The Beard-Hater and Letters

PREFACE

...crying out, "Alas! What a great tree, and yet there is danger that the sapling original: surculus. Julian is the sapling, while the great tree represents the reigning Constantinian dynasty. born from it might also perish." At this, someone entirely unknown to me said: "Contemplate it diligently, and be of good heart; for while the root remains in the ground, that small tree will remain and take firmer hold." This clearly indicates that he would succeed Constantius Constantius II, Julian's cousin and the senior Emperor, whose relationship with Julian was fraught with suspicion.. Those things narrated by Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus, the historian mentioned on the previous page. in his twenty-first book pertain to nearly the same theme. He says that when Julian Caesar was exercising on the field at Paris, shaking his shield with various movements, the small pins that held the circular frame together were shaken out and lost; only the handle remained, which he gripped and squeezed with a strong hand. While everyone present was terrified as if by a dire omen, he said, "Let no one fear. I hold firmly what I was already holding."

Likewise, when he was later resting soberly at Vienne A city in south-eastern Gaul (modern France) where Julian stayed during his campaigns., at the hour of midnight, a certain vision appeared, shining brightly. It spoke these heroic verses to him while he was just barely awake, repeating the same things many times. Relying on these words, he judged that no hardship remained for him:

When Jupiter shall reach the wide boundary of glorious Aquarius,
and when Saturn shall walk upon the twenty-fifth degree
of the Virgin, King Constantius shall have a hateful
and painful end to his dear life in the land of Asia.
original Greek: Ζεὺς ὅταν ἐκ πλατὺ τέρμα μόλῃ κλυτοῦ ὑδροχόοιο, παρθενικῆς δὲ κρόνος μοίρῃ βαίνῃ ἐπὶ πέμπτῃ εἰκοστῇ, βασιλεὺς κωνστάντιος ἀσίδος αἴης τέρμα φίλου βιοτοῦ στυγερὸν καὶ ἐπώδυνον ἕξει.

Jupiter, when he has crossed the wide boundary of the famous Aquarius, and Saturn has come to the twenty-fifth part of the Virgin, King Constantius in the land of Asia shall have a sad and lamentable end to his beloved life. The author provides a Latin translation of the Greek verse: Jupiter ubi trãfierit latũ terminũ inclyti aquarii...

From this magical vanity, he collapsed into a false, impious, and superstitious theology. He used to supplicate Mercury in secret (says Marcellinus); and so that he might entice everyone to his favor without hindrance, he feigned adherence to the Christian cult, from which he had already secretly defected long ago...