Julian Invades Persia and Dies

Meanwhile the emperor invaded the country of the Persians a little before spring. He had learned that the peoples of Persia were greatly weakened and entirely without spirit in winter. For since they cannot endure the cold, they hold back from military service in that season, and it has become a proverb that “in winter a Mede will not draw his hand out from under his cloak.” And knowing well that the Romans were hardened to every kind of weather, he let them loose on the country. After laying waste a large stretch of country, including many villages and fortresses, they next attacked the cities. Julian laid siege to the great city of Ctesiphon and reduced the king of the Persians to such straits that the king sent embassy after embassy to the emperor, offering to give up part of his realm on condition that Julian leave the country and put an end to the war. [a]

But Julian was unmoved by these appeals and showed no mercy to an enemy who begged for it. Nor did he think of the saying, “To conquer is honorable, but to be more than conqueror invites envy.” He trusted the divinations of the philosopher Maximus, with whom he was constantly in company, and was deluded into believing that his exploits would not only equal but surpass those of Alexander of Macedon. So he scornfully rejected the pleas of the Persian king. Following the teaching of Pythagoras and Plato on “the transmigration of souls,” he even supposed that he had Alexander’s soul, or rather that he himself was Alexander in another body. This ridiculous fancy deceived him and led him to reject the peace proposals of the king of the Persians. So the king, convinced that further offers were useless, was forced to prepare for battle. On the day after his embassy was rejected, he drew up all the forces he had in battle order. The Romans did blame their prince for not avoiding an engagement when he could have done so with advantage. Nevertheless they attacked those who opposed them, and once again put the enemy to flight.

The emperor was there on horseback, encouraging his soldiers in the battle. But trusting simply in his hope of success, he wore no armor. In this unprotected state he was struck by a dart, thrown by someone unknown, which pierced his arm and went into his side, making a wound. From this wound he died. Some say that a certain Persian threw the javelin and then fled. Others say that one of his own men did the deed, and this is in fact the best supported and most widely held account. But Callistus, one of his bodyguards, who celebrated this emperor’s deeds in epic verse, says in his account of this war that the wound he died of was inflicted by a demon. This may be merely a poet’s invention, or perhaps it really was so, for avenging Furies have certainly destroyed many people. However that may be, this much is certain: the fire of his natural temperament made him reckless, his learning made him vain, and his show of mercy brought him contempt.

So Julian ended his life in Persia, as we have said, in his fourth consulship, which he held with Sallust as his colleague. This happened on the twenty-sixth of June, in the third year of his reign and the seventh since he had been made Caesar by Constantius. He was then in the thirty-first year of his life.