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense
treasures by the sale of justice and of honors; to disgrace the
most important dignities, by the promotion of those who had
purchased at their hands the powers of oppression, 9 and to
gratify their resentment against the few independent spirits, who
arrogantly refused to solicit the protection of slaves. Of these
slaves the most distinguished was the chamberlain Eusebius, who
ruled the monarch and the palace with such absolute sway, that
Constantius, according to the sarcasm of an impartial historian,
possessed some credit with this haughty favorite. 10 By his
artful suggestions, the emperor was persuaded to subscribe the
condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime to
the long list of unnatural murders which pollute the honor of the
house of Constantine.

1 (return) [ Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 6) imputes the first practice
of castration to the cruel ingenuity of Semiramis, who is
supposed to have reigned above nineteen hundred years before
Christ. The use of eunuchs is of high antiquity, both in Asia and
Egypt. They are mentioned in the law of Moses, Deuteron. xxxiii.
1. See Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c., Part i. l. i. c. 3.]

2 (return) [ Eunuchum dixti velle te; Quia solæ utuntur his
reginæ—Terent. Eunuch. act i. scene 2. This play is translated
from Meander, and the original must have appeared soon after the
eastern conquests of Alexander.]

3 (return) [ Miles.... spadonibus Servire rugosis potest. Horat.
Carm. v. 9, and Dacier ad loe. By the word _spado_, the Romans
very forcibly expressed their abhorrence of this mutilated
condition. The Greek appellation of eunuchs, which insensibly
prevailed, had a milder sound, and a more ambiguous sense.]

4 (return) [ We need only mention Posides, a freedman and eunuch
of Claudius, in whose favor the emperor prostituted some of the
most honorable rewards of military valor. See Sueton. in Claudio,
c. 28. Posides employed a great part of his wealth in building.

Ut _Spado_ vincebat Capitolia Nostra Posides. Juvenal. Sat. xiv.]

Castrari mares vetuit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 7. See Dion
Cassius, l. lxvii. p. 1107, l. lxviii. p. 1119.]

6 (return) [ There is a passage in the Augustan History, p. 137,
in which Lampridius, whilst he praises Alexander Severus and
Constantine for restraining the tyranny of the eunuchs, deplores
the mischiefs which they occasioned in other reigns. Huc accedit
quod eunuchos nec in consiliis nec in ministeriis habuit; qui
soli principes perdunt, dum eos more gentium aut regum Persarum
volunt vivere; qui a populo etiam amicissimum semovent; qui
internuntii sunt, aliud quam respondetur, referentes; claudentes
principem suum, et agentes ante omnia ne quid sciat.]

7 (return) [ Xenophon (Cyropædia, l. viii. p. 540) has stated the
specious reasons which engaged Cyrus to intrust his person to the
guard of eunuchs. He had observed in animals, that although the
practice of castration might tame their ungovernable fierceness,
it did not diminish their strength or spirit; and he persuaded
himself, that those who were separated from the rest of human
kind, would be more firmly attached to the person of their
benefactor. But a long experience has contradicted the judgment
of Cyrus. Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs
distinguished by their fidelity, their valor, and their
abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia,
India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has
uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty.]

8 (return) [ See Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xxi. c. 16, l. xxii. c.
4. The whole tenor of his impartial history serves to justify the
invectives of Mamertinus, of Libanius, and of Julian himself, who
have insulted the vices of the court of Constantius.]

9 (return) [ Aurelius Victor censures the negligence of his
sovereign in choosing the governors of the provinces, and the
generals of the army, and concludes his history with a very bold
observation, as it is much more dangerous under a feeble reign to
attack the ministers than the master himself. “Uti verum absolvam
brevi, ut Imperatore ipso clarius ita apparitorum plerisque magis
atrox nihil.”]

10 (return) [ Apud quem (si vere dici debeat) multum Constantius
potuit. Ammian. l. xviii. c. 4.]

When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and Julian, were
saved from the fury of the soldiers, the former was about twelve,
and the latter about six, years of age; and, as the eldest was
thought to be of a sickly constitution, they obtained with the
less difficulty a precarious and dependent life, from the
affected pity of Constantius, who was sensible that the execution
of these helpless orphans would have been esteemed, by all
mankind, an act of the most deliberate cruelty. 11 Different
cities of Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for the places of
their exile and education; but as soon as their growing years
excited the jealousy of the emperor, he judged it more prudent to
secure those unhappy youths in the strong castle of Macellum,
near Cæsarea. The treatment which they experienced during a six
years’ confinement, was partly such as they could hope from a
careful guardian, and partly such as they might dread from a
suspicious tyrant. 12 Their prison was an ancient palace, the
residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the situation was pleasant,
the buildings stately, the enclosure spacious. They pursued their
studies, and practised their exercises, under the tuition of the
most skilful masters; and the numerous household appointed to
attend, or rather to guard, the nephews of Constantine, was not
unworthy of the dignity of their birth. But they could not
disguise to themselves that they were deprived of fortune, of
freedom, and of safety; secluded from the society of all whom
they could trust or esteem, and condemned to pass their
melancholy hours in the company of slaves devoted to the commands
of a tyrant who had already injured them beyond the hope of
reconciliation. At length, however, the emergencies of the state
compelled the emperor, or rather his eunuchs, to invest Gallus,
in the twenty-fifth year of his age, with the title of Cæsar, and
to cement this political connection by his marriage with the
princess Constantina. After a formal interview, in which the two
princes mutually engaged their faith never to undertake any thing
to the prejudice of each other, they repaired without delay to
their respective stations. Constantius continued his march
towards the West, and Gallus fixed his residence at Antioch; from
whence, with a delegated authority, he administered the five
great dioceses of the eastern præfecture. 13 In this fortunate
change, the new Cæsar was not unmindful of his brother Julian,
who obtained the honors of his rank, the appearances of liberty,
and the restitution of an ample patrimony. 14

11 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 90) reproaches the
apostate with his ingratitude towards Mark, bishop of Arethusa,
who had contributed to save his life; and we learn, though from a
less respectable authority, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom.
iv. p. 916,) that Julian was concealed in the sanctuary of a
church. * Note: Gallus and Julian were not sons of the same
mother. Their father, Julius Constantius, had had Gallus by his
first wife, named Galla: Julian was the son of Basilina, whom he
had espoused in a second marriage. Tillemont. Hist. des Emp. Vie
de Constantin. art. 3.—G.]

12 (return) [ The most authentic account of the education and
adventures of Julian is contained in the epistle or manifesto
which he himself addressed to the senate and people of Athens.
Libanius, (Orat. Parentalis,) on the side of the Pagans, and
Socrates, (l. iii. c. 1,) on that of the Christians, have
preserved several interesting circumstances.]

13 (return) [ For the promotion of Gallus, see Idatius, Zosimus,
and the two Victors. According to Philostorgius, (l. iv. c. 1,)
Theophilus, an Arian bishop, was the witness, and, as it were,
the guarantee of this solemn engagement. He supported that
character with generous firmness; but M. de Tillemont (Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1120) thinks it very improbable that a
heretic should have possessed such virtue.]

14 (return) [ Julian was at first permitted to pursue his studies
at Constantinople, but the reputation which he acquired soon
excited the jealousy of Constantius; and the young prince was
advised to withdraw himself to the less conspicuous scenes of
Bithynia and Ionia.]

The writers the most indulgent to the memory of Gallus, and even
Julian himself, though he wished to cast a veil over the
frailties of his brother, are obliged to confess that the Cæsar
was incapable of reigning. Transported from a prison to a throne,
he possessed neither genius nor application, nor docility to
compensate for the want of knowledge and experience. A temper
naturally morose and violent, instead of being corrected, was
soured by solitude and adversity; the remembrance of what he had
endured disposed him to retaliation rather than to sympathy; and
the ungoverned sallies of his rage were often fatal to those who
approached his person, or were subject to his power. 15
Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as one
of the infernal furies tormented with an insatiate thirst of
human blood. 16 Instead of employing her influence to insinuate
the mild counsels of prudence and humanity, she exasperated the
fierce passions of her husband; and as she retained the vanity,
though she had renounced, the gentleness of her sex, a pearl
necklace was esteemed an equivalent price for the murder of an
innocent and virtuous nobleman. 17 The cruelty of Gallus was
sometimes displayed in the undissembled violence of popular or
military executions; and was sometimes disguised by the abuse of
law, and the forms of judicial proceedings. The private houses of
Antioch, and the places of public resort, were besieged by spies
and informers; and the Cæsar himself, concealed in a a plebeian
habit, very frequently condescended to assume that odious
character. Every apartment of the palace was adorned with the
instruments of death and torture, and a general consternation was
diffused through the capital of Syria. The prince of the East, as
if he had been conscious how much he had to fear, and how little
he deserved to reign, selected for the objects of his resentment
the provincials accused of some imaginary treason, and his own
courtiers, whom with more reason he suspected of incensing, by
their secret correspondence, the timid and suspicious mind of
Constantius. But he forgot that he was depriving himself of his
only support, the affection of the people; whilst he furnished
the malice of his enemies with the arms of truth, and afforded
the emperor the fairest pretence of exacting the forfeit of his
purple, and of his life. 18

15 (return) [ See Julian. ad S. P. Q. A. p. 271. Jerom. in Chron.
Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, x. 14. I shall copy the words of
Eutropius, who wrote his abridgment about fifteen years after the
death of Gallus, when there was no longer any motive either to
flatter or to depreciate his character. “Multis incivilibus
gestis Gallus Cæsar.... vir natura ferox et ad tyrannidem
pronior, si suo jure imperare licuisset.”]

16 (return) [ Megæra quidem mortalis, inflammatrix sævientis
assidua, humani cruoris avida, &c. Ammian. Marcellin. l. xiv. c.
1. The sincerity of Ammianus would not suffer him to misrepresent
facts or characters, but his love of _ambitious_ ornaments
frequently betrayed him into an unnatural vehemence of
expression.]

17 (return) [ His name was Clematius of Alexandria, and his only
crime was a refusal to gratify the desires of his mother-in-law;
who solicited his death, because she had been disappointed of his
love. Ammian. xiv. c. i.]

18 (return) [ See in Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 1, 7) a very ample
detail of the cruelties of Gallus. His brother Julian (p. 272)
insinuates, that a secret conspiracy had been formed against him;
and Zosimus names (l. ii. p. 135) the persons engaged in it; a
minister of considerable rank, and two obscure agents, who were
resolved to make their fortune.]

As long as the civil war suspended the fate of the Roman world,
Constantius dissembled his knowledge of the weak and cruel
administration to which his choice had subjected the East; and
the discovery of some assassins, secretly despatched to Antioch
by the tyrant of Gaul, was employed to convince the public, that
the emperor and the Cæsar were united by the same interest, and
pursued by the same enemies. 19 But when the victory was decided
in favor of Constantius, his dependent colleague became less
useful and less formidable. Every circumstance of his conduct was
severely and suspiciously examined, and it was privately
resolved, either to deprive Gallus of the purple, or at least to
remove him from the indolent luxury of Asia to the hardships and
dangers of a German war. The death of Theophilus, consular of the
province of Syria, who in a time of scarcity had been massacred
by the people of Antioch, with the connivance, and almost at the
instigation, of Gallus, was justly resented, not only as an act
of wanton cruelty, but as a dangerous insult on the supreme
majesty of Constantius. Two ministers of illustrious rank,
Domitian the Oriental præfect, and Montius, quæstor of the
palace, were empowered by a special commission 1911 to visit and
reform the state of the East. They were instructed to behave
towards Gallus with moderation and respect, and, by the gentlest
arts of persuasion, to engage him to comply with the invitation
of his brother and colleague. The rashness of the præfect
disappointed these prudent measures, and hastened his own ruin,
as well as that of his enemy. On his arrival at Antioch, Domitian
passed disdainfully before the gates of the palace, and alleging
a slight pretence of indisposition, continued several days in
sullen retirement, to prepare an inflammatory memorial, which he
transmitted to the Imperial court. Yielding at length to the
pressing solicitations of Gallus, the præfect condescended to
take his seat in council; but his first step was to signify a
concise and haughty mandate, importing that the Cæsar should
immediately repair to Italy, and threatening that he himself
would punish his delay or hesitation, by suspending the usual
allowance of his household. The nephew and daughter of
Constantine, who could ill brook the insolence of a subject,
expressed their resentment by instantly delivering Domitian to
the custody of a guard. The quarrel still admitted of some terms
of accommodation. They were rendered impracticable by the
imprudent behavior of Montius, a statesman whose arts and
experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of his
disposition. 20 The quæstor reproached Gallus in a haughty
language, that a prince who was scarcely authorized to remove a
municipal magistrate, should presume to imprison a Prætorian
præfect; convoked a meeting of the civil and military officers;
and required them, in the name of their sovereign, to defend the
person and dignity of his representatives. By this rash
declaration of war, the impatient temper of Gallus was provoked
to embrace the most desperate counsels. He ordered his guards to
stand to their arms, assembled the populace of Antioch, and
recommended to their zeal the care of his safety and revenge. His
commands were too fatally obeyed. They rudely seized the præfect
and the quæstor, and tying their legs together with ropes, they
dragged them through the streets of the city, inflicted a
thousand insults and a thousand wounds on these unhappy victims,
and at last precipitated their mangled and lifeless bodies into
the stream of the Orontes. 21

19 (return) [ Zonaras, l. xiii. tom. ii. p. 17, 18. The assassins
had seduced a great number of legionaries; but their designs were
discovered and revealed by an old woman in whose cottage they
lodged.]

1911 (return) [ The commission seems to have been granted to
Domitian alone. Montius interfered to support his authority. Amm.
Marc. loc. cit.—M]

20 (return) [ In the present text of Ammianus, we read _Asper_,
quidem, sed ad _lenitatem_ propensior; which forms a sentence of
contradictory nonsense. With the aid of an old manuscript,
Valesius has rectified the first of these corruptions, and we
perceive a ray of light in the substitution of the word _vafer_.
If we venture to change _lenitatem_ into _levitatem_, this
alteration of a single letter will render the whole passage clear
and consistent.]

21 (return) [ Instead of being obliged to collect scattered and
imperfect hints from various sources, we now enter into the full
stream of the history of Ammianus, and need only refer to the
seventh and ninth chapters of his fourteenth book. Philostorgius,
however, (l. iii. c. 28) though partial to Gallus, should not be
entirely overlooked.]

After such a deed, whatever might have been the designs of
Gallus, it was only in a field of battle that he could assert his
innocence with any hope of success. But the mind of that prince
was formed of an equal mixture of violence and weakness. Instead
of assuming the title of Augustus, instead of employing in his
defence the troops and treasures of the East, he suffered himself
to be deceived by the affected tranquillity of Constantius, who,
leaving him the vain pageantry of a court, imperceptibly recalled
the veteran legions from the provinces of Asia. But as it still
appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in his capital, the slow and
safer arts of dissimulation were practised with success. The
frequent and pressing epistles of Constantius were filled with
professions of confidence and friendship; exhorting the Cæsar to
discharge the duties of his high station, to relieve his
colleague from a part of the public cares, and to assist the West
by his presence, his counsels, and his arms. After so many
reciprocal injuries, Gallus had reason to fear and to distrust.
But he had neglected the opportunities of flight and of
resistance; he was seduced by the flattering assurances of the
tribune Scudilo, who, under the semblance of a rough soldier,
disguised the most artful insinuation; and he depended on the
credit of his wife Constantina, till the unseasonable death of
that princess completed the ruin in which he had been involved by
her impetuous passions. 22

22 (return) [ She had preceded her husband, but died of a fever
on the road at a little place in Bithynia, called Coenum
Gallicanum.]