severe satire on the licentious and effeminate manners of Antioch. The imperial reply was publicly exposed before the gates of the palace, and the Misopogon still remains a singular monument of the resentment, the wit, the humanity, and the indiscretion of Julian" (Decline and Fall, c. 24, vol. 3, p. 8, ed. Bohn). Julian's own philosophic beard gives the title to the pamphlet, which throws much light upon the character of the emperor. In form it is a dialogue between himself and the people, in which he describes his own virtues under the colour of vices, and their vices as if they were virtues. Occasionally he lays aside his irony and directly expresses his indignation against them, and reveals his own character with a humorous simplicity that in turn attracts and repels us. This pamphlet was written in the seventh month of his sojourn at Antioch, probably, that is, in the latter half of Jan.; and he left the city in the first week of March. "I turn my back upon a city full of all vices, insolence, drunkenness, incontinence, impiety, avarice, and impudence," were his last words to Antioch (Liban. Legatio ad Jul. pp. 469 seq.).
(b) Julian's Relation to the Church at Large during his Residence at Antioch.—The general object of the emperor's policy was to degrade Christianity and to promote heathenism by every means short of an edict of persecution or the imposition of a general penalty on the profession of the faith.
We do not possess the text of many of Julian's edicts, a number of which were naturally removed from the statute book. We know that he ordered the temples to be reopened and their estates to be restored, but we do not know the terms in which this order was couched. Probably he used bitter language against the "atheists" and "Galileans," ordering all chapels of martyrs built within the sacred precincts to be destroyed, and all relics of "dead men" to be summarily removed. Something of this kind must have been the σύνθημα or "signal," of which he speaks in the Misopogon as having been followed by the neighbouring "holy cities" of Syria with a zeal and enthusiasm which exceeded even his wishes (Misop. p. 361 A; Soz. p. 20, ad fin., mentions an order to destroy two Christian chapels near the temple of Apollo Didymaeus at Miletus). This confession from his own mouth goes far to justify the statements of his opponents. Riots occurred in consequence of this "signal" in many cities, particularly of Syria and the East, where the Christians were numerous and popular passion was strong. The details of Julian's relation to some of these cases form perhaps the gravest stains upon his character.
The earliest case after his entry into Antioch which can be dated exactly was that of Titus, bp. of Bostra, in Arabia Auranitis. Julian had informed Titus that he should be held responsible for any breach of the peace (Soz. v. 15, p. 102 B). The bishop answered by a memorial, declaring that the Christian population was equal in numbers to the heathen but that under his influence and that of their clergy, they were careful to abstain from sedition (ib.). Julian on Aug. 1, 362, replied by a public letter to the people of Bostra, representing this language as an impertinence, and calumniating Titus as the accuser of the Christian body. After quoting the memorial of Titus, he proceeds: "These are the words of the bishop concerning you. Observe, he does not ascribe your regularity to your own inclination; unwillingly, he says, you refrain 'by his exhortations.' Do you then use your wills, and expel him as your accuser from your city. . . Such is their fate who turn from the worship of the immortal gods to dead men and relics" (Ep. 52).
A month or two later, probably in Oct., he continued his attack upon Athanasius, the first acts of which have already been described. The great champion had never left Alexandria, or had soon returned. Julian was thoroughly enraged to find his first order had not been executed. He wrote angrily to the prefect Ecdicius: "I swear by great Serapis if he does not leave Alexandria and every part of Egypt, by the 1st of Dec., I will fine your cohort a hundred pounds of gold. You know that I am slow to condemn, but when I have condemned much slower in pardoning," adding in his own hand, "I am thoroughly pained at being treated in this way with contempt. By all the gods, no sight, or rather no news, of your doings could give me greater pleasure than that of Athanasius being driven from Egypt, the scoundrel who in my reign has dared to baptize Greek ladies of rank. Let him be expelled" (Ep. 6). At the same time he wrote to the people of Alexandria, mingling personal abuse of their bishop with arguments to enforce the worship of Serapis and the visible gods, the sun and moon, and to depreciate the worship of "Jesus, Whom neither you nor your fathers have seen," and "Whose doctrine has done nothing for your city." "We have long ago ordered him," he concludes, "to leave the city, now we banish him from the whole of Egypt" (Ep. 51). The news of these decrees was brought to Athanasius on Oct. 23, and he felt it time to depart. "Be of good heart," he said to those who clustered round him, "it is but a cloud; it will soon pass" (Ruf. i. 32 ; Festal Epistles, Chronicle, p. 14, for the date). During the rest of Julian's reign he lived in retirement in the monasteries of the Egyptian desert.
To Hecebolius (who was perhaps his old master advanced to some place of authority) he wrote concerning a sedition at Edessa, in much the same terms as he had written to the people of Bostra, but apparently with more justice. "I have always used the Galileans well, and abstained from violent measures of conversion; but the Arians, luxuriating in their wealth, have treated the Valentinians in a manner which cannot be tolerated in a well-ordered city. In order, therefore, that they may enter more easily into the kingdom of Heaven in the way which their wonderful law bids them, I have ordered all the money of the church of Edessa to be seized for division amongst the soldiers, and its estates to be confiscated" (Ep. 43, cf. Rufin. i. 32; Socr. iii. 13). This twisting of the gospel precept against the church is a close parallel to the alleged edict forbidding Christians to exercise the sword of the magistrate, and supports its authenticity (so Rode, p. 85, n. 9, see supra). Another disturbance was reported
