somewhat doubtful Christian accounts, with the hopeless exclamation : " Galilean, thou hast conquered ! "^ The parting address to his friends, which Ammianus puts into his month, is altogether characteristic. It reminds one of the last hours of Socrates, without the natural simplicity of the original, and with a strong admixture of self-complacence and theatrical affectation. His body was taken, at his own direction, to Tarsus, the birthplace of the apostle Paul, whom he hated more than any other apostle, and a monument was erected to him there, with a simple inscription, which calls liim a good ruler and a brave warrior, but says nothing of his religion. So died, in the prime of life, a prince, who darkened his brilliant military, executive, and literary talents, and a rare energy, by fanatical zeal for a false religion and opposition to the true; perverted them to a useless and wicked end; and earned, instead of immortal honor, the shame of an imsuccess- ful apostate. Had he livied longer, he would probably have plunged the empire into the sad distraction of a religious civil war. The Christians were generally expecting a bloody per- secution in case of his successful return from the Persian war. "We need, therefore, the less wonder that they abhorred his memory. At Antioch they celebrated his death by festal dancings in the churches and theatres.^ Even the celebrated divine and orator, Gregory Nazianzen, compared him to ' Ammianus, 1. xxv. 3. He was himself in the campaign, and served in the body guard of the emperor ; thus having the best opportunity for observation. - Sozomen, vi. 2 ; Theodoret, iii. 25 ("NeviKrjKas raA.iA.o7e) ; then, somewhat dif- fering, Philostorgius, vii. 15. Gregory Nazianzen, on the contrary, who elsewhere presents Julian in the worst light, knows nothing of this exclamation, to which one may apply the Italian maxim : "Se non e vero, e ben trovato." The above-named historians mention also other incidents of the death, not very credible ; e. g. that he threw toward heaven a handful of blood from his wound ; that he blasphemed the heathen gods ; that Christ appeared to him, &c. Sozomen quotes also the ground- less assertion of Libanius, that the mortal wound was inflicted not by a Persian, but by a Christian, and was not ashamed to add, that he can hardly be blamed who had done tins " noble deed for God and his religion " (5ia dthv koI ^pr/crKeiav %v in/iveaev) I This is, so far as I know, the first instance, within the Christian church, of the vindi- cation of tyrannicide ad majorem Dei gloriam. ^ Theodor. H. E. iii. 27. § 5. FROM JOVIAN TO THEODOSIUS. 59 Pharaoh, Ahab, and Nebuchadnezzar.' It has been reserved for the more impartial historiography of modern times to do justice to his nobler qualities, and to endeavor to excuse, or at least to account for his utterly false position toward Chris- tiani|^', by his perverted education, the despotism