ON JULIAN’S BEARD-HATER original: "Misopogon". This is a famous satirical work written by Julian to mock the citizens of Antioch who ridiculed his simple lifestyle and beard.

...in the twenty-fifth book, he [Ammianus Marcellinus] first says that Julian shone with such inviolate chastity that after the loss of his wife, he never again engaged in any sexual activity. He lost his wife shortly after receiving the honor of the rank of Augustus, Julian's young son having previously lost an infant son by her while in Gaul. The same author continues shortly after: "This stain [of lust]," he says, "he so cautiously avoided in the full strength of his adult years that he was never accused even of the slightest suspicion of any desire, not even by the servants of his private life, as often happens." And in the twenty-fourth book, when he records the plunder captured during the Persian war, he says: "Of the beautiful young women who were captured—as is common in Persia, where the beauty of women is exceptional—he wished neither to touch nor even to see any of them. In this, he imitated Alexander the Great and Scipio Africanus, Two of the most famous generals of antiquity, both known in historical anecdotes for their self-restraint toward female captives. who avoided such things so as not to be broken by desire, proving themselves unconquered by hardships everywhere."

Furthermore, he expelled the barbers and cooks as if they were agents of luxury and excess. Marcellinus says in the twenty-second book: "It happened that a barber, having been ordered to come and trim the Emperor's hair, entered dressed in an ostentatious manner. Upon seeing him, Julian was stunned. 'I did not,' he said, 'order a financial officer, original: "rationale". An imperial official in charge of the treasury or accounts. but a barber.'" When the man was asked what profit he made from his trade, he replied that he received twenty daily rations of food, and as many portions of fodder for pack animals (which are commonly called units original: "capita", literally 'heads', used here as a technical term for animal rations.), along with a heavy annual salary, not counting many lucrative bonuses. Moved by this, Julian dismissed all such servants, along with cooks and others like them who were accustomed to receiving nearly the same, viewing them as unnecessary to him. Giving them the power to go wherever they wished, he cast them out.

And this was his temperance at home; there follows his external temperance regarding theaters and games. Of this, there is a certain boast, presented under the guise of self-criticism, in his work The Beard-Hater. "I keep myself away," he says...