Grain Restored to the Churches, and the Emperor’s Death

When the emperor received this letter, his earlier knowledge of divine things and his devotion to them were confirmed. He issued a second edict, ordering that the amount of grain which the great Constantine had assigned to the churches be restored. For Julian, as was to be expected of a man who had gone to war with our Lord and Savior, had stopped even this support. And since the famine that had struck the empire because of Julian’s wickedness made it impossible to collect the contribution laid down by Constantine’s law, Jovian ordered a third of it to be supplied for the present, and promised to give the whole once the famine was over.

Having marked the beginning of his reign with edicts like these, Jovian set out from Antioch for the Bosporus. But at Dadastana, a village on the border of Bithynia and Galatia, he died. He set out on his journey from this world with the grandest and fairest support for the road, but all who had known the mildness of his rule were left behind in grief. So, I think, the Supreme Ruler, to convict us of our wickedness, both shows us good things and takes them away again. By the first he teaches us how easily he can give us whatever he wishes; by the second he convicts us of being unworthy of it, and points us to the better life. [a]