Even heathen authors concede his dissimulation, as Ammianua Marc. xxi. 2, comp. xxii. 5, and Libanius, who excuses him with the plea of regard to his security, 0pp. p. 528, ed. Reiske. § 4. JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 45 won the enthusiastic love of the soldiers, and received from them the dignity of Augustus. Then he raised the standard of rebellion against his suspicious and envious imperial cousin and brother-in-law, and in 361 openly declared himself a friend of the gods. By the sudden death of Constantius in the same year he became sole head of the Roman empire, and in De- cember, as the only remaining heir of the house of Constantino,' made his entry into Constantinople amidst universal applause and rejoicing over escape from civil war. He inmiediately gave himself, with the utmost zeal, to the duties of his high station, unweariedly active as prince, gen- eral, judge, orator, high-priest, correspondent, and author. He sought to unite the fame of an Alexander, a Marcus Aure- lius, a Plato, and a Diogenes in himself. His only recreation was a change of labor. He would use at once his hand in writing, his ear in hearing, and his voice in speaking. He considered his whole time due to his empii'e and the culture of his own mind. The eighteen short months of his reign (Dec. 361 — June 363) comprehend the plans of a life-long ad- ministration and most of his literary works. He practised the strictest economy in the jDublic affairs, banished all useless luxury from his court, and dismissed with one decree whole hosts of barbers, cup-bearers, cooks, masters of ceremonies, and other superfluous officers, with whom the palace swarmed, but surrounded himself instead with equally useless pagan mystics, sophists, jugglers, theurgists, soothsayers, babblers, and scoffers, who now streamed from all quarters to the court. In striking contrast with his predecessors, he maintained the simplicity of a philosopher and an ascetic in his manner of life, and gratified his pride and vanity with contempt of the pomp and pleasures of the imperial purple. He lived chiefly on vegetable diet, abstaining now from this food, now from that, according to the taste of the god or goddess to whom the day was consecrated. He wore common clothing, usually slept on the floor, let his beard and nails grow, and, like the * His older brother, Gallus, for some time emperor at Antioch, had already been justly deposed by Constantius in 354, and beheaded, for his entire incapacity and his merciless cruelty. 46 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. strict auachorets of Egypt, neglected the laws of decency and cleanliuess.' This cynic eccentricity and vain ostentation cer- tainly spoiled his reputation for simplicity and self-denial, and made him ridiculous. It evinced, also, not so much the bold- ness and wisdom of a reformer, as the pedantry and folly of a reactionist. In military and executive talent and personal bravery he was not inferior to Constantino ; while in mind and literary culture he