Jovian Proclaimed Emperor

The soldiers were thrown into extreme perplexity by so unexpected an event, and without delay, on the following day, they proclaimed Jovian emperor, a man distinguished alike for his courage and his birth. He had been a military tribune when Julian issued an edict giving his officers the choice of either sacrificing or giving up their rank in the army, and he chose to lay down his commission rather than obey the order of an impious prince. Julian, however, pressed by the demands of the war ahead of him, kept him among his generals. When he was hailed as emperor, Jovian firmly refused to accept the sovereign power. When the soldiers brought him forward by force, he declared that, being a Christian, he did not wish to reign over a people who chose to adopt paganism as their religion. Then they all answered with one voice that they too were Christians, and at that he accepted the imperial dignity. [a]

Finding himself suddenly left in very difficult circumstances, in the middle of Persian territory, where his army was in danger of perishing for lack of supplies, he agreed to end the war, even on terms that did no honor to the glory of the Roman name, but which the demands of the crisis made necessary. So he submitted to the loss of the government of Syria, gave up Nisibis as well, a city of Mesopotamia, and withdrew from their territory. The news of these things gave the Christians fresh hope, while the pagans bitterly mourned Julian’s death. Nevertheless the whole army condemned his rash impetuosity, and blamed the humiliation of giving up the lost territories on his recklessness in listening to the cunning reports of a Persian deserter. For, misled by what this fugitive told him, he had been persuaded to burn the ships that brought them supplies by water, and in this way they were exposed to all the horrors of famine.

At that time Libanius also composed a funeral speech for him, which he titled Julianus, or the Epitaph. In it he praises nearly all of Julian’s actions in lofty terms. But in referring to the books Julian wrote against the Christians, he says that Julian had clearly shown in them how ridiculous and trifling their sacred books are. If this sophist had been content to praise the emperor’s other acts, I would have gone on quietly with the course of my history. But since this famous teacher of rhetoric has seen fit to take the occasion to attack the Scriptures of the Christian faith, we too intend to pause a little and look briefly at his words.