Julian Struck Down by the Wrath of God

In the passage quoted above, Libanius plainly says that the emperor fell by the hand of a Christian, and this was probably the truth. It is not unlikely that some of the soldiers then serving in the Roman army had the idea. For the Greeks, and all people down to this day, have praised those who kill tyrants, because they expose themselves to death for the sake of freedom and stand up bravely for their country, their families and their friends. Still less does the man deserve blame who did so bold a deed for the sake of God and religion. Beyond what I have told, I know nothing for certain about the men who did this killing. But everyone agrees in accepting the account that has come down to us, which shows that his death was the work of the wrath of God. One proof of this is a divine vision seen by one of his friends, which I will now describe. This man, so the story goes, had set out for Persia intending to join the emperor. On the way he found himself so far from any house that one night he had to sleep in a church. That night, either in a dream or in a vision, he saw all the apostles and prophets gathered together, complaining of the harm the emperor had done the church and consulting about what had best be done. After much discussion and perplexity, two of them stood up in the middle of the gathering, told the others to take heart, and left the company in haste, as if going to strip Julian of his imperial power. The man who saw this wonder did not try to go on with his journey, but waited in dreadful suspense for the end of the revelation. He lay down to sleep again in the same place, and again he saw the same gathering. The two who had seemed to leave the night before to carry out their purpose against Julian suddenly came back and announced his death to the others.

On the same day a vision was sent to Didymus, a philosopher of the church who lived at Alexandria. He was deeply grieved at Julian’s errors and his persecution of the churches, and on this account he fasted and prayed to God without ceasing. Worn out by anxiety and by going without food the night before, he fell asleep sitting in his chair. Then, as if in a trance, he saw white horses running through the air, and heard a voice saying to their riders, “Go and tell Didymus that Julian has been killed at this very hour. Let him pass the news on to Athanasius the bishop, and let him get up and eat.” I have been told on good authority that Julian’s friend and the philosopher saw these things, and the outcome proved that neither of them was far from having seen the truth. But if these cases are not enough to prove that Julian’s death was the work of divine wrath for his persecution of the church, let the prediction of one of the churchmen be remembered. When Julian was getting ready to go to war against the Persians, he threatened that when the war was over he would deal harshly with the Christians, and boasted that the Son of the Carpenter would not be able to help them. The churchman I mentioned answered that the Son of the Carpenter was even then making him a wooden coffin for his death. [a]

Julian himself knew very well where the deadly blow had come from and why it had been dealt. For it is said that when he was wounded, he took some of the blood that flowed from the wound and threw it up into the air, as if he had seen Jesus Christ appearing and meant to throw it at him, to reproach him for having killed him. Others say he was angry with the sun because it had favored the Persians and had not rescued him, although, according to the teaching of the astrologers, it had presided over his birth; and that it was to show his rage against the sun that he took blood in his hand and flung it up into the air. [c] I do not know whether, as death drew near, Julian might have seen Christ, as tends to happen when the soul is in the act of being separated from the body and is able to see sights more divine than are granted to people. Little has been said on this subject, and yet I dare not reject the idea as altogether false. For God often allows still more unlikely and astonishing things to happen, to prove that the religion named after Christ is not kept up by human strength. [d]

It is very plain, in any case, that all through the reign of this emperor God gave clear signs of his displeasure, and allowed many disasters to fall on several provinces of the Roman Empire. He struck the earth with such terrible earthquakes that buildings were shaken, and there was no more safety inside the houses than in the open air. From what I have heard, I gather that it was in the reign of this emperor, or at least when he held the second place in the government, that a great disaster happened near Alexandria in Egypt. The sea drew back, and then the returning waves passed beyond its bounds and flooded a great deal of the land, so that when the waters went down, sea boats were found lodged on the roofs of the houses. The anniversary of this flood, which they call the birthday of the earthquake, is still kept at Alexandria with a yearly festival. Lamps are lit all through the city, they offer prayers of thanks to God, and they celebrate the day with great splendor and devotion. There was also a terrible drought in this reign. The plants died and the air was tainted, and for lack of proper food people were forced to turn to the food other animals usually eat. The famine brought diseases of its own, from which many lost their lives. Such was the state of the empire under Julian’s rule.